Project Summary
Neurotechnologies used to treat brain disorders and diseases can drastically change brain function and behavior,
monitor brain activity, and collect and transmit personal health data.
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 #
TitleFostering Ethical Neurotechnology Academia-Industry Partnerships: A Stakeholder Engagement and Toolkit Development Project
Investigator
Tristan Mcintosh
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleFrom synapses to neural representations: The role of neuromodulatory circuits in shaping contextual memories in the hippocampus
Investigator
Mark E J Sheffield
Institute
university of chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: Memory enables animals to acquire, store, and recall knowledge of the world
through experience and use this knowledge to maximize reward and avoid danger.
TitleFunctional connectivity of a brain-scale neural circuit for motion perception
Investigator
Eva Aimable Naumann
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The transformation of visual cues into appropriate behavior requires the collaboration of diverse neurons across
distant brain areas.
TitleFunctional dissection of cerebellar output circuits that orchestrate limb motor control
Investigator
Eiman Azim, Albert Chen
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The cerebellum is essential for coordinating motor behavior through rapid adjustments of ongoing movements.
To refine movement, the cerebellum processes motor and sensory information, and transmits output that
ultimately modulates motor neuron activity to ensure successful execution.
TitleFunctional interrogation of the mouse somatosensory thalamic interneuron in sensory perception and rhythmic states
Investigator
Jane Yi
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT/SUMMARY
The mouse somatosensory thalamus participates in fundamental processes including sensory processing, sleep
and pathological rhythmic behaviors like seizure. Local thalamic interneurons have been considerably
overlooked due to their sparsity in the total neuronal population.
TitleFunctional Mapping of the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
Investigator
Karen Jill Tonsfeldt
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This proposal aims to delineate the electrical and molecular diversity of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and
provide new evidence for receptor-expressing subtypes of SCN neurons using novel nanowire arrays that allow
single cell recording at 1024 contacts simultaneously.
TitleFunctionally guided adult whole brain cell atlas in human and NHP
Investigator
Ed Lein, Hongkui Zeng
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Progress in treating brain disorders has been frustratingly slow, in large part due to the extraordinary complexity of the
human brain and its inaccessibility to study.
TitleGene regulatory networks influencing neuron-microglia interactions in fetal brain development.
Investigator
Claudia Z Han
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The prenatal period is a sensitive and critical time for brain development characterized by waves of neurogenesis,
neuronal migration, and formation of neural networks.
TitleHierarchy of the vocalization motor patterning circuits
Investigator
Kevin Yackle
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
How are complex behaviors that require the coordination of multiple muscle systems produced? How does the
brain suddenly turn them “on”?
Vocalizations are seemingly simple, yet to occur, ~100 muscles must be coordinated, such as those for
articulation (laryngeal and tongue) and breathing.
TitleHigh-resolution bidirectional optical-acoustic mesoscopic neural interface for image-guided neuromodulation in behaving animals
Investigator
Robert E. Campbell, Daniel Razansky, Shy Shoham
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
Acoustic technologies such as optoacoustic (OA) imaging and ultrasound neuromodulation (USNM) are poised to revolutionize deep tissue, high-resolution, large-scale, in vivo imaging, and neurostimulation in mammalian organisms.
TitleHigh-throughput mapping of synaptic connectivity between transcriptomically defined cell types
Investigator
Michael Nicholas Economo
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Identifying the cell types that make up each region of the brain and the patterns of synaptic connections
through which they are linked is key to understanding how neural circuits give rise to all perception, cognition,
and behavior.
TitleHigh-throughput sequencing of synaptic partnerships and gene expression at single-cell resolution in vivo
Investigator
Arpiar B Saunders
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Brain function depends on forming and maintaining synaptic connections between neurons of specific types,
yet systematic descriptions of cell-type connectivity and the molecules that instruct these relationships remain
challenging because we lack some necessary tools.
TitleHighly parallel long wavelength heterodyne diffuse correlation spectroscopy for brain functional imaging
Investigator
Stefan Alexandru Carp
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Non-invasive imaging of human brain function plays an important role in advancing neuroscience research and
understanding neurological diseases. This need has been met primarily by functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI).
TitleHippocampo-cortical contributions to world building in freely behaving macaques
Investigator
Kari Hoffman
Institute
vanderbilt university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
When learning in complex, realistic, or even real worlds, we have the benefit of using different
strategies adaptively. For most primate brains, adaptive means adjusting as a function of where we
are, who we are with, and what things of use are in view or in reach.
TitleHormonal regulation of sensory processing during parental care
Investigator
Kristina O. Smiley
Institute
university of massachusetts amherst
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Does the way we hear sounds change when we become parents?
TitleIdentifying prefrontal signatures of successful and dysfunctional attention
Investigator
Brielle Ferguson
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Attention is comprised of several component processes, including sustained attention, selective
attention, and attentional flexibility.
TitleImaging at the speed of spikes: An electro-optical multiphoton microscope
Investigator
Aaron Michael Kerlin
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Signals in the brain are transmitted and transformed on a millisecond timescale. The precise timing of activity can carry unique information, correlate perceptual decisions, and powerfully influence synaptic plasticity.
TitleImplementation and dissemination of cloud-based retrospective hemodynamic analysis tools to enhance HCP data interpretation
Investigator
Blaise Debonneval Frederick
Institute
mclean hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging data has been a mainstay of neuroscience research for more than two
decades, as it allows rapid, continuous, noninvasive monitoring of neuronal function.
TitleImproving the robustness of neuroimaging through exploitation of variability in processing pipelines
Investigator
Gregory Kiar, Michael Peter Milham
Institute
child mind institute, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Reproducible findings are essential to scientific advancement. Unfortunately, when fields lack consensus
standards for methods, or their implementations, reproducibility tends to be more of an ideal than a reality.
TitleIn situ Single-Cell Multi-Omic and Morphological Profiling in Mammalian Brains
Investigator
Chongyuan Luo
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Single-cell technologies have revolutionized the characterization of mammalian brains allowing unbiased census
of cell types and their transcriptomic and epigenomics signatures.