To understand how the brain computes, we need to understand how individual neurons in a circuit integrate
their numerous inputs into output signals, as well as how they work together to encode a sensory input or
execute a motor command in a behaving animal.
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 #
TitleHigh-speed volumetric imaging of neural activity throughout the living brain
Investigator
Na Ji
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleImaging Human Brain Function with Minimal Mobility Restrictions
Investigator
Michael Garwood
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), by offering the sole means of imaging human brain
structure and activity with high spatial resolution, has evolved into an indispensable tool for
studying brain function in health and disease.
TitleImpact of cortical feedback on odor concentration change coding
Investigator
Roman Shusterman, Matthew C Smear
Institute
university of oregon
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Top-down feedback connections between “higher” and “lower” brain areas are quite common, but
their functional role remains a mystery. This general principle applies to the olfactory system, in which the
olfactory bulb receives dense feedback innervation from its cortical targets.
TitleImpact of Timing, Targeting, and Brain State on rTMS of Human and Non-Human Primates
Investigator
Marc A Sommer
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Non-invasive methods for stimulating the human brain show great promise for safe, effective treatments of
psychiatric and motor disorders, and are in widespread use for basic research on human behavior and
cognition.
TitleIntegrated compressive sensing microscope for high-speed functional biological imaging
Investigator
Sang Peter Chin
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Direct readout of spiking and subthreshold voltage activity from genetically-specified neural
populations will facilitate major advances in our understanding of neural computation at the
network level.
TitleIntegrative Analysis of Long-range Top-down Cortical Circuit for Attentional Behavior
Investigator
Hirofumi Morishita
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Attention deficit symptoms are frequently observed in psychiatric disorders, yet finite understanding of the
neural circuits mediating attentional behavior has limited pathophysiologic insight.
TitleIntegrative approach to classifying neuronal cell types of the mouse hippocampus
Investigator
Hong-Wei Dong, Li I Zhang
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Identifying the diversity of cell types in the nervous system will allow for their selective manipulation and reveal
their functional contributions in health and disease.
TitleIntraoperative studies of flexible decision-making
Investigator
Gordon H Baltuch, Joshua I Gold
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure that is used to treat the debilitating symptoms of
Parkinson's Disease (PD).
TitleInvestigating information processing in parallel circuits that link external chemical signals to social behavior
Investigator
Julian P Meeks
Institute
ut southwestern medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The goal of this exploratory research project is to improve understanding about the mechanisms by which
mammalian neural circuits decode environmental chemosensory information and use that information to
support survival and reproduction.
TitleInvestigating the Role of Neurotensin on Valence Assignment During Associative Learning in the Basolateral Amygdala
Investigator
Jacob Michael Olson
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Learned associations between environmental stimuli and organism-effecting outcomes guide adaptive
behavior. When healthy, this process results in increased rewards and decreased harm.
TitleLarge-scale analysis of functional synapses during circuit plasticity with novel optogenetic sensors
Investigator
Karen Zito
Institute
university of california at davis
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
One of the major challenges in neuroscience is to understand the experience-dependent mechanisms
that drive the changes in neural circuits that underlie complex behaviors, and how these mechanisms are
altered in disease.
TitleLarge-scale monitoring of sensory transformations in the mammalian olfactory system
Investigator
Shawn Denver Burton
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
How information is transformed as it propagates through a neural circuit remains an outstanding question of modern
neuroscience.
TitleLow cost, fully implantable wireless optoeletronic devices for optogenetics research
Investigator
Roozbeh Ghaffari
Institute
neurolux, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
The methods of optogenetics enable light-induced, area-confined stimulation or inhibition
of genetically targeted neurons, thereby bypassing key disadvantages of electrical approaches.
As a result, optogenetics is now widely viewed as an essential tool in neuroscience res
TitleMACHINE LEARNING APPROACHES FOR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL CELL CLASSIFICATION
Investigator
Alison L Barth
Institute
carnegie-mellon university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
We will use our expertise in somatosensory organization and plasticity to develop novel and
automated solutions for cell identification based upon neural activity, in order to decode the
algorithms neural circuits use for information processing.
TitleMechanism and dosimetry exploration in transcranial electrical stimulation using magnetic resonance current mapping methods.
Investigator
Rosalind J Sadleir
Institute
arizona state university-tempe campus
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) methods, principally transcranial direct current simulation
(tDCS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) are neuromodulation techniques that
have been the subject of great recent interest.
TitleMechanisms of neural circuit dynamics in working memory anddecision-making
Investigator
Carlos D Brody, Mark S Goldman, Jonathan William Pillow, Hyunjune Sebastian Seung, David W Tank, Samuel Sheng-Hung Wang, Ilana Witten
Institute
princeton university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Working memory, the ability to temporarily hold multiple pieces of information in mind for manipulation, is
central to virtually all cognitive abilities.
TitleMechanistic dissection of the neural basis of the resting-state fMRI signal using multi-modal approaches
Investigator
Patrick James Drew, Nanyin Zhang
Institute
pennsylvania state university, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary The primary goal of this application is to elucidate the neural basis of resting-state
functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) signal using multi-modal approaches including multi-echo (ME)-
rsfMRI, MR-compatible calcium signal recording, optogenetics and multi-laminar electrop
TitleMethodologically-Integrated Approaches Linking Cell Types to Neural Circuits and Function
Investigator
Edward M Callaway
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Understanding the circuit mechanisms that give rise to perception and behavior requires linking neuronal
activity to connectivity. This can be accomplished at multiple scales and ideally can be related to further
studies using activity manipulations to demonstrate causality.
TitleMRI CORTICOGRAPHY: DEVELOPING NEXT GENERATION MICROSCALE HUMAN CORTEX MRI SCANNER
Investigator
David Alan Feinberg, Chunlei Liu, Pratik Mukherjee, Kawin Setsompop, Lawrence L Wald
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The overarching objective of our proposal is to bring noninvasive human brain imaging into the microscale
(50-500 micron isotropic) resolution in order to create a tool for studies of neuronal circuitry and network
organization in the human brain.
TitleMulti-context software for robust and reproducible neuroscience image analysis
Investigator
Xenophon Papademetris, Dustin Scheinost
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary (Abstract)
The goal of this application is to develop, test, and disseminate multi-context (command line, desktop, server,
and web applications) software for robust and reproducible neuroscience image analysis from data across mul-
tiple scales (two photon microscopy, mesoscale Ca2+