Stephen Colbert Maps President Obama's Brain Initiative (VIDEO)

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NIH Project Direct Francis Collins Discusses President Obama's $100M Brain Initiative

This past Tuesday, President Obama proposed his desire for the U.S. government to invest in research for mapping the human brain. He is asking Congress to approve the $100 million investment for a project that the President asserts is crucial for finding ways to treat a variety of medical conditions plaguing our nation, including traumatic brain injuries, Parkinson's disease, autism, PTSD, and Alzheimer's disease.

According to the official White House blog, the appropriately named BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative:

...promises to accelerate the invention of new technologies that will help researchers produce real-time pictures of complex neural circuits and visualize the rapid-fire interactions of cells that occur at the speed of thought. Such cutting-edge capabilities, applied to both simple and complex systems, will open new doors to understanding how brain function is linked to human behavior and learning, and the mechanisms of brain disease.

Stephen Colbert sat down with the National Institute of Health Director Francis Collins to discuss his tasks as the Project Director and why mapping the brain is an important undertaking worthy of the multi-million dollar expenditure. Colbert dons an EEG cap as Collins explains why understanding the nearly 100 billion neurons and the trillions of neural connections that make up our brain will be a groundbreaking feat in shaping the nation's future.

Watch the clip above of Stephen Colbert's interview with Collins and for the entire episode head on over to Colbert Nation