Since its invention in the early 90s, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized our un-
derstanding of the human brain. Functional MRI may be used to observe brain function during a specific motor
or cognitive task, or at “rest” (resting-state fMRI).
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 #
Title
A harmonized vendor-agnostic environment for multi-site functional MRI studies
Investigator
Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Maxim Zaitsev
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Title
A multi-plane 3-photon microscope for volume imaging in NHP cortex
Investigator
Jack Waters
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT ABSTRACT
Recent advances in microscopy permit volume imaging - the near-simultaneous imaging of many neurons in a circuit -
with 2-photon (2P) excitation, yielding new insights into the circuits underlying relatively simple behaviors.
Title
A Tool for Synapse-level Circuit Analysis of Human Cerebral Cortex Specimens.
Investigator
Jeff W Lichtman
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The goal of this work is to facilitate synaptic level analysis of neurons and their interconnecting microcircuits in
neurosurgical cerebral cortex biopsies from human patients.
Title
A web-based framework for multi-modal visualization and annotation of neuroanatomical data
Investigator
David Kleinfeld, Samuel Sheng-Hung Wang
Institute
princeton university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Modern experimental approaches allow researchers to collect a variety of whole-brain data from the same animal
via different anatomical labels, including tracers, genetic markers, and fiducial marks from recording electrodes.
Unfortunately, viewing and analysis methods have
Title
Acute Modulation of Stereotyped High Frequency Oscillations with a Closed-Loop Brain Interchange System in Drug Resistant Epilepsy
Investigator
Nuri Firat Ince
Institute
university of houston
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary:
High frequency oscillations (HFOs) of intracranial EEG (iEEG) have the potential to identify the surgical resection
area/seizure onset zone (SOZ) in patients with drug resistant epilepsy.
Title
Advancing Bio-Realistic Modeling via the Brain Modeling ToolKit and SONATA Data Format
Investigator
Anton Arkhipov, Emad Tajkhorshid
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Advancing Bio-Realistic Modeling via the Brain Modeling ToolKit and SONATA Data Format
One of the major goals of the BRAIN Initiative is to distill complex, multi-modal data into predictive frameworks
via theory/modeling.
Title
Advancing Standardization of Neurophysiology Data Through Dissemination of NWB
Investigator
Benjamin K Dichter, Oliver Ruebel
Institute
university of calif-lawrenc berkeley lab
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Lack of standards for neurophysiology data and related metadata is the single greatest impediment to fully
extracting return on investment from neurophysiology experiments.
Title
An Alignment Framework For Mapping Brain Dynamics and Substrates of Human Cognition Across Species
Investigator
Ting Xu
Institute
child mind institute, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
The non-human primate (NHP) model is critical to the advancement of translational neuroscience, as it allows
researchers to link observations regarding macroscale brain dynamics and cognition in the human to underlying
meso- and microscale phenomena that cannot be fully investigated in huma
Title
An integrated single-neuronal, population-, local network- and stimulation-based prefrontal investigation of human social cognition
Investigator
Ziv Williams
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
An integrated single-neuronal, population-, local network- and stimulation-based
prefrontal investigation of human social cognition
This proposal aims to undertake a comprehensive single-cellular, population-, local circuit- and stimulation-
based evaluation of the role that the dorsal prefrontal co
Title
Anticipating ethical challenges and disparities in the dissemination of novel neurotechnologies
Investigator
Winston Chiong, Daniel P. Dohan
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
A central goal for the second half of the BRAIN Initiative is to develop new circuit-based treatments for
brain diseases.
Title
Behavioral Analysis and Modeling Core
Investigator
Jonathan William Pillow
Institute
columbia univ new york morningside
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary/Abstract, Core D: Behavioral Analysis and Modeling
This proposal’s overarching goal is to understand how internal states influence decisions and to identify the
underlying neural mechanisms.
Title
Big-Data Electron-microscopy for Novel Community Hypotheses: Measuring And Retrieving Knowledge (BENCHMARK)
Investigator
William R Gray Roncal
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
In an effort to better understand structural organization and anatomy of nervous systems at
unprecedented spatial resolution, recent efforts, including BRAIN Initiative funded projects, have
collected increasingly larger datasets using Electron Microscopy (EM) and X-Ray
Microtomograp
Title
BRAIN Initiative: Assessing development of event-related cortical network dynamics
Investigator
Scott Makeig, Michael Peter Milham, Arnaud Delorme
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The Child Mind Institute’s Healthy Brain Network (HBN) is an ongoing initiative focused on creating and
sharing a biobank of brain and behavioral data now being collected from 10,000 New York City area children
and adolescents (ages 5-21).
Title
BRAIN Viral Vector Services and Distribution Core
Investigator
Kimberly Ritola
Institute
univ of north carolina chapel hill
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The BRAIN Viral Vector Service and Distribution Core will serve as a resource for the maintenance,
propagation, and distribution of viral vectors that are used by neuroscientists for neural circuit
identification and manipulation, as well as for preclinical translational studies.
Title
BRAINShare: Sharing Data in BRAIN Initiative Studies
Investigator
Amy L Mcguire, Sameer Anil Sheth
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Data sharing is essential to promote equity and maximize the impact of the significant investment in the BRAIN
Initiative.
Title
Capturing large-scale locus coeruleus single neuron activity in behaving rats with nanoelectronic threads (NETs), an ultra-flexible multi-electrode probe
Investigator
Nelson Totah
Institute
university of helsinki
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
Systems neuroscience has viewed the brainstem noradrenergic nucleus, Locus Coeruleus (LC), as the
source of a global arousal signal, which modulates cognitive functions by altering operations throughout
the entire central nervous system.
Title
Changing the neuromodulation game: ultrasound fenestration of the blood brain barrier for noninvasive viral transfection of primate CNS neurons
Investigator
Arnaud Y Falchier, Charles E Schroeder
Institute
nathan s. kline institute for psych res
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Genetic technologies have revolutionized the way scientists can dissect out brain circuitry by inserting G
protein-coupled receptors that enable selective modulation of neurons in target structures.
Title
Circuit basis of social behavior decision-making in a subcortical network
Investigator
David J Anderson
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This proposal responds to an FOA (RFA-NS-18-030) calling for 1) “novel approaches to understand neural
circuitry associated with well-defined social behaviors;” 2) Distributed circuits that contribute to the coordination
of motivational states and reward behavior;” 3) “Empi
Title
Circuits underlying threat and safety
Investigator
Donald B Arnold, Scott E Fraser, Nancy Kopell, Carl Kesselman
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Classical conditioning has been studied in many different animal models, and even in humans. However, the
larval zebrafish with its transparent brain offers a unique opportunity to observe large scale changes in
synaptic structure that accompany this form of learning.
Title
Combined Mechanistic and Input-Output Modeling of the Hippocampus During Spatial Navigation
Investigator
Dong Song
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT ABSTRACT
Large-scale realistic model of neuronal network is a powerful tool for studying neural dynamics and cognitive
functions. It integrates multi-scale neurobiological mechanisms/processes identified through diverse hypotheses
and experimental data into a single platform.