The adult human brain weighs only about 130 grams -- less than 3 per cent of total body weight.
Nonetheless, the small mass of spongy grey matter consists of more than 100 billion neurons (or nerve cells). The brain is inarguably the most important part of the anatomy, playing a role in every action and every thought.
Yet we pay relatively little attention to the essential organ in our head. The brain remains, in large part, terra incognito.
This ignorance is bad for our health, individually and collectively.
Our knowledge on keeping the brain healthy is scant, and our ability to heal it when it breaks down -- from injury, illness or aging -- is laughably inadequate.
Consider that disorders of the brain and related nervous system are among the leading causes of disability in modern society: Depression. Stroke. Alzheimer's disease. Parkinson's disease. Head injury. Autism. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Schizophrenia. Brain tumour. Addiction. Multiple sclerosis. Huntington's disease.
The list is courtesy of Joseph Martin, professor of neurobiology and clinical neuroscientist at Harvard University.
Dr. Martin, who is also dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard, noted that these conditions are not just difficult to treat, but inordinately expensive because they are afflictions that last the rest of a person's life.
Neurodegenerative disorders already cost the North American economy more than $330-billion (U.S.) annually in medical costs and lost productivity, and "as the population ages, these devastating diseases will become more prevalent and more relevant," he said.
So what are we doing about this impending epidemic of bedevilling brain-related disability and death?
Not a whole heck of a lot, it turns out.
In a public forum at the National Gallery of Canada on Tuesday, the Canadian-born Dr. Martin, recipient of the Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research, made a heartfelt plea for greater investment in brain research by governments, industry and individuals.
Canada, he noted, spends only about $100-million a year on neuroscience research, compared to $25-billion in the United States.
What is needed is not just more money, he said, but better research methods and incentives.
Dr. Martin, a Mennonite from Bassano, Alta., made his name as a researcher, notably in the understanding of the neurochemical and genetic causes of brain disorders. But his lasting contribution has been administrative, paving the way for future generations of researchers to work more effectively.
He has redefined how science is practised, notably how scientists collaborate in the cutthroat world of medical academia.
He helped establish the world-renowned Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, a consortium of institutions working on a common cause; he also formed the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair, a virtual institute of more than 500 researchers.
So, when Dr. Martin says the key to tackling the challenge of brain diseases requires more basic science, creating interdisciplinary research groups and promoting collaboration, both scientists and those who fund them should take notice.
In the past decade, funding of biomedical research has doubled, the human genome has been sequenced and the drug approval process has been speeded up considerably. But, disturbingly, the result has been virtually no new treatments for conditions of the brain.
"Why are there not more drugs?" Dr. Martin asked.
The reason is that a lot of pharmaceutical companies are more interested in producing blockbuster lifestyle drugs and "me too" medications that mimic their competitors' successful products than in investing in treatments for the likes of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The regulatory system doesn't promote innovation, Dr. Martin said. And intellectual property (patent) laws promote secrecy and discourage collaboration, undermining the type of co-operation that is needed to tackle complicated brain conditions.
When someone as respected and measured as Dr. Martin warns that the current legal, economic and intellectual framework for responding to brain diseases (and by extension other chronic illnesses) is a failure, that should trigger alarm bells, and prompt some serious rethinking of our approach.
But Dr. Martin also offered up some hopeful words. Stem cells offer a lot of promise for regenerating (or at least slowing damage to) parts of the brain, particularly those related to memory. There is a growing body of knowledge also about brain plasticity, how the brain can heal or rewire itself to deal with disorders. And there are new drugs on the horizon, such as enzyme inhibitors, that may be able to slow neurological damage.
"There is hope," Dr. Martin said wistfully. "But science is the only way to get there."
CORRECTION
The average adult human brain weighs about 1,300 grams. Incorrect information appeared in a story yesterday.
