Project Summary
Sequences of neuronal activity are thought to underlie planning, preparation, and production of voluntary
skilled 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 #
TitleNeural sequences for planning and production of learned vocalizations
Investigator
Brenton G. Cooper, Richard Hahnloser, Todd F Roberts
Institute
ut southwestern medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleNeuroethics of Predictive MRI Testing: Parental Attitudes Towards Pre-Symptomatic Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Investigator
Kate E. Macduffie
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Machine-learning-based classification of neuroimaging data (hereafter ML-MRI) to predict clinical
diagnoses has increased substantially in the last decade.
TitleNeuromodulation of Brain States
Investigator
Liqun Luo
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The monoamines, which include dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, are evolutionarily conserved
neurotransmitters that modulate the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons throughout the entire brain,
and are thus essential for diverse aspects of physiology and behavior.
TitleNeuronal and Dopaminergic Contributions to Dissimilar Evoked Hemodynamic Responses in the Striatum
Investigator
Lindsay Walton
Institute
univ of north carolina chapel hill
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) is a non-invasive
imaging technique that infers the presence of increased brain activity from localized increases in oxygenated
hemoglobin.
TitleNew Proteomic and Genome Engineering Approaches to Decipher Astrocyte Function at Synapses
Investigator
Cagla Eroglu, Scott H Soderling
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells in the human brain. Interactions of astrocytes with synapses via thin
perisynaptic astrocytic processes are critical for proper synaptic connectivity and function.
TitleNew tools to target, identify and characterize astrocytes in the adult nervous system
Investigator
Viviana Gradinaru, Baljit Khakh
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
In order to understand how the CNS encodes, modifies, stores and retrieves information it is necessary to
explore the diverse cell populations that comprise the CNS. There is an emerging consensus that the CNS
cannot be satisfactorily understood solely as a collection of circuits1.
TitleNon-invasive targeted neuromodulation via focused ultrasound BBB permeabilization
Investigator
Margaret S Livingstone, Nathan J. Mcdannold
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The goal of the proposed project is to test in macaques a technique for non-invasive, safe, reversible,
modulation of neuronal activity in small targeted regions of the primate brain.
TitleNoninvasive Gene Delivery for Monitoring and Perturbing Cell Types and Circuits in Transgenic and Non-Transgenic Animals
Investigator
Viviana Gradinaru
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The use of current and emerging genetically encoded tools could greatly benefit from advanced methods
for gene delivery to the desired cell population.
TitleNorepinephrine modulation of neocortex during flexible behavior
Investigator
Jeremiah Yaacov Cohen, Daniel Hans O'connor
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter thought to be involved in driving behavioral flexibility. It is released by a
small number of neurons throughout the neocortex.
TitleNWB:N: A Data Standard and Software Ecosystem for Neurophysiology
Investigator
Lydia Lup-Ming Ng, Oliver Ruebel
Institute
university of calif-lawrenc berkeley lab
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Brain function is produced by the coordinated activity of multiple neuronal types that are widely distributed
across many brain regions.
TitleObjective, MRI biomarkers for pre-symptomatic detection of autism spectrum disorder at 6 months old: commercial software development and optimization
Investigator
Bradley A. Bower
Institute
primeneuro, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a broad diagnosis for a disorder characterized by symptoms
affecting repetitive behavior, social communication, and cognitive ability.
TitleOpenNeuro: An open archive for analysis and sharing of BRAIN Initiative data
Investigator
Russell A Poldrack
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The NIH BRAIN Initiative is supporting a broad portfolio of neuroscience research aimed at
revolutionizing our understanding of the brain.
TitleOptical measurement of causal functional connectivity in posterior parietal cortex
Investigator
Daniel E Wilson
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The mouse posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has emerged as an essential region for decision-making during
memory-guided decision-making tasks.
TitleOptimizing noninvasive modulation of prediction and episodic memory networks via cerebellar stimulation
Investigator
Shruti Dave
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT
The lateral cerebellum (Crus I/II) interacts with two dissociable large-scale brain networks — the executive
control (ECN) and default mode networks (DMN), which support distinct cognitive functions (e.g., prediction
versus episodic memory, respectively).
TitleOxytocin Modulation of Neural Circuit Function and Behavior
Investigator
Richard W Tsien
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Oxytocin is a peptide hormone synthesized and released from the hypothalamus for reproduction and maternal
behavior. Recent studies have tagged oxytocin as a “trust” hormone, promising to improve social deficits in
various mental disorders, such as autism.
TitlePARALLEL ANALYSIS OF TRANSCRIPTION AND PROTEIN-DNA INTERACTIONS IN SINGLE CNS CELLS
Investigator
Joseph D Dougherty, Robi D Mitra
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The brain is the most complex organ in the body, consisting of hundreds of molecularly, physiologically, and
anatomically distinct cells.
TitlePopulation Neural Activity Mediating Sensory Perception Across Modalities
Investigator
Thomas Robert Clandinin, Surya Ganguli, Mala Murthy, Kristin E Scott
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary:
Natural sensory inputs are typically complex, and often combine multiple modalities. Human speech, for
example, combines auditory signals with visual cues, such as facial expressions, that inform the interpretation
of the spoken words.
TitleQuantifying the role of adaptation in olfactory coding through the logic of navigation
Investigator
Nirag Kadakia
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
This project’s long-term goal is a fuller understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of olfactory sensory
adaptation that facilitate odor discrimination in the natural world.
TitleRAVE: A New Open Software Tool for Analysis and Visualization of Electrocorticography Data
Investigator
Michael S Beauchamp
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
A fast-growing technique in human neuroscience is electrocorticography (ECOG), the only technique
that allows the activity of small population of neurons in the human brain to be directly recorded.
TitleReadout and control of spatiotemporal neuronal codes for behavior
Investigator
Behtash Babadi, Dante R Chialvo, Tommaso Fellin, Mark H Histed, Patrick O Kanold, Wolfgang Losert, John H.r. Maunsell, Stefano Vt Panzeri, Dietmar Plenz, Dmitry Rinberg, Shy Shoham
Institute
university of chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
To survive, organisms must both accurately represent stimuli in the outside world, and use that representation
to generate beneficial behavioral actions.