SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
A major goal of neuroscience is to understand how neuromodulatory systems regulate core processes of brain
and behavior, from motor function and learning to reward, aversion, attention, and sleep.
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 #
TitleOptical control of neuromodulatory GPCRs
Investigator
Ehud Isacoff, Dirk Hartwig Trauner
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleOptimizing oscillatory epidural electrical stimulation to selectively increase task-related population dynamics in motor areas
Investigator
Karunesh Ganguly, Jeffrey A Roberts
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Stroke is the leading cause of motor disability in the United States. While brain stimulation to enhance motor
function after stroke has shown promise in small studies, two recent large stroke trials did not find evidence for
significant benefits.
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.
TitleReal-time manipulations to understand and improve memory processes
Investigator
Anna Kathleen Gillespie
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The hippocampus is critical for capturing rich, multimodal representations of experience and facilitating
the long-term storage and later recall of these experiences.
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.
TitleSignificance of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic integration by interneurons for local circuit dynamics and behavior
Investigator
Brandon David Turner
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Localized structuring of neuronal output by inhibitory microcircuits is a fundamental component of
neuronal information processing.
TitleSliced human neocortical organoids for modeling cortical laminar and columnar organization and function
Investigator
Guo-Li Ming
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The modular organization of the cerebral cortex is defined by anatomically and functionally segregated cortical
columns, as well as layer-specific anatomical and functional connections that span multiple columns.
Dysregulation of the developmental processes governing cortical formation can r
TitleStructure and Function of a Cubic Millimeter of Cortex: Crowdsourcing for Proofreading and Discovery
Investigator
Hyunjune Sebastian Seung
Institute
princeton university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
At the end of 2020, the IARPA MICrONS program will conclude with an automated reconstruction of all
neurons in a cubic millimeter of mouse visual cortex, along with the neurons’ synaptic connectivity and
calcium-imaged responses to video stimuli.
TitleStudying how the hippocampal-prefrontal-hypothalamic circuit encodes social dominance
Investigator
Nancy Padilla Coreano
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Social deficits are common in psychiatric disorders and available treatments are limited. Our lack of basic
knowledge on how the brain controls social behaviors makes it challenging to develop therapeutics for social
deficits.
TitleThe behavioral microstructure of a memory-guided food-caching behavior and its relationship to hippocampal replay
Investigator
Selmaan Chettih
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The hippocampus is a critical site for rapid memory formation and retrieval, with extensively documented
functions representing spatial and navigational variables, yet less is known of the means by which it guides
behavior.
TitleThe experience of human subjects with brain organoid research
Investigator
Kate E. Macduffie
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Efforts to understand the mechanisms of brain-based disease have been hindered by the limited
ability of animal models to reflect the full complexity of human brain and behavior.
TitleThe Neuroscience of Everyday World- A novel wearable system for continuous measurement of brain function
Investigator
David A Boas, Swathi Kiran
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Innovations in human neuroimaging tools have driven profound advances in our understanding
of brain function under well-controlled and constrained conditions.
TitleThe planning of new compositional action sequences guided by interpretation of ambiguous sensory data in a novel drawing task
Investigator
Lucas Y. Tian
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Animals exhibit a remarkable array of creative, adaptive, and flexible behaviors.
TitleTracking Changes in High-Dimensional Circuit Behaviors over Long-Term Neural Recordings
Investigator
Alexander Henry Williams
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
Recent breakthroughs in neural recording technologies suggest the possibility of understanding the
collective dynamics of large-scale brain circuits.
TitleTransgenic tools for revealing the contributions of electrical synapses to neural circuits
Investigator
Adam C Miller, John O'brien, Alberto E Pereda
Institute
albert einstein college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
While current efforts in the analysis of neural circuits focus on interneuronal connectivity mediated by chemical
synapses, less is known about the contribution of electrical synapses.
TitleUltra-high resolution, multiplexed single molecule nanoscopy and functional characterization of neural circuits
Investigator
Alexander Chubykin, Fang Huang, Peng Yin
Institute
purdue university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The complex behaviors of all vertebrates are determined by the brain where neurons are connected by
synapses. The average volume of synapses corresponds to a sphere of ~400 nm radius—a size scale that can
barely be resolved using conventional optical microscopy methods.
TitleUsing multiple species, stimuli, and tasks to study the neural basis of visually guided behavior
Investigator
Amy Meesun Ni
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The visual system must constantly extract behaviorally relevant stimulus information from an abundance of
irrelevant inputs from the environment, using cognitive phenomena such as attention and learning to guide this
continuously adapting process.
TitleUsing perceptual decision-making to understand the role of selective inhibitory activity in cortical computation
Investigator
James Patrick Roach
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Cortical circuits perform computations to generate appropriate behaviors based upon diverse
sensory inputs. These computations are central to an animal maintaining its health and long-
term survival.
Title3D neonatal Photoacoustic Tomography (3D-nPAT) to detect Hypoxic-Ischemic brain injury in preterm neonates
Investigator
Kamran Avanaki
Institute
wayne state university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:
Hypoxic-Ischemic brain Injury (HII) is a severe injury caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain at or near time of birth
in preterm and/or low birth weight newborns. It is very important to recognize HII as soon as possible because early
intervention improves outcomes.
Title4D Transcranial Acoustoelectric Imaging for High Resolution Functional Mapping of Neuronal Currents
Investigator
Russell S Witte
Institute
university of arizona
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
The overarching goal of this project is to develop, validate and implement a new modality for noninvasive
functional imaging of neural currents deep in the human brain through the skull at unprecedented spatial and
temporal resolution.