I'm currently working to develop neural prosthetics (computer cursor, robotic arm, etc.) and it's clear to me that the president's proposed research will have r

I'm currently working to develop neural prosthetics (computer cursor, robotic arm, etc.) and it's clear to me that the president's proposed research will have real clinical impact over the timescale of 5-10 years. Our lab and others already have paralyzed human patients controlling computers in clinical trials via a brain-machine interface, but it is hard to overstate the potential possibilities that remain hidden due to our lack of low-level understanding of low level circuits. To clear up some misconceptions in this thread, this new work is NOT focused on top-down cognition using hand-wavy tools. Instead, it's focused on understanding neural circuits starting with simple organisms and working up to primates/humans by developing new technologies that allow us to radically scale up the scope of question we can ask.