Funded Awards

Project Summary/Abstract The distributed brain network of the hippocampus supports memory and related cognitive abilities. Disruptions of this network occur in many neurological disorders such as epilepsy, brain injury, and neurodegenerative disease.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Optogenetics and chemo-optogenetics are powerful tools for modulating cell activities with light.

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.

The initiation and maintenance of organized movement through the basal ganglia is strongly influenced by its feed-forward and feedback inhibitory architecture. The substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) contribute to the overall output of the basal ganglia.

Project Abstract Essential Tremor (ET) is a progressive disease that leads to significant disability and markedly diminished quality of life.

Project Summary/Abstract Speech perception is inherently multisensory: when conversing with someone that we can see, our brains combine auditory information from the voice with visual information from the face. Speech perception lies at the heart of our interactions with other people and is thus one

This proposed project focuses on quantifying the spatial and temporal diversity in cortical oxygen metabolism and neurovascular coupling, and informing next generation of biophysical models of the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) measurements by integr

Microstimulation has been an invaluable tool for neuroscience researchers to infer functional connections between brain structures or causal links between structure and behavior.

Abstract  Understanding the exact cell-­type composition in the different regions of the human brain is a fundamental step  when trying to integrate physiological, behavioral, neur

We plan to provide software support services for Neuropixels probes, a groundbreaking new tool for recording electrical signals from the brain.

PROJECT SUMMARY A major unresolved question in systems neuroscience is whether specialized anatomical structures support specific functions in behavior. Therefore, this proposal will bridge the gap between anatomical circuit diagrams and their predicted functional roles.

Abstract The goal of this project is to develop an archival data format and a formal task specification language to serve as standards for describing behavioral experiments.

Abstract Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) offer hope to treat otherwise intractable neurological disease. However, the current state of BCI is still short of the potential; solutions to fundamental biological and engineering problems must be found before BCIs can be broadly used for patient care.

PROJECT SUMMARY Methods that improve upon the temporal resolution of current fMRI techniques are urgently needed to better understand the temporal characteristics of healthy brain function and to better identify the drivers of brain dysfunction.