Project Summary/Abstract
In order to control specific behavioral responses, transcriptionally distinct cell types assembled
into dynamic brain circuits integrate environmental information with internal states and generate
purposeful motor actions.
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 #
TitleSystems-level and in situ transcriptomics deconstruction of neural circuits underlying sensorimotor transformation in an innate behavior
Investigator
Catherine Dulac, Venkatesh N Murthy, Xiaowei Zhuang
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleBuilding a Complete, Predictive, Data-Driven Model of Action Selection During Olfactory Navigation
Investigator
Matthieu R. P. J. C. G. Louis
Institute
university of california santa barbara
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
To survive, living organisms must collect information about their environment and use it to select appropriate
behaviors. However, information from the environment is often noisy, incomplete and ambiguous.
TitleCracking the Olfactory Code
Investigator
Dmitry Rinberg
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary (Overall: Cracking the Olfactory Code)
Sensation drives perception, which informs decisions and actions. Olfaction is the main sense used by
most animals to interact with the environment.
TitleDissecting the dual role of dopamine in context-dependent and learned behaviors
Investigator
Vanessa Ruta
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Dopamine plays a central role in motivation and reinforcement learning, allowing animals to take advantage of
their current circumstances to optimize both present and future behavior.
TitleMultilevel Analysis of Neuronal Computations Underlying the Robust Encoding of Sensory Information in the Mammalian Olfactory System
Investigator
Benjamin R Arenkiel, Paul Pfaffinger
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
A key problem in neuroscience is to uncover fundamental principles and algorithms that allow
neuronal networks to perform the complex calculations that underlie normal behavior effectively and
efficiently.
TitleUnderstanding the logic of the brain-wide olfactory bulb projectome
Investigator
Dinu Florentin Albeanu, Alexei Koulakov
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
To date, fundamental understanding of which features of odorants are decoded by the brain, and how
information about these features is channeled through the olfactory system is still lacking.
TitleBidirectional optical-acoustic mesoscopic neural interface for image-guided neuromodulation in behaving animals
Investigator
Daniel Razansky, Dmitry Rinberg, Shy Shoham
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Neuroscience has an essential requirement for large-scale neural recording and
perturbation technologies for the understanding of brain function, as well as in the
diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.
TitleCRCNS: Common algorithmic strategies used by the brain for labeling points in high-dimensional space
Investigator
Saket Navlakha
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The first major goal of this work is to learn how certain brain regions (olfactory system, hippocampus, and cerebellum) learn very complex stimuli that employ a combinatorial code to identify stimuli as points in a high-dimensional space.
TitleIdentifying, manipulating, and studying a complete sensory-to-motor model behavior circuit
Investigator
Lisa Stowers
Institute
scripps research institute, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
How does the brain transform sensory information into complex behavior?
TitleMapping of spatiotemporal code features to neural and perceptual spaces
Investigator
Stefano Vt Panzeri, Dmitry Rinberg
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Two of the most fundamental questions of sensory neuroscience are: 1) how is stimulus information
represented by the activity of populations of neurons at different levels of information processing?
TitleQuantifying the role of adaptation in olfactory coding through the logic of navigation
Investigator
Nirag Kadakia
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
This project’s long-term goal is a fuller understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of olfactory sensory
adaptation that facilitate odor discrimination in the natural world.
TitleReadout and control of spatiotemporal neuronal codes for behavior
Investigator
Behtash Babadi, Dante R Chialvo, Tommaso Fellin, Mark H Histed, Patrick O Kanold, Wolfgang Losert, John H.r. Maunsell, Stefano Vt Panzeri, Dietmar Plenz, Dmitry Rinberg, Shy Shoham
Institute
university of chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
To survive, organisms must both accurately represent stimuli in the outside world, and use that representation
to generate beneficial behavioral actions.
TitleSCAPE microscopy for high-speed 3D imaging of cellular function in behaving animals: Continued innovation, optimization, and dissemination
Investigator
Elizabeth M. C. Hillman
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Swept confocally aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscopy is a method for high-speed, cellular level
imaging of living, intact tissues.
TitleTransparent graphene electrode arrays for simultaneous electrical and optical investigation of computations in the olfactory bulb
Investigator
Morgan A Brown
Institute
university of oregon
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary and Abstract
A major obstacle to understanding the link between behavior and neuronal activity is the difficulty of
electrophysiologically recording the activity of large neuronal populations without limiting visual access.
TitleUsing functionally-defined glomeruli to probe circuit function in the mammalian olfactory bulb
Investigator
Dale M Wachowiak
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
We seek to better understand how the brain processes olfactory information by focusing on how circuits
of the olfactory bulb control two fundamental aspects of sensory processing: the relationship between sensory
input and olfactory bulb output as a function of stimulus intensity, a
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.
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.
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.
TitleSELF-POWERED SENSING AND DATA-LOGGING FOR LARGE-SCALE IN-VIVO MONITORING OF NEURAL ENSEMBLE ACTIVITY
Investigator
Shantanu Chakrabartty
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The current state-of-the-art neural recording technology is limited by the ability to remotely and continuously
deliver power to the implanted sensors.
TitleBehavioral readout of spatiotemporal codes dissected by holographic optogenetics
Investigator
Dmitry Rinberg, Shy Shoham
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Two of the most fundamental questions of sensory neuroscience are: 1) how is stimulus information represented by the activity of neurons at different levels of information processing?