The Decade of the Mind (DOM) conference series originated in the United States with the objective of establishing a major national research initiative to further our understanding of the brain and mental processes. Such an understanding would have revolutionary impact on science, medicine, economic growth, security and well-being, and would lead to advancements in educational methodologies, treatment of mental disorders, and intelligent machine design. The following link describes Decade of the Mind (Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade_of_the_Mind.

The DOM effort has been internationalized, starting from the holding of DOM V in Berlin in September 2009. The next conference, DOM VI, will be in Singapore from October 18-20, 2010 and its highlights are:

The Decade of the Mind is a research initiative aims to bring about a dramatic leap in the understanding of the brain and mental processes. It began with a group of scientists who met at the George Mason University’s Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study in May 2007 to map out a broad outline of the project. Its “predecessor” – the Decade of the Brain initiative (1990 – 1999) – was more focused on neuroscience and clinical applications. The Decade of the Mind initiative, on the other hand, will be transdisciplinary and multi-agency, and will bring together a diverse range of disciplines such as cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, medicine, computer science, engineering, mathematics, biology, cultural anthropology and the social sciences to bear on the issues related to how the mind perceives, thinks, and acts.

The Decade of the Mind initiative focuses on four broad, but intertwined areas:

Understanding the Mind	Enriching the Mind	Healing and Protecting the Mind	Modelling the Mind
Science has been tackling this issue for more than a century and despite some recent good progress, a good understanding of the mind is still lacking. New tools and research methodologies are required to further the understanding of how the activities in the brain give rise to perception, thought processes, emotional responses, notion of self and others, and higher order consciousness.	Armed with a good understanding of mental processes, improvements can be effected on our educational system and the treatment of mental illnesses and addictions. It will also bring about the extension of the mind to new skills and the education of the public on legal and ethical issues involving the brain and the mind.	Disorders of the mind affect hundreds of million of people world-wide. The quality of life is intricately tied to the quality of the mind. It is the responsibility of science to address these issues that have wide personal, social and economic implications.	Theoretical and computational methodologies, combined with empirical findings, will be necessary for healing, understanding, and enriching the mind. More detailed and sophisticated models of the brain and mental processes will lead to better prediction, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders, better explanation of brain and mental phenomenon, development of novel computer architecture, and the construction of intelligent machines.

The following are links describing the Decade of the Mind initiative in general and various conferences held so far.