PROJECT SUMMARY
Actions are not mediated solely by cortical processes but rely on communication within basal ganglia-
thalamocortical loops. Speech is one example, although how the basal ganglia participate in this uniquely
human behavior is not clear, due to a lack of empirical 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 #
TitleCortical-Basal Ganglia Speech Networks
Investigator
Robert Mark Richardson
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleDeveloping a novel therapeutic for treating tinnitus
Investigator
Luisa L Scott
Institute
cognosetta, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Tinnitus or “ringing in the ears” is a hearing disorder that disproportionately impacts those who are or have served
in the military. There is currently no effective cure for tinnitus.
TitleNeural circuitry for observational learning of maternal behavior
Investigator
Amy Lemessurier
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Behaviors essential for survival, including parenting behaviors, are driven by neural circuits that arise from
combinations of genetics and experience-dependent learning.
TitleOptical tools to probe neural circuits in the echolocating bat
Investigator
Kishore V Kuchibhotla, Melville J Wohlgemuth
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:
A major goal in neuroscience is to dissect the neural circuits that support complex behaviors.
TitlePrefrontal contributions to contextual representation
Investigator
Cybelle Marguerite Smith
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract/Summary
This application describes a 3-year training plan that will enable me, a cognitive neuroscientist with prior
training in electroencephalography (EEG), to conduct research on contextual memory representation using
neuroimaging (fMRI) and computational modeling.
TitleRestoring Sight to the Blind: Neural Imaging with Retinal Prostheses
Investigator
Noelle Stiles
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary – Restoring Sight to the Blind: Neural Imaging with Retinal Prostheses
Retinal prostheses restore sight to the blind by electrically stimulating still viable cells in the
retina.
TitleSingle-cell computation in auditory brainstem and its impact on cortical coding and behavior
Investigator
Nace L Golding, Lisa Goodrich, Philip Joris, Matthew J Mcginley
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Understanding how neuronal computations build up a perception of the external world is fundamental to our
understanding of how the brain works.
TitleThe neural coding of speech across human languages
Investigator
Edward Chang
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The basic mechanisms underlying comprehension of spoken language are unknown. We are only beginning to
understand how the human brain extracts the most fundamental linguistic elements (consonants and vowels)
from a complex and highly variable acoustic signal.
TitleCortical Spatial Processing for Solving the Cocktail Party Problem
Investigator
Xue Han, Kamal K Sen
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The ability of our auditory systems to recognize target sounds in a mixture of other sounds is fundamental
to normal healthy function and communication.
TitleCortico-striatal representations of multisensory decision-making
Investigator
Xiaonan Sun
Institute
feinstein institute for medical research
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Perceptual decision-making is a complex cognitive function critical for health, reproductive success, and
survival. In this process, an informed choice based on sensory evidence is made through engagement of
circuits across the brain.
TitleDynamic Neural Mechanisms of Audiovisual Speech Perception
Investigator
Michael S Beauchamp, Charles E Schroeder
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Speech perception is inherently multisensory: when conversing with someone that we can see,
our brains combine auditory information from the voice with visual information from the face.
Speech perception lies at the heart of our interactions with other people and is thus one
TitleEfficiency and Safety of Microstimulation Via Different Electrode Materials
Investigator
Xinyan Tracy Cui
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Microstimulation has been an invaluable tool for neuroscience researchers to infer functional connections
between brain structures or causal links between structure and behavior.
TitleFunctional implications of a patch/matrix-like compartmental organization in the mouse inferior colliculus
Investigator
Alexandria Marie Lesicko
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
A major unresolved question in systems neuroscience is whether specialized anatomical structures support
specific functions in behavior. Therefore, this proposal will bridge the gap between anatomical circuit diagrams
and their predicted functional roles.
TitleNeuronal circuits for context-driven bias in auditory categorization
Investigator
Yale E Cohen, Maria Neimark Geffen, Konrad P. Kording
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
NEURONAL CIRCUITS FOR CONTEXT-DRIVEN BIAS IN AUDITORY CATEGORIZATION
In everyday life, because both sensory signals and neuronal responses are noisy, important cognitive tasks, such
as auditory categorization, are based on uncertain information.
TitleTools for modeling state-dependent sensory encoding by neural populations across spatial and temporal scales
Investigator
Stephen V David, Nima Mesgarani
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Throughout life, humans and other animals learn statistical regularities in the natural acoustic environment.
They adapt their hearing to emphasize the features of sound that are important for making behavioral
decisions.
TitleAuditory brain-computer interface for communication
Investigator
Daniel James Thengone
Institute
brown university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A fundamental end-goal of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) is to enable communication in individuals
with severe motor paralysis. BCIs decode the neural signals and accomplish the intended goal via an effector,
such as a computer cursor or a robotic limb.
TitleCRCNS: Modeling the role of auditory feedback in speech motor control
Investigator
John Francis Houde, Srikantan S. Nagarajan
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
When we speak, listeners hear us and understand us we speak correctly. But we also hear ourselves, and this auditory feedback affects our ongoing speech: delaying it causes dysfluency; perturbing its pitch or formants induces compensation.
TitleDevelopment and Translation of an Intracranial Auditory Nerve Implant
Investigator
Robert Kyle Franklin, Thomas Lenarz, Hubert Hyungil Lim, Andrew J. Oxenham, Loren Rieth, Florian Solzbacher
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
The proposed project will build and evaluate the safety and design needs of a new type of intracranial auditory
prosthesis that targets the auditory nerve between the cochlea and the brainstem (auditory nerve implant, ANI)
in order to substantially improve hearing performance over the curre
TitleMemory consolidation during sleep studied by direct neuronal recording and stimulation inside human brain
Investigator
Itzhak Fried
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Memory is critical for cognitive well-being, and sleep is critical for memory consolidation, yet the underlying
mechanisms in the human brain are poorly understood.
TitleModel behavior in zebrafish: characterization of the startle response
Investigator
Joy Hart Meserve
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Although behavioral deficits are common in neurological disorders, the genetic pathways and neural
circuits underlying behavior are largely unknown.