ABSTRACT
The basal ganglia are critical for the learning and subsequent selection of motor programs. In health,
adaptive plasticity in the basal ganglia enables easy execution of complex motor tasks through
formation of habits.
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 #
Title
Taking DISCO Live: Dual pathway Imaging of Striatal Circuit Output in vivo
Investigator
Nicole Calakos
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Title
Technology for functional study of cells and circuits in large postmortem brains ex vivo
Investigator
Nenad Sestan
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The mammalian brain is arguably the most complex biological structure.
Title
The biophysics and potential cell-type selectivity of acoustic neuromodulation
Investigator
Robert Crooks Froemke, Eitan Kimmel, 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 perturbation tools. Such
tools would be transformative in the mapping of brain function, the causal testing of
neurotheoretic models, and the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.
Title
The Brainstorm Project: A Collaborative Approach to Facilitating the Neuroethics of Bioengineered Brain Modeling Research
Investigator
Insoo Hyun
Institute
case western reserve university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary – Abstract
Neuroscientists are getting close to building realistic bioengineered ex vivo human brain models
by: (1) introducing perfusable vascular networks to maintain tissue viability and promote 3D
brain model growth; (2) generating the full complement of currently missing cell ty
Title
The Development and Human Translation of Temporal Interference Brain Stimulation
Investigator
Daniel Z. Press
Institute
beth israel deaconess medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has had great impact, helping patients with disorders such as Parkinson's
disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and with great potential for other disorders such as
depression and Alzheimer's disease.
Title
The impact of spontaneous cortical activity on neural oscillations and behavioral performance: Evidence from high-definition tDCS and MEG
Investigator
Tony W Wilson
Institute
university of nebraska medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This proposal responds to RFA-MH-17-245, which requests applications focusing on the mechanisms and dose-
response relationships of noninvasive neuromodulatory methods.
Title
Toward 3D human brain-like tissues for targeting dysregulated synapse and proteostasis mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder
Investigator
Joshua Dean Erndt-Marino
Institute
tufts university medford
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TOWARD 3D HUMAN BRAIN-LIKE TISSUES FOR TARGETING DYSREGULATED SYNAPSE AND
PROTEOSTASIS MECHANISMS IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disease affecting nearly 1/50 children in US with an
estimated $268 billion in annual costs.
Title
Toward a human adult brain cell atlas with single-cell technologies
Investigator
Jerold Chun, Kun Zhang
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Human brain is an exceedingly complex network of spatially organized and functionally
connected neurons imbedded in glia.
Title
Towards integrated 3D reconstruction of whole human brains at subcellular resolution
Investigator
Kwanghun Chung
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A detailed understanding of the anatomical and molecular architectures of brain cells and their brain-wide
organization is essential for interrogating human brain function and dysfunction.
Title
TRACT: A TOOL TO INVESTIGATE BRAIN CONNECTIVITY AND TO GENETICALLY MANIPULATE NEURONS CONNECTED BY SYNAPSES
Investigator
Elizabeth Jennifer Hong, Carlos Lois
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
!
PROJECT SUMMARY
Deciphering the brain’s wiring diagram is widely thought to be necessary towards understanding how brain
circuits process information. However, this goal is extremely challenging because currently available methods
to study brain connectivity suffer from important limitations.
Title
Trans-synaptic bidirectional tracing tools for imaging and omics analysis
Investigator
Nirao Mahesh Shah, Alice Y Ting
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Trans‐synaptic bidirectional tracing tools for imaging and omics analysis
A central question in systems neuroscience is how hormones, such as estrogen, regulate animal behavior at the level of
synapses and circuits.
Title
Transparent 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.
Title
Ultra High Resolution Brain PET Scanner for in-vivo Autoradiography Imaging
Investigator
Georges El Fakhri, Roger Lecomte
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We propose to design, build, and evaluate the Scanner Approaching in Vivo
Autoradiographic Neuro Tomography (SAVANT), a next generation PET scanner for
ultra-high resolution imaging of the human brain using hardware advances
developed by members of our collaborative team to achieve unprecedented spa
Title
Ultrasonic neuromodulation: establishing mechanisms and parameters to optimize targeted neuromodulation and control sensory side-effects
Investigator
Michael Ortiz, Shinsuke Shimojo, Mikhail Shapiro
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
One of the major goals of the BRAIN initiative is to develop technologies capable of interfacing with specific
neural circuits in the human brain.
Title
Unraveling constraints on motor cortical activity exploration and shaping during structural skill learning using large-scale 2-photon imaging and holographic optogenetic stimulation
Investigator
Vivek Athalye
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
When learning new skills, experience with previously-learned skills can facilitate faster learning by constraining
behavioral exploration and shaping, a concept known as “structural learning”3,4.
Title
Unveiling the mechanisms of ultrasound neuromodulation via spatially confined stimulation and temporally resolved recording
Investigator
Ji-Xin Cheng, Xue Han
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Ultrasound has been explored as a modality to modulate nerves and muscles back in the 1920s. A number of
recent studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using ultrasound to stimulate peripheral nerves, spinal cord,
and brain.
Title
What are we Stimulating with Transcranial Ultrasound in Mice?
Investigator
Kim Butts-Pauly
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Completely noninvasive neuromodulation using focused ultrasound (FUS) offers the promise of precisely
stimulating specific targets deep in the brain, at power levels commonly used for diagnostic imaging studies.
Having a working mouse model to study neuromodulation with ultrasound i
Title
Wireless High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography for Decoding Brain Activity
Investigator
Joseph P Culver
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
This grant will develop a wireless wearable high-performance, high-density diffuse optical tomography (DOT)
instrument for mapping of brain function in naturalistic settings.
Title
A BRAIN Initiative Resource: The Neuroscience Multi-omic Data Archive
Investigator
Owen R White
Institute
university of maryland baltimore
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative
promotes the development and application of technologies to describe the temporal and spatial
dynamics of cell types and neural circuits in the brain.
Title
A Cellular Resolution Census of the Developing Human Brain
Investigator
Eric J Huang, Arnold Kriegstein
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
We aim to create a spatiotemporal single cell resolution map of the developing human neocortex in order to
establish how many distinct cell types are present and to unravel their complex developmental history.