Project Summary
The human brain contains an astonishing diversity of neuronal and glial cell types distributed across dozens of
functional areas.
Funded Awards
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative funds a wide-variety of research: toolmakers, trainees, individual labs testing new hypotheses, and large, team-based efforts aiming to catalyze neuroscience inquiry forward. Explore NIH BRAIN Initiative funded awards listed below. Click on the project title to learn more about it within NIH RePORTER.
To see more NIH-funded awards and associated publications, please visit the NIH RePORTER.
Title
Investigator(s)
Institution
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunity #
Project #
TitleMachine Learning Augmented Discovery of AAV Capsids for Cell Type Specific Access into Human Neurons and Glia
Investigator
Tomasz Nowakowski, David V Schaffer, Vikaas Singh Sohal
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleMesh electronics for understanding space encoding in the amphibian brain
Investigator
Lisa Giocomo, Guosong Hong, Lauren A O'connell
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Many animals rely on spatial cognition for daily survival in order to recognize familiar places and process movements
through or between locations. A variety of space-encoding cells in the hippocampus are important for spatial behaviors
in mammals.
TitleMesoscale bidirectional two-photon holographic optogenetics
Investigator
Hillel Adesnik
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Achieving a detailed understanding of the neural codes of sensation, action, and cognition requires technologies that can causally perturb each of the major dimensions of population coding one at a time with extremely high precision across multiple brain areas.
TitleMicroscope system for large scale optical imaging of neuronal activity using kilohertz frame rates
Investigator
Jacob R Glaser
Institute
microbrightfield, llc
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This project aims to develop the 2P-ActivityScope™, a revolutionary new microscope based on a technological breakthrough called second-generation Scanned Line Angular Projection (SLAP2) two photon laser scanning microscopy that was recently developed by Dr.
TitleMiniaturized silicon neurochemical probe to monitor brain chemistry
Investigator
Yurii A Vlasov
Institute
university of illinois at urbana-champaign
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Miniaturized silicon neurochemical probe to monitor brain chemistry.
TitleModeling the development of orientation selectivity, maps, and the associated recurrent circuit
Investigator
Kenneth D Miller
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Much evidence suggests that the development of orientation selectivity and maps in primary visual cortex (V1)
is instructed by spontaneous patterns of input activity, without the necessity of visual experience.
TitleModulation of Cerebellar Activity by Electrical and Focused Ultrasound Stimulation
Investigator
Eric J Lang, Omer Oralkan, Mesut Sahin
Institute
new jersey institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The cerebellum has been overlooked for its potential for neuromodulation for decades.
TitleMonitoring presynaptic release of neuropeptides in awake behaving animals
Investigator
Sung Han
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Neuromodulators, such as neuropeptides and biogenic amines are produced and released by neurons to communicate with each other.
TitleMotor Recovery through Plasticity-Inducing Cortical Stimulation
Investigator
Steven C. Cramer, Jeffrey G Ojemann
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Limited recovery of function after stroke remains a major problem for millions. Disability persists in
many, especially when hand function is limited. Existing therapies are limited and many have difficulties with
activities of daily living, even after rehabilitation.
TitleNetwork based neuro-modulation for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy
Investigator
Behnaam Aazhang, Sandipan Pati Bankim Behari Pati, Nitin Tandon, Gregory A Worrell
Institute
university of texas hlth sci ctr houston
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleNeural basis of facial individual recognition in paper wasps
Investigator
Michael J Sheehan
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The neural circuits of animals, including humans, are the combined product of adaptation by natural selection
and the evolutionary history of a species.
TitleNeural circuit mechanisms for multisensory associative learning
Investigator
Roudabeh Behnia, Ashok Litwin-Kumar
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The brain uses sensory representations to assess risk and predict reward in order to adjust behavior. Per
ception is a multisensory process. To make reliable predictions, it is advantageous for the brain to combine
more than one sensory modality to represent the world.
TitleNeural coding of natural stimuli in freely moving macaque
Investigator
Valentin Dragoi
Institute
university of texas hlth sci ctr houston
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Despite the fact that visual perception represents such a fundamental aspect of our everyday life, our knowledge
of the underlying neural coding of natural stimuli is woefully lacking.
TitleNeural mechanisms of taste and metabolic state integration in the brainstem
Investigator
Nilay Yapici
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
The taste of food is a critical factor that determines whether an organism will accept or reject a food source.
TitleNew strategies for molecular cell-type labeling in volume electron microscopy
Investigator
Linnaea E Ostroff
Institute
university of connecticut storrs
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Recent years have seen major breakthroughs in methodology for studying two complex yet
fundamental aspects of brain structure: synaptic connectivity patterns and the heterogeneous distribution of
molecules.
TitleNoninvasive Targeted Neuromodulation
Investigator
Jan Kubanek
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Neurological and psychiatric disorders absorb one-third of the total health care expenditures; more than cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes combined. On average, approximately one in three patients fails to respond to medication treatments or has intolerable side effects.
TitleOdor trail tracking: a new paradigm to unveil algorithms and neural circuits underlying active sensation and continuous decision making
Investigator
Catherine Dulac, Venkatesh N Murthy, Massimo Vergassola
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Animals actively sample sensory information, which they combine with prior knowledge to make
decisions in a sensorimotor feedback loop.
TitleOptical neural motes to enable high density recording through intact dura in a nonhuman primate
Investigator
David Blaauw, Cynthia Anne Chestek
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
IR Powered and Hermetically-Sealed Single-Unit Neural Recording Wireless
Motes for Large Scale Implantation Into Nonhuman Primate Cortex
In this research agenda, we propose the ReMote which is a wireless neural recording probe that utilizes
near-infrared (NIR) light for
TitleOptical voltage imaging analysis of the cellular and network mechanisms of deep brain stimulation
Investigator
Xue Han
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Optical voltage imaging analysis of the cellular and network mechanisms of deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) directly stimulates brain tissue via implanted electrodes.
TitleOptimization of Flexible Neural Probe Arrays for Multi-Region Recordings in Rodents and Nonhuman Primates
Investigator
Ellis Meng, Dong Song
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
A core goal of the BRAIN Initiative is to link neural activity to behavior which requires technology to acquire high-quality recordings of dynamic neural activity from different brain regions over time.
Last reviewed on July 02, 2025