Neuroscience has come a long way since the hand drawings of Ramón y Cajal and currently innovative technology continues to capture the wonder and beauty of the brain. We want to showcase the amazing images and videos from your research. Each year, regardless of discipline, career stage, or funding source, we invite all those engaged in the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative to enter your coolest, most artistic, and eye-catching images or short videos in the BRAIN Initiative Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Contest.
Feeling creative? Help us celebrate the art of brain science!
Cortical Forest
Mouse Layer V cortical neurons eYFP-labeled (Thy1-H) and imaged after CLARITY processing of a whole brain. Maximum projection with depth color coding.
By Linus Manubens-Gil and Jim Swoger, Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG) and EMBL Mesoscopic Imaging Facility
For each year’s contest, the BRAIN Initiative Investigators Meeting Program Committee reviews anonymized submissions and narrows the field to submissions they feel capture the creative spirit of the BRAIN Initiative. Finalists for the contest will be posted online prior to the BRAIN Initiative Investigators Meeting and will be open for public voting. The top three photos and top three videos will be announced as part of the annual BRAIN Initiative Investigators Meeting – WITH PRIZES!
Submissions will be accepted starting April 1, 2021 on the Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Contest IdeaScale page. Submission details, including accepted file types and sizes, as well as additional information, will be provided on this crowdsourcing site. You do not need to participate in the annual BRAIN Initiative Investigators Meeting to enter or win.
We can’t wait to see your BRAINs!
Please note that by entering the competition, you give NIH permission to incorporate your image(s) and/or video(s) in flyers/handouts, publications, websites, presentations, social media, and other forms of communications for or related to the BRAIN Initiative, with the understanding that NIH will credit the image(s) and/or video(s).
Check out the winning entries from past Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Contests below.
2020 Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Winners
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FIRST PLACE VIDEO WINNER Intact Whole-brain Imaging of Neurons Thy1-GFP mouse brain optically cleared and imaged with the Zeiss Light-sheet Z.1 microscope using a Mesoscale Imaging System. By Sunil Gandhi, Ricardo Azevedo and Damian Wheeler, University of California, Irvine and Translucence Biosystems |
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SECOND PLACE VIDEO WINNER Reconstructing the Mind of a Worm The C. elegans brain, including every nerve and muscle fiber, being reconstructed by serial-section electron microscopy. By Daniel Witvliet, University of Toronto and Harvard University |
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THIRD PLACE VIDEO WINNER Fly Through a Fly Brain These cells were reconstructed by artificial intelligence from Princeton University's Murthy Seung Lab using electron microscope images HHMI Janelia. By Amy Sterling, Princeton University and EyeWire |
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FIRST PLACE PHOTO WINNER Cortical Forest Mouse Layer V cortical neurons eYFP-labeled (Thy1-H) and imaged after CLARITY processing of a whole brain. Maximum projection with depth color coding. By Linus Manubens-Gil and Jim Swoger, Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG) and EMBL Mesoscopic Imaging Facility |
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SECOND PLACE PHOTO WINNER Radiating Neurons 4-week-old rat cortical neurons labeled for dendrites (red), axons (green), and nuclei (blue). By Karthik Krishnamurthy, Davide Trotti, and Piera Pasinelli, Thomas Jefferson University |
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THIRD PLACE PHOTO WINNER The Ephemeral Hippocampus The brain is everywhere to us neuroscientists. This exquisite 'hippocampus', with delicate dendrites, is actually a waterdrop captured at highspeed. By Tallie Z. Baram, Jeremy Barry, and Joan Morris, University of California, Irvine, © 2017 Joan Morris (www.joanmorrisartist.com) |
2019 Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Winners
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FIRST PLACE VIDEO WINNER High-Resolution MORF3-labeled Hippocampal Neurons Using MORF3 and SHIELD, pyramidal neurons were sparsely labeled and imaged at very high resolution deep within a whole hemisphere. By X. William Yang and Kwanghun (KC) Chung, University of California, Los Angeles and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
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SECOND PLACE VIDEO WINNER 3D Diffusion Tractography In neuroscience, tractography is a 3D modeling technique used to visually represent nerve tracts using data collected by diffusion MRI. By James Stanis, University of Southern California Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute |
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THIRD PLACE VIDEO WINNER Neural Circuit in The Storm 3D image of parvalbumin+ neurons (red, neurites; green, presynaptic puncta) swimming through the waves of GAD1+ (cyan) neurons. By Young-Gyun Park, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
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FIRST PLACE PHOTO WINNER Light Me Up! Light-based rendering of deep brain stimulation’s electrical excitation of neuronal fiber pathways to treat patients with traumatic brain injury. By Andrew Janson, University of Utah Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute |
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SECOND PLACE PHOTO WINNER Dancing Devils Mouse hippocampal neuron stained for f-actin (red) and tubulin (green). By Sharada Tilve, NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) |
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THIRD PLACE PHOTO WINNER Neural Circuit in The Storm 3D image of parvalbumin+ neurons (red, neurites; green, presynaptic puncta) swimming through the waves of GAD1+ (cyan) neurons. By Young-Gyun Park, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |