PROJECT SUMMARY
The basic mechanisms underlying comprehension of spoken language are unknown. We are only beginning to
understand how the human brain extracts the most fundamental linguistic elements (consonants and vowels)
from a complex and highly variable acoustic signal.
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 neural coding of speech across human languages
Investigator
Edward Chang
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleThe Neuroscience of Everyday World- A novel wearable system for continuous measurement of brain function
Investigator
David A Boas, Swathi Kiran
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Innovations in human neuroimaging tools have driven profound advances in our understanding
of brain function under well-controlled and constrained conditions.
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
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Animals exhibit a remarkable array of creative, adaptive, and flexible behaviors.
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.
TitleTraveling Wave Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation for the Control of Large-Scale Brain Networks
Investigator
Alexander Opitz
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) non-invasively alters neuroelectric activity in the human
brain by applying weak, time-varying electric currents to the scalp.
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 neonatal Photoacoustic Tomography (3D-nPAT) to detect Hypoxic-Ischemic brain injury in preterm neonates
Investigator
Kamran Avanaki
Institute
wayne state university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:
Hypoxic-Ischemic brain Injury (HII) is a severe injury caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain at or near time of birth
in preterm and/or low birth weight newborns. It is very important to recognize HII as soon as possible because early
intervention improves outcomes.
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 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 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 Technology Resource for Polymer Microelectrode Arrays
Investigator
Ellis Meng, Dong Song
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The purpose of this proposal is to disseminate polymer microelectrode arrays and promote their
integrated into neuroscience research practice.
TitleA wearable functional-brain-imaging system with full-head coverage and enhanced spatiotemporal-resolution to study complex neural circuits in human subjects
Investigator
Peter D. D. Schwindt
Institute
sandia corp-sandia national laboratories
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
To develop maps at multiple scales of neuronal circuits in the human brain and study the brain dynamics, there
is a need for non-invasive functional brain imaging with high spatiotemporal resolution operating in natural
environments.
TitleAccurate and reliable computational dosimetry and targeting for transcranial magnetic stimulation
Investigator
Luis Javier Gomez
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive technique used for neuroscience research and
treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders. During TMS, a current-carrying coil placed on the scalp
induces an electric field that modulates targeted neuronal circuits.
TitleAcoustically targeted molecular control of cell type specific neural circuits in non-human primates
Investigator
Mikhail Shapiro, Doris Ying Tsao
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
Controlling specific neural circuits across large areas of the brain is a major technology goal of the BRAIN
Initiative.
TitleAn open software solution to integrate non-invasive brain stimulation with functional imaging data
Investigator
Alexander Opitz
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Noninvasive tools capable of selectively manipulating neural systems in the human brain are needed to
advance our neuroscientific understanding of brain function and develop novel non-pharmacologic
psychotherapeutics and are a major focus of Brain Initiative funding.
TitleBCI2000: Software Resource for Adaptive Neurotechnology Research
Investigator
Peter Brunner, Gerwin Schalk
Institute
wadsworth center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The central nervous system (CNS) changes throughout life, and its interactions with the world produce activity-
dependent plasticity that enables it to acquire and maintain useful behaviors.
TitleBilateral Closed Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Freezing of Gait using Neural and Kinematic Feedback
Investigator
Helen Bronte-Stewart
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Gait impairment and Freezing of gait (FOG), lead to falls, injury (even death), loss of independent living, and are
common in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD), affecting over 7 million people
worldwide.
TitleBreaking the Barriers to Microscale fMRI
Investigator
An Vu
Institute
northern california institute/res/edu
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The goal of this proposal is to develop technology that is both novel and disruptive in order to achieve
anatomical quality, dynamic B0 corrected, whole brain, microscale (≤ 500 µm isotropic) fMRI.
TitleBridging structure, dynamics, and information processing in brain networks
Investigator
Hannah Choi
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The mammalian brain is believed to be optimally designed for robust and adaptable computation of the
sensory inputs from the world, with respect to both its hardware (network structure) and software (network
dynamics).