Decade of the Mind symposium in Iowa to emphasize need for $4 billion in feder...( Des Moines Iowa April 30 2008 Inte...)

Des Moines, Iowa April 30, 2008 Internationally respected scientists will gather next week for a symposium in Des Moines to explore how a brain creates a mind and to emphasize the need for $4 billion in federal support for scientific research over the next 10 years. Presented by Great Ape Trust of Iowa, Decade of the Mind III: Emergence of Mind will draw internationally recognized research pioneers from a variety of disciplines May 7-9 for a symposium exploring the topics of consciousness and mind in nonhuman primates with an emphasis on great apes.

This is an extremely important field of inquiry offering new insight into how the brain creates the mind, language, rational thought, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said in a videotaped message to be delivered at Decade of the Mind III. Harkin, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has championed research efforts at the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.

I am committed to a robust federal role in supporting basic, long-term scientific research the kind of research that the private sector cant always do by itself, he added.

The Decade of the Mind initiative was established at George Mason Universitys Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, following the model established by Decade of the Brain from 1990 to 2000. During that period, quantum leaps in neuroscience spurred development of technologies that gave researchers the tools to look non-invasively into the living, conscious brain and develop a blueprint of its structure.

The Decade of the Mind initiative takes this scientific inquiry further, providing greater understanding of how a brain creates a mind and how the mind thinks and acts. Such an understanding addresses vital U.S. interests including, but not limited to science, medicine, economic growth, security and well-being.

We have an opportunity to change the way America invests in mind science, said Dr. James Olds, director of the Kras
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