PROJECT SUMMARY
A key problem in neuroscience is understanding how internal and external information are integrated in the brain to produce
sensory experiences, cognition, and behavioral responses.
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 #
TitleMechanisms of basal forebrain control over sensory processing
Investigator
Elizabeth Hanson Moss
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleMidbrain circuits for perceptual decision-making
Investigator
Martha E Bickford, Michele A Basso, Jianhua Cang, Alev Erisir, Per Benjamin Sederberg
Institute
university of virginia
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Perceptual decision-making is a fundamental cognitive ability that is vital to healthy, daily functioning and is
impaired in many diseases.
TitleMolecular identity, cellular physiology, and in vivo functions of nucleus accumbens astrocytes
Investigator
Kay Elizabeth Linker
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
Astrocytes are pervasive throughout the CNS and are the most abundant non-neuronal cell type. They
are an essential component of neural circuits, and increasing evidence demonstrates they are specialized for
specific brain regions.
TitlemRNA Alternative Splicing Regulatory Networks in the Specification of Cortical Interneuron Subtypes
Investigator
Melissa Mckenzie Campbell
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Alternative splicing of pre-mRNAs is extensively employed by the nervous system to expand the transcriptomic
manifold.
TitleMulti-feature, Multi-scale Atlas
Investigator
Paul S Katz
Institute
university of massachusetts amherst
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY / ABSTRACT – Project 1. Multi-feature, Multi-scale Atlas
Project 1 of the Berghia Brain Project is to create a multi-scale, multi-feature atlas of the Berghia brain and
peripheral neural plexus.
TitleMultiscale computational frameworks for integrating large-scale cortical dynamics, connectivity, and behavior
Investigator
Tatiana Engel
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
A central problem in neuroscience is to understand how activity arises from neural circuits to drive animal
behaviors. Solving this problem requires integrating information from multiple experimental modalities and
organization levels of the nervous system.
TitleMultiscale theory of synapse function with model reduction by machine learning
Investigator
Eric D Mjolsness
Institute
university of california-irvine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This project constructs a unifying model that links synaptic morphodynamics, the fundamental process of
learning and memory in the brain, to the underlying molecular signaling pathways that regulate it.
TitleNABOR: A Sustainable, High-quality Neuroscience Antibody Open Resource
Investigator
Melina Fan
Institute
addgene, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The goal of this project is to build an open-access recombinant antibody/affinity reagent resource for the
neuroscience community called NABOR (Neuroscience AntiBody Open Resource).
TitleNational Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research: A BRAIN Technology Integration and Dissemination Resource
Investigator
Mark H Ellisman
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This project aims to disseminate validated technologies and resources of the National Center for Microscopy
and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at UC San Diego to advance the completion of strategic goals of the BRAIN
Initiative.
TitleNeural dynamics of somatosensory guidance of dexterous movement in intact and stroke-injured networks
Investigator
Preeya Khanna
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Stroke-causing illness, disability, and early death is set to double worldwide within the next 15 years.
TitleNeural mechanisms of multisensory auditory-olfactory integration in the auditory cortex
Investigator
Nathan Vogler
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Living organisms interact with complex environments that are inherently multisensory. Within these
environments, the brain must integrate information from multiple sensory modalities, including the auditory and
olfactory systems, for perception and behavior.
TitleNeural Mechanisms of Social Communication in Parrots
Investigator
Jesse Heymann Goldberg
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
When Confucius said, “Tell me who are your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are,” he was noticing that how we
behave and communicate is shaped by who we choose to hang out with every day. We constantly mimic the
mannerisms and behaviors of friends and loved ones.
TitleNeuroJSON - A Scalable, Searchable and Verifiable Neuroimaging Data Platform
Investigator
Qianqian Fang
Institute
northeastern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Traditional file-based neuroimaging data management and integration strategies have shown
increasing limitations in accommodating the meteoric growth in both the scale and complexity of today’s
neuroimaging data.
TitleNIPreps: integrating neuroimaging preprocessing workflows across modalities, populations, and species
Investigator
Oscar Esteban, Michael Peter Milham, Russell A Poldrack, Ariel Shalom Rokem, Theodore Satterthwaite
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Despite the rapid advances in the neuroimaging research workflow over the last decade, the enormous
variability between and within data types and specimens impedes integrated analyses.
TitleOpenScope: A Platform for High-Throughput and Reproducible Neurophysiology Open to External Scientists to Test Impactful Theories of Brain Function
Investigator
Christof Koch, Jerome Anthony-Jean Lecoq
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project summary
Over the past five years, the Allen Institute has built two unique in-house pipelines for in vivo electro- and
optical-physiology: together they form the Allen Brain Observatory.
TitlePrinciples of sensorimotor processing in zebrafish thermosensation
Investigator
Martin Haesemeyer
Institute
ohio state university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
It is our long-term goal to understand computations that underlie sensori-motor transformations in the context
of thermoregulatory behaviors. Generating appropriate behaviors in response to sensory stimuli is critical for
the survival of any animal.
TitleProject 2
Investigator
Anna Devor
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
We propose to investigate the role of neuromodulation in the phenomenon of “whole-cortex” activity of
the pial neurovascular circuit.
TitleRedefine Trans-Neuropsychiatric Disorder Brain Patterns through Big-Data and Machine Learning
Investigator
Peter V. Kochunov, Paul M Thompson
Institute
university of maryland baltimore
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
This application will combine the strengths of two large scale NIH-funded initiatives to understand disorder-
related patterns in the human brain: Connectomes Related to Human Disease (CRHD) and Enhancing
Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA).
TitleRepresentation and modulation of social information in the ant chemosensory system
Investigator
Daniel Kronauer
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Social insects show robust and complex behaviors, and have served as important study systems in ethology
for decades.
TitleResolving Spatiotemporal Determinants of Cell Specification in Corticogenesis with Latent Space Methods
Investigator
Genevieve Lauren Stein-O'brien
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
High-throughput profiling of hundreds of thousands of cells in the central nervous system (CNS) is currently
underway.