PROJECT SUMMARY
Stress and addiction are intricately linked neural processes. Acute stress can serve as a stimulus for relapse to
compulsive drug seeking following abstinence, and chronic stress can induce escalated drug intake to multiple
classes of drugs.
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
Early-Life Stress Drives Increased Heroin Vulnerability: Role of D3 Receptors
Investigator
Brianna Elyse George
Institute
wake forest university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Title
Efficient Two-Photon Voltage Imaging of Neuronal Populations at Behavioral Timescales
Investigator
Jerry L Chen, Vincent A Pieribone, Michelle Yen-Ling Sander
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Understanding how information is processed in the mammalian neocortex has been a longstanding
question in neuroscience. While the action potential is the fundamental bit of information, how these
spikes encode representations and drive behavior remains unclear.
Title
Empirical Power Analysis Tool for fMRI
Investigator
Stephanie Noble
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has transformed our understanding of human brain
function and disease and is flourishing under unprecedented international funding, including dedicated support
from the BRAIN Initiative.
Title
Engagement and outreach to achieve a FAIR data ecosystem for the BICAN
Investigator
Hua Xu, Guo-Qiang Zhang, Wenjin Jim Zheng
Institute
university of texas hlth sci ctr houston
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
As a part of BRAIN 2.0, the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) is expected to advance fundamental knowledge and enabling technology for classifying human brain cell types, understanding their organizational principles, and providing open-access digital brain cell reference atlases, emphasiz
Title
Fluorescence-based methods for microconnectivity analysis in neocortex
Investigator
Alison L Barth
Institute
carnegie-mellon university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
A comprehensive census of neural cell types in the brain, together with molecular-genetic
resources for cell-type specific labeling, is revolutionizing our ability to detect and monitor age,
disease, and experience-dependent changes in neural connectivity.
Title
Fostering 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
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.
Title
Functional 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.
Title
Functional 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.
Title
Functionally 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.
Title
Gene 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.
Title
High-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.
Title
High-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.
Title
Hormonal 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?
Title
Identifying 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.
Title
Implementation 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.
Title
Improving 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.
Title
In 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.
Title
Integrated functional and structural analysis of an entire column in mouse primary visual cortex
Investigator
Reza Abbasi Asl
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Neurons in the visual cortex form an intricate connectivity structure and topographic arrangement. The
structural and morphological organization of the neurons is known to constrain its functional properties.
Title
Integration of social and nonsocial information in the primate brain
Investigator
Joseph Simon
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Primate species frequently use social information to inform their decisions, for instance, to help make inferences
about potential threats or rewards in the environment.
Title
Investigating descending control of walking
Investigator
Helen Horan Yang
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Circuits in the brain control motor output to generate the precise behaviors required for survival. Dysfunction of
these circuits results in devastating movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis.