PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Animals exhibit a remarkable array of creative, adaptive, and flexible behaviors.
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 #
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
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.
TitleUnderstanding Multi-Layer Learning in a Biological Circuit
Investigator
Laurence F. Abbott, Nathaniel Sawtell
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Work on learning in neural systems has focused largely on the effects of plasticity at synapses
that provide direct input to the neurons being studied.
TitleUnderstanding overlap in resting state fMRI networks at the single cell level: a cross-species approach
Investigator
Janine Diane Bijsterbosch, Lawrence H Snyder
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Understanding overlap in resting state fMRI networks at the single cell level: a cross-species
approach
Abstract
Resting state functional connectivity MRI (rsfcMRI) is a popular tool to investigate the intrinsic
functional organization of the brain into large scale networks.
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 Printed Multifunctional Brain Windows for Simultaneous Optical Imaging and Electrophysiology
Investigator
Suhasa B Kodandaramaiah, Michael Mcalpine
Institute
applied universal dynamics corporation
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
This proposal responds to PAR-18-870 titled “BRAIN Initiative: Development Optimization, and Validation of
Novel Tools and Technologies for Neuroscience Research (STTR).” This project is a Fast Track STTR with a
phase I and phase II.
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.
TitleA compact, modular two-photon fiber-coupled microscope for in vivo all-optical electrophysiology
Investigator
Emily Gibson, Karl Kilborn
Institute
3 i
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Good methods to interrogate, and ideally perturb, neural systems at the network level have been elusive until
recently.
TitleA data science toolbox for analysis of Human Connectome Project diffusion MRI
Investigator
Ariel Shalom Rokem
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The connections between different brain regions play an important role in normal brain function. This project
proposes to create an end-to-end pipeline for analysis of human white matter connections using “tractometry”
methods.
TitleA Functional and Selective Toolkit for Choroid Plexus Networks
Investigator
Maria Lehtinen, Christopher I Moore
Institute
boston children's hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The choroid plexus (ChP) is a vital tissue located in each ventricle in the brain.
TitleA genetically Encoded Method to Trace Neuronal Circuits in the Zebrafish Brain
Investigator
Carlos Lois, David Aaron Prober
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
It is widely thought that identifying how neurons are connected to each other in a brain circuit, its wiring
diagram, is a necessary step towards understanding how brain activity gives rise to behavior, and how it is
perturbed by disease.
TitleA Massive Library of AAVs to Target Transcriptionally-Defined Primate Cell Types
Investigator
William Richard Stauffer
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Here we will identify nonhuman primate (NHP) neuron types and build an extensive toolbox of vectors for circuit-
based neuroscience studies.
TitleA multimodal platform to bridge the experimental gap between behavioral, neuronal, and molecular studies
Investigator
Dawen Cai, Meng Cui
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Depicting the specific neuronal identity and connectivity underlying particular brain function remains
a central goal for neuroscience.
TitleA Neural Systems Approach to Understanding the Dynamic Computations Underlying our Sense of Direction
Investigator
Jeffrey Steven Taube, Matthijs Van Der Meer
Institute
dartmouth college
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The Research Plan describes a series of experiments that will examine how spatial information is
processed in the mammalian brain.
TitleA new approach to biological recording of lineage hierarchy in primate brains
Investigator
Ali H Brivanlou
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
!
Most genetic recorders described so far utilize the CRISPR/Cas9 system to leave a unique genetic scar in
each cell that can be traced in daughter cells.
TitleA novel platform for the investigation of human microglia
Investigator
Mathew Mark Blurton-Jones, Robert C Spitale
Institute
university of california-irvine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
To accomplish their diverse maintenance and protective roles, microglia must be extremely plastic, dynamically
sensing and responding to specific local challenges throughout the brain.
TitleA SAFE AND COMPACT NEONATE TO ADULT NEUROIMAGING MRI SYSTEM
Investigator
Ravi Srinivasan
Institute
advanced imaging research, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
NIH SBIR PA-18-871 w/o Clinical Trials A Safe and Compact Neonate to Adult Neuroimaging MRI System
The intriguing human brain is the most imaged end-organ non-invasively, without ionizing radiation using
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).