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2 Neuroscience and the Army
Pages 12-22

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From page 12...
... Neuroanatomists studied called "synapses." In order for the brain to perform its multhe brain's shape, its cellular structure, and its circuitry; tiple functions, the mental operations of the brain rely on a neuro­chemists studied the brain's chemical composition, properly functioning and integrated system of autonomous including its lipids and proteins; neurophysiologists studied bodily functions, monitored by the brain and modified by the brain's bio­electric properties; and psychologists and behavioral operations only when the autonomous regulaneuro­psychologists investigated the organization and neural tory systems -- thermal control, control of blood nutrients, substrates of behavior and cognition. orientation of the body and limbs in space while moving, The term "neuroscience" was introduced in the mid- gesturing, and transporting, control of the salt and water 1960s, signaling the start of an era when these disciplines balance, and so on -- are compromised.
From page 13...
... The pioneering work of Penfield and his colleagues was water balance. an exception: It combined EEG with invasive brain surgery At the behavioral level of neuroscience research, one to associate the visual and auditory auras that accompanied examines the interactions between individuals and their seizures to specific regions in the visual, auditory, or tempocollective environment.
From page 14...
... The diffusion tensor imaging allows examining the The spatial resolution of the structural imaging modali­ pathways along which groups of axonal fibers travel from ties that could be achieved with the human brain in 2008 one brain region to another and the vectorial direction of the a ­ pproximates 100 microns per side in three-dimensional fiber bundle group. This information is essentially a mapping pixel elements when a 7-tesla (T)
From page 15...
... Some of the noninvasive imaging technologies have The technologies for structural imaging provide the characteristics that may limit their use in military applicabasis for understanding the brain regions of interest obtained tions. PET, for example, requires injection of a positron by functional images.
From page 16...
... early signatures of neural dysfunction. While some of these methodologies may prove to have reliaBle Biomarkers For NeuroPsycholoGical application for the a priori assessment of highly desirable sTaTes aNd Behavioral ouTcomes traits such as leadership, persistence, and other successful warrior behaviors, there is little evidence to support appli- Recordings of the brain's electrical activity and the images of neural activation regions that were described in the previous section on neural monitoring technologies are all methods to record changes in brain activity in a specific 2This is possible because in the cerebral cortex, information-processing location at a given time.
From page 17...
... , genes and nonencoding regions of the Chapter 7 discusses the value for Army applications of findgenome, physiological events or patterns outside the brain ing biomarkers that can be measured under field conditions but within the organism, and responses to an environmental and that are reliable indicators of specific neural states that exposure (physical, chemical, biological, social, or psycho- have been reliably linked to behavioral outcomes. These logical)
From page 18...
... In other words, the measure of sensitivity is science research can be seen in the 2008 establishment of the ratio of true positive tests to the sum of the true positive the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and false negative tests. (False negative tests are those that and Traumatic Brain Injury under the assistant secretary of should have been positive.)
From page 19...
... There is no question that neuroscience research has great potential for the Army's future, but there are societal Ethical Considerations issues, including ethical considerations and cultural impediments, that must be overcome to realize its full potential. One consequence of the genetic screening of large numbers of healthy persons for susceptibility to treatable or manageable disease is that subsequent studies may reveal Societal Issues that the same gene predisposes to an untreatable disease.
From page 20...
... 2008; Fins and Shapiro, 2007; Illes, 2007a and 2007b. The Use and Abuse of Socially Sensitive Cultural Impediments Demographic Categories as Indicators of Neural State and Performance Capability The emergence of new bio- and neurotechnologies permits categorizing the human population into subsets having As the preceding discussions on societal issues sugeither increased or decreased susceptibility to disease and gest, the committee supports and encourages scientifistress on the basis of their genotype and their phenotype. cally ­validated neuroscience applications across the Army r ­ elevant areas highlighted in Table 2-1 and addressed in Phenotype is the result of genes plus environment, and epigenetic changes detail throughout the report.
From page 21...
... validated, reliable indicators. A second major area in which caution must be ­exercised Over the past half-century and longer, American society when considering application to Army-relevant problems has traveled a long and difficult road to break away from concerns statistically significant differences in group- unscientific stereotypes about gender, "race," and other a ­ veraged neural states or activity patterns -- or even differ- previously accepted ways of categorizing individuals to ences in behavior -- between a demographically defined sub- define their suitability for various roles and responsibilities.
From page 22...
... Can brain imaging visualize human Stress 20(4)


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