Project Summary
The same pattern of neural activity can correspond to multiple events in the world. Signals sweeping across
the retina, for instance, might be generated by a moving object or by the animal's self-motion.
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
Neural basis of causal inference: representations, circuits, and dynamics
Investigator
Gregory C Deangelis
Institute
university of rochester
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Title
Neural circuit computations for visual motion during natural primate behaviors
Investigator
Lawrence Kevin Cormack, Gert Cauwenberghs, Mary M Hayhoe, Alexander C Huk, Cory T Miller, Cristopher M Niell
Institute
university of texas at austin
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
Our current understanding of primate motion perception is often lauded as one of the great achievements of
computational systems neuroscience.
Title
Neural 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.
Title
Neural coding and functional organization of the octopus visual system
Investigator
Cristopher M Niell
Institute
university of oregon
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Cephalopods have large and complex brains, and in particular a highly capable visual system.
However, their brains evolved independently from vertebrates, and very little is known about how neural
circuits in the cephalopod brain process visual information.
Title
Neural mechanisms linking need to reward
Investigator
Joshua D Berke, Zachary A. Knight
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Behavior is motivated by reward, and the most powerful rewards are those that satisfy a physiologic need. For
decades, neuroscientists have studied the midbrain dopamine system to understand reward and hypothalamic
circuits to understand sensing of internal needs.
Title
Neurobiology of Social Behavior: Circuit Analysis in Early Life
Investigator
Maya Opendak
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
My long-termcareer goal is to establish a research laboratory that dissects functional microcircuits supporting
flexible social behavior in typical and perturbed development.
Title
NeuroEthics of Non-Therapeutic Invasive Human Neurophysiologic Research
Investigator
Ashley L Feinsinger, Nader Pouratian
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The BRAIN Initiative has made a significant investment in invasive human neuroscientific studies that take
advantage of unique neurosurgical opportunities to study basic human neuroscience without therapeutic intent.
These non-therapeutic studies are of particular ethical in
Title
NeuroExplorer: Ultra-high Performance Human Brain PET Imager for Highly-resolved In Vivo Imaging of Neurochemistry
Investigator
Richard E. Carson, Hongdi Li, Jinyi Qi
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Research applications of brain Positron Emission Tomography (PET) have been in place for over 40 years.
The combination of quantitative PET systems with novel radiotracers has led to a numerous imaging para-
digms to understand normal brain physiology including neurotransmitter dynamics and receptor
Title
Neuronal mechanisms of visually-driven aggressive behavior
Investigator
Andrés Bendesky
Institute
columbia univ new york morningside
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Aggression is a fundamental social behavior. Though widespread, the stimuli that modulate aggression
differ between species. Primates rely strongly on visual cues, while in rodents and insects olfactory stimuli are
essential.
Title
New approaches for chemical-genetic targeting of specific circuits and cell types in the mammalian brain
Investigator
Anton Maximov
Institute
scripps research institute, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The goal of this research is to establish new robust methods for manipulation of specific circuits and genetically
defined neuron types in brains of model organisms with small molecules.
Title
Nobrainer: A robust and validated neural network tool suite for imagers
Investigator
Satrajit Sujit Ghosh
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
There is an increasing need for efficient and robust software to process, integrate, and offer insight across the
diversity of population imaging efforts underway across the BRAIN Initiative and other projects.
Title
Non-invasive, Deep Brain, and Focal Neuromodulation in Nonhuman Primates
Investigator
Taylor D Webb
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The ability to non-invasively perturb specific regions deep in the human brain would enable researchers and clinicians
to study the causal relationships between specific brain structures and behavior.
Title
Open-source software for multi-scale mapping of the human brain
Investigator
Bruce Fischl, Juan Eugenio Iglesias Gonzalez
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary (maximum 30 lines)
The BRAIN initiative seeks to develop and apply technologies in order to understand of how brain cells interact
in both time and space to give rise to brain function.
Title
Optical control of neuromodulatory GPCRs
Investigator
Ehud Isacoff, Dirk Hartwig Trauner
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
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.
Title
Optical interrogation of neural circuits in Manduca
Investigator
Barry A Trimmer, Bing Ye
Institute
tufts university medford
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
R34 BRAIN Initiative. Optical interrogation of neural circuits in Manduca
Project Summary / Abstract
This BRAIN Circuits Planning Project will help to bridge the gap between well-established brain studies
on the fruit fly, Drosophila, and complex behaviors exhibited more generally by other species.
Title
Optical methods for imaging and manipulating dendritic spines in vivo
Investigator
Roberto Etchenique, Rafael Yuste
Institute
columbia univ new york morningside
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Dendritic spines cover dendrites of most mammalian neurons and receive almost
all excitatory connections in the cortex.
Title
Optical 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.
Title
Optogenetic manipulation of cortical feedback to examine network function and behavior
Investigator
Valentin Dragoi
Institute
university of texas hlth sci ctr houston
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The brain transforms raw sensory input into perception and cognition, and this transformation relies on
computations performed across neuronal circuits. Fortunately, the anatomy of cortical microcircuits in non-
human primate models is much better understood today than decades ago.
Title
Organization of inhibition in the cerebellar cortex
Investigator
Jason M Christie, Adam Hantman
Institute
max planck florida corporation
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Our long-term goal is to generate a complete understanding of how the cerebellum learns to improve movement
in response to motor errors. Climbing fibers are thought to play an essential role in this process because they
fire during erroneous movement.
Title
Population codes and sensory discrimination
Investigator
Dario L Ringach
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
How do cortical populations represent sensory input and support perceptual decision making?