[Buddha-l] neuroscience: neural plasticity

[Vera, Pedro L.]

Steve wrote:

>This is a fascinating new topic for meditation researchers interested  
>in "hardware". But really, that's also the problem: drug companies  
>love to sponsor "hard" research if it leads to the latest and  
>greatest multi-spectrum SSRI and gazillions for them. They'd love to  
>know how meditators are getting blissed out so they can sell it back  
>to others. That's why I always question the ultimate sponsors in  
>these sorts of things.

This seems like an overly simplified and sinister view of the research enterprise. Yes, obviously drug companies sponsor research in the hope that their products fare well in the trials and they can then proceed to market them and make "gazillions".

However, most scientific research in this country (USA), and, in particular, neuroscience research dealing with issues like plasticity, is funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At the risk of stating something that might be known to most of the readers of this list (or perhaps not), the NIH is composed of several more or less autonomous institutes specializing in particular areas (e.g. cancer, National Cancer Institute). The institute that is most likely to fund "brain research" would be the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS; http://www.ninds.nih.gov/). These institutes fund research from money allocated by congress for the NIH and they use the much maligned "peer-review process" to apportion their funds.

Rather than cast aspersions on researchers because of where they are getting their funds, it might be better to examine how the amount of money spent for research has been decreasing over the last few years so that, in some cases, after allowing for inflation, has become in the negative range. This puts a rather severe strain on the system and has a direct impact of the ability to do research and affects most deeply, young scientists starting out. There was a recent article in Nature (a leading scientfic journal) outlining several dire predictions arising from this paradigm.

Still, the validity of the research will be played out in the peer-review system (even if funded by drug companies). In a time where getting money for research has become increasingly difficult (in some cases nearly jimpossible with 9% funding rates), the money derived from pharmaceutical companies to conduct research becomes (sometimes) the only avenue to conduct research.

Just for the sake of full disclosure, I do not receive any money from pharmaceutical companies to do research. I just take my chances (along with most scientists) in begging for money from the federal government. It's a good reminder of suffering, impermanence and non-self (and that, by the way, is the requisite buddhist content of this message).

Regards,

Pedro