[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 125 (Friday, September 20, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                NOTEWORTHY BREAKTHROUGH FOR NEUROSCIENCE

  (Mr. McNERNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McNERNEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize an important 
breakthrough in statistics and neuroscience research. Neurological 
conditions are caused by the brain's communication networks, and these 
conditions can be studied at a systems level. Functional MRIs capture 
3-D images of the brain over time, resulting in millions of 
measurements per subject and billions of possible connections.
  A Rice University statistics professor, Genevera Allen, and her 
collaborators recently developed statistical methods to model how each 
individual's brain is wired and then applied these methods to 
synesthesia, a condition in which individuals automatically associate 
specific colors with numbers and letters. The team discovered that 
areas of the brain responsible for processing colors are functionally 
connected to areas that process letters and numbers in synesthetes. 
This breakthrough is relevant to other neurological diseases, such as 
autism and Alzheimer's, and demonstrates how statistical science is 
vital to neuroscience research.
  I urge my colleagues to support critical science funding so that this 
type of work may continue.

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