This research shows that it may one day be possible to probe, monitor, and interrupt brain activities in mental patients. The next step would be to determine the role that these circuits play in human disease.

The Janelia Farm news comes at a time when interest in demystifying the brain is gaining worldwide attention. President Obama just announced the ‘big science' project; a 10-15 year effort called the Brain Activity Map (BAM), designed to improve our understanding of how the brain works.

BAM will seek cooperation from federal agencies, private foundations and scores of neuroscientists and nanotechnologists. Though tech improvements in 3D optogenetics and computer power will be necessary before the project can be completed, experts predict that these upgrades will evolve in the next 10 years.

With nearly 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections, the human brain remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. Disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression, and traumatic brain injury, wield an enormous toll on society. To combat these conditions researchers must better understand how the brain functions in both health and disease.

In January, the European Commission awarded 1 billion Euros (U.S. $1.3 billion) to the Human Brain Project, a massive research effort that includes the Blue Brain Project, which seeks to integrate the brain into a machine. Director Henry Markram predicts they will complete a silicon replica of the brain by 2023.

A key objective of the Blue Brain Project is to discover how neural correlates give rise to our subjective experience, but the scientists also hope to learn how the mind controls cell activities that cause disease. Wayne Dyer and Bruce Lipton explain how positive and negative thoughts affect our health in this video.

What consciousness is, and why and how it exists, are some of the oldest questions in philosophy. But a growing number of neuroscientists believe we will soon be able to explain this mysterious trait by understanding how the trillions of neuron connections initiate thoughts and direct our physical actions.

In his latest book, "Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain," Dr. Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC, explains how the brain constructs a mind, and how consciousness arises from that mind. "Imagine, for example birds." Damasio says, "When they look out at the world, they have a sense that they are alive; that life is ticking away." Learn more in this 3-min. video.

Unraveling consciousness also holds the potential to alter thoughts that allow people to commit violence and other harmful acts. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for a way to hijack the mind so it can implant false, but believable stories – a sort of "like me" weapon.

And University of Buffalo psychologists believe they have found genes that control the function of oxytocin and vasopressin receptors. People who have this gene are more likely to help others, while those with this gene missing see the world as threatening, with an insatiable appetite for cruelty. With research, might science one day learn how to add this missing gene to everyone's DNA? Stay tuned.

In his book, Connectome, MIT neuroscientist Sebastian Seung describes some futuristic applications that could arise from today's massive brain research projects. Ideas such as uploading human brains into computers and freezing bodies to preserve them until technology is developed to bring them back to life. "My point in this book," Seung says, "is to introduce a dose of science into science fiction."

Today's brain research offers the potential to reveal how memories are written, how brain miswirings can cause negative behavior in the minds of criminals, and how scientists might one day alter personal thoughts that drive people to commit violent crimes and other harmful acts. Will unraveling the secrets of the brain benefit humanity in such amazing ways? This writer believes that it will.