- PART ONE -

My research focuses on cell biology and biophysics. In general, I have been working on calcium sparks for nearly 30 years, mitochondrial dazzle for nearly 20 years, and imaging instruments for nearly 10 years. At present, the research and development of miniaturized two-photon microscope is an important task of our team.

- PART TWO -

As for reading, the brain is the most complex regionalized network in the universe, with tens of billions of neurons and their connections (a thousand times more than neurons). It is dynamic, not static, and its activity is not random, but meaningful. How to read its structure and obtain its functional image is a research direction; 

Then, interpretation. For the acquired brain structure imaging and functional data, how to understand the organization and working principles of the brain from different levels, from the smallest cell to a neural loop for controlling depression to the whole brain, and how it works? When depression occurs, what problems exist in the corresponding neural circuits? All these need to be explored.

And writing means, on the basis of interpretation, physical or pharmacological means or their combination is adopted to regulate the abnormal state of the brain or enhance the brain function;

Imitation is mainly for brain-inspired research. Natural brain is the greatest miracle created by nature, and as Engels said, “Thinking is the most beautiful flower on the earth”. How to apply the principle of brain to artificial intelligent system? For our current intensive study on the neural network, we just apply individual principles of the brain. Many principles are used by natural brain, but have not yet been involved in artificial intelligence.

The first part involves optoelectronic, physical, mechanical and bioengineering technologies. As a research tool, it covers the fields of deep brain stimulation, intervention, imaging and regulation realized by using electrical, magnetic and ultrasonic technologies, among which optics, magnetic resonance, brain slices and other brain imaging researches occupy an important position. Following the structural imaging, functional imaging research is actually more important. A miniature two-photon fluorescence microscope that I am presiding over belongs to a brain-related functional imaging research.

The second part is the combination of mathematical methods and information technology, which uses mathematical tools to encode and decode massive data and extract meaning from it.

The third part involves clinical medicine, neuroscience and cognitive science, and includes the construction of the whole brain model, how the brain as a whole thinks and perceives stimuli and environment;

The fourth part can be extended to the humanities. The essence of how our culture is formed and how our language evolves is related to the brain.

On the one hand, the brain is a more complex structure than the universe, and it is a dynamic and functional information processing structure. To study this complex structure integrated in less than one liter of volume, there is no tool that can solve all problems. We need to develop different tools, including simulation and integration, and describe our "brain universe" comprehensively by various means of photoelectromagnetic nucleus from different levels of micro, meso and macro. Any single means and scale of description are limited.

Moreover, we should not only "read" the data of brain, but also fuse the data of different scales through traditional mathematics, brain-inspired, artificial intelligence and other technologies. Therefore, we also designed a corresponding large-scale intelligent data analysis and processing platform.

We hope to reveal the rules of multiple scales and the relationship between them through the method of "imaging omics", which is the advantage of this platform and is especially suitable for brain science research. Expect more scientists to participate in the construction and solve the most concerning problems in human brain science.

Heping Cheng: I think the last century was "the century of neuroscience". Compared with neuroscience, which focused on the molecular level and intracellular process, the current brain science research turned from the cell to the whole level, focusing on the whole concept from the cell to the neural circuit and then to the network. With the development of information technology, physical technology, computing ability, especially magnetoencephalogram (MEG), electroencephalogram (EEG) and other imaging technologies, brain science research that was previously not allowed to enter the door can be carried out. In the process of explosive development of brain science, we only see the beginning now. I believe this process will last for the next ten, twenty or even fifty years. Perhaps the 21st century we are experiencing will be named "Century of Brain Science".

If we look forward to the time scale of five to ten years, I think that on the one hand, we need to continue polishing research tools, and there is a very interesting analogy between the brain and the universe. At present, astronomy has a complete set of observation tools, and brain science also needs to build tools for obtaining brain information such as observation and imaging; On the one hand, we should increase our understanding of the brain and build analytical tools, especially the mathematical theory and calculation methods of the brain. Although the existing technology can observe the simultaneous activities of thousands of neurons, the mathematical theory of understanding the simultaneous activities of these neural networks needs to be strengthened, and it needs the continuous promotion of this generation and the next generation of scientists.

What's particularly interesting is that the brain-inspired intelligence we invented through the study of the brain will in turn help us analyze our own brain. Therefore, I think that in the next five to ten years, there will be some opportunities to promote brain research through brain-inspired research, and new tools will emerge, such as brain analysis tools at large network level. This is also the research point I want to pursue.

Second, on the scale of thirty years, the development of brain science is expected to understand our thoughts, concepts and consciousness. At that time, disabled patients such as aphasia and stroke will be able to communicate with the world better, and patients with paralysis and limb injury will also be able to achieve healthy and happy normal life through brain-inspired regulation exoskeleton technology. It remains to be seen whether the connection between brain and brain-inspired can produce other new intelligence.

- PART THREE -

Grasp the opportunity of the times Promote the research and construction  of brain science in China