I would agree if their goal indeed is to put a mind in a jar but, I've not read anything in the article that could indicate that. So may I suggest my own interpretation:

Accurate understanding of 'normal' brain behaviour might lead to increased understanding of brain diseases. Thats why alzheimers was mentioned. But more importantly, if our understanding of the brain becomes good enough, we might be able to make a neural net understand our thoughts if we can adapt to it.