We experience the world as a continuous sequence of events, but we remember the events as segmented
episodes (e.g., my sister’s wedding). During encoding, we associate a sequence of relevant events and segment
deviant events.
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 #
TitleCircuit Dynamics for encoding and remembering sequence of events
Investigator
Anna Jafarpour
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleCircuit principles of demotivation in the decision to switch behaviors
Investigator
Michael A Crickmore
Institute
boston children's hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: The decision to commence a new behavior often requires termination of the ongoing
behavior. This implies that the many drive states produced by an animal impact not only the neural circuits
underlying their directly associated behaviors, but also those of many other behaviors.
TitleCognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability Rights
Investigator
Joseph J. Fins
Institute
weill medical coll of cornell univ
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Approximately, 40% of TBI patients discharged from the hospital will develop long-term disability with 70%
experiencing chronic cognitive impairments that disrupt vocational, social, and emotional functioning.
TitleComprehensive Analysis of a Decision Circuit
Investigator
Cengiz Pehlevan, Aravinthan D. Samuel, Paul Warren Sternberg, Mei Zhen
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Animal brains integrate information to make crucial developmental and behavioral decisions.
TitleComputational and circuit mechanisms of decision making
Investigator
Michael Neil Shadlen
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The neurobiology of perceptual decision-making elucidates fundamental neural mechanisms of higher cognitive
function, the understanding of which will inspire new strategies to treat neurological and psychiatric diseases
affecting thought, perception and awareness.
TitleCortical dynamics underlying visual working memory
Investigator
Arbora Resulaj
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Playing a game of chess, driving a car, or even reading this sentence all require that the brain retain and integrate information over short periods of time. This retaining and integration of information is accomplished by working memory.
TitleCortical Spatial Processing for Solving the Cocktail Party Problem
Investigator
Xue Han, Kamal K Sen
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The ability of our auditory systems to recognize target sounds in a mixture of other sounds is fundamental
to normal healthy function and communication.
TitleCortico-striatal representations of multisensory decision-making
Investigator
Xiaonan Sun
Institute
feinstein institute for medical research
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Perceptual decision-making is a complex cognitive function critical for health, reproductive success, and
survival. In this process, an informed choice based on sensory evidence is made through engagement of
circuits across the brain.
TitleCracking the Olfactory Code
Investigator
Dmitry Rinberg
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary (Overall: Cracking the Olfactory Code)
Sensation drives perception, which informs decisions and actions. Olfaction is the main sense used by
most animals to interact with the environment.
TitleDANDI: Distributed Archives for Neurophysiology Data Integration
Investigator
Satrajit Sujit Ghosh, Yaroslav O Halchenko
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Neuroscientific data contain information from an incredible diversity of species, are generated by a plethora of
devices, and encapsulate the results of scientific thinking and decision making.
TitleDeep brain live imaging of cAMP and protein kinase A activities underlying synaptic- and circuit-level mechanisms during learned behaviors
Investigator
Shana M Augustin
Institute
national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Neuromodulation is crucial for information processing throughout the brain. Neuromodulators influence neuronal function by acting through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to alter neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission, which can then affect circuit functions.
TitleDefining the anatomical, molecular and functional logic of internal copy circuits involved in dexterous forelimb behaviors
Investigator
Eiman Azim
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Behavior is movement, and the effective and efficient execution of movement has served as a fundamental
evolutionary force shaping the form and function of the nervous system.
TitleDendritic Computation and Representation of Head Direction in Retrosplenial Cortex
Investigator
Mark Thomas Harnett
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The mammalian cortex plays a critical role in integrating multiple streams of information to guide adaptive
behavior. For example, head direction (HD) information is combined with visual and spatial input in the mouse
retrosplenial cortex (RSC).
TitleDetermining the role of muscle afferent signals in cortical proprioceptive representation
Investigator
Kyle Blum
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The overall premise of this proposal is to understand how the transformation of the signals from proprioceptive
afferents within muscles leads to the representation of movements in somatosensory cortex.
TitleDeveloping genetically-encoded detectors for neuropeptide release based on class B G-protein coupled peptide receptors
Investigator
Zhiping P. Pang
Institute
rbhs-robert wood johnson medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Synaptic transmission is mainly mediated by classical neurotransmitters such as glutamate and g-amino butyric
acid (GABA) which transduce fast information flow in the brain. This process is tightly regulated by neuromodu-
lators including monoamines and neuropeptides.
TitleDeveloping new tools for high throughput analysis of microcircuits and synapse ultrastructure using tagged vesicular transporters and deep learning.
Investigator
Daniela Boassa, Thomas Hnasko
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Synaptic dysfunction is a common feature of neuropsychiatric disease. For example, a hallmark of age-related
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is synaptic fibrilization and aggregation of
key proteins that participate in synapse and cell loss.
TitleDeveloping novel chemo-optogenetic tools for in vivo applications
Investigator
Pui Ying Lam
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Optogenetics and chemo-optogenetics are powerful tools for modulating cell activities with light.
TitleDevelopment and validation of AAV vectors to manipulate specific neuronal subtypes and circuits involved in epilepsy and psychiatric disorders across mammalian species.
Investigator
Benjamin E Deverman, Jordane Dimidschstein, Gordon J Fishell
Institute
broad institute, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
In this proposal we aim to identify gene regulatory elements that permit the targeting and manipulation of brain
circuit models of human brain function.
TitleDissecting circuits for local and long-range competitive inhibition in the mouse superior colliculus
Investigator
Shreesh P Mysore
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The SCid, a sensorimotor hub in the midbrain, plays a fundamental role in stimulus-guided behavior as well as spatial
attention control.
TitleDissecting the dual role of dopamine in context-dependent and learned behaviors
Investigator
Vanessa Ruta
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Dopamine plays a central role in motivation and reinforcement learning, allowing animals to take advantage of
their current circumstances to optimize both present and future behavior.