DARPA launches Targeted Neuroplasticity Training program to accelerate cognitive skills training

– TNT tech­nol­o­gy will be designed to safe­ly and pre­cise­ly mod­u­late periph­er­al nerves to con­trol synap­tic plas­tic­i­ty dur­ing cog­ni­tive skill training.

Boost­ing Synap­tic Plas­tic­i­ty to Accel­er­ate Learn­ing (DARPA news):

“The body’s branch­ing net­work of periph­er­al nerves con­nects neu­rons in the brain and spinal cord to organs, skin, and mus­cles, reg­u­lat­ing a host of bio­log­i­cal func­tions from diges­tion to sen­sa­tion to loco­mo­tion. But the periph­er­al ner­vous sys­tem can do even more than that…pushing those lim­its fur­ther, DARPA aims to enlist the body’s periph­er­al nerves to achieve some­thing that has long been con­sid­ered the brain’s domain alone: facil­i­tat­ing learn­ing. The effort will turn on its head the usu­al notion that the brain tells the periph­er­al ner­vous sys­tem what to do.

The new pro­gram, Tar­get­ed Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty Train­ing (TNT), seeks to advance the pace and effec­tive­ness of a spe­cif­ic kind of learning—cognitive skills training—through the pre­cise acti­va­tion of periph­er­al nerves that can in turn pro­mote and strength­en neu­ronal con­nec­tions in the brain. TNT will pur­sue devel­op­ment of a plat­form tech­nol­o­gy to enhance learn­ing of a wide range of cog­ni­tive skills…If suc­cess­ful, TNT could accel­er­ate learn­ing and reduce the time need­ed to train for­eign lan­guage spe­cial­ists, intel­li­gence ana­lysts, cryp­tog­ra­phers, and others.

The pro­gram is also notable because, unlike many of DARPA’s pre­vi­ous neu­ro­science and neu­rotech­nol­o­gy endeav­ors, it will aim not just to restore lost func­tion but to advance capa­bil­i­ties beyond nor­mal levels.”

Solic­i­ta­tion: Tar­get­ed Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty Train­ing (TNT)

• Descrip­tion: The Bio­log­i­cal Tech­nolo­gies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is spon­sor­ing a Pro­posers Day for the poten­tial pro­pos­er com­mu­ni­ty in con­junc­tion with the Broad Agency Announce­ment (BAA) for the Tar­get­ed Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty Train­ing (TNT) Pro­gram. The Pro­posers Day will be held on April 8, 2016, at the West­in Arling­ton Gate­way, 801 N. Glebe Rd., Arling­ton, VA, 22203. Advance reg­is­tra­tion is required.
• The goals of the Pro­posers Day are:
  1. To intro­duce the sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy com­mu­ni­ty (indus­try, acad­e­mia, and gov­ern­ment) to the TNT pro­gram vision and goals;
  2. To facil­i­tate inter­ac­tion between inves­ti­ga­tors who may have inter­ests and capa­bil­i­ties of rel­e­vance to TNT goals; and
  3. To encour­age and pro­mote team­ing arrange­ments among orga­ni­za­tions hav­ing rel­e­vant exper­tise, research facil­i­ties and capa­bil­i­ties for exe­cut­ing research and devel­op­ment respon­sive to the TNT pro­gram goals.

To learn more about neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, learn­ing and cog­ni­tive skills:

• 10 neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment and brain health
• What are cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties and how to boost them?
• Brain Plas­tic­i­ty: How learn­ing changes your brain