The White House unveiled an ambitious research initiative to map the individual cells and circuits that make up the human brain.
The project is intended to give scientists a better understanding of how a healthy brain works and how to devise better treatments for injuries and diseases of the brain, Reuters reports.
Called the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the programme will be funded with an initial $US100 million from the president's fiscal 2014 budget, which the White House is slated to release next week.
Dr Francis Collins, director of the federally funded National Institutes of Health, likened the initiative to mapping the human genome, a $US3.8 billion effort he helped lead as former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Dr Collins said the NIH plans to assemble 15 scientists who will set the priorities for the research. Initially, scientists will try to learn the language of how the brain operates. "The human brain is at the present time the most complicated organ in the known universe," he said.
Ultimately, he said, the effort should allow researchers to understand such complex diseases as epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury.
Conceding that the initial investment of $US100 million in the first year is just a start for this project, which is likely to take many years to bear fruit, he also noted that the Human Genome Project started off with a $US28 million investment.
There is no guarantee that President Barack Obama, who is in a standoff with Republican lawmakers over how to reduce the US deficit, will be able to get a $US100 million proposal through a highly divided Congress.
But Mr Obama said investment in areas such as education and development should be critical even as spending cuts are needed to address the country's fiscal woes.
Although the funding requires congressional approval, agencies have some discretion to start working on the programme ahead of time, a White House spokesman said.
Researchers said in February that the number of US residents aged 65 and older living with Alzheimer's would nearly triple to 13.8 million by 2050, drawing attention to the need for further study.
