President Obama is planning to give $100 million to research how the brain works. I think this is misguided.
The real problem is how to help those who have brain problems. There are many methods of treating brain dysfunction -- medication, neurofeedback, cognitive remediation -- but we have little understanding as to how these work. In fact, with most drugs, little is known about how the biological mechanisms work in the brain to get good results. I am afraid that if the money is given to researchers to figure out the brain, they will have little to show as to how these results will help people directly.

I would think the research should be about treatment methods that show promise, particularly methods that do not use drugs, such as neurofeedback, nutritional supplements and cognitive remediation.

We will never learn all there is to know about the brain. Let's focus on helping people with funny brains.