Funded Awards

The network of peripheral nerves offers extraordinary potential for modulating and/or monitoring the functioning of internal organs or the brain. The nervous system functions by generating patterns of neural activity.

Collaborating Pis and Consultant United States Pl: Anitha Pasupathy, Dept. of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Co-Pl: Wyeth Bair, Dept. of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Japan Pl: lsamu Motoyoshi, Dept.

Dendritic spines mediate essentially all excitatory connections and are thus critical elements in the brain but their function is still poorly understood. In particular, a key question is whether or not they are electrical compartments.

When we speak, listeners hear us and understand us we speak correctly. But we also hear ourselves, and this auditory feedback affects our ongoing speech: delaying it causes dysfluency; perturbing its pitch or formants induces compensation.

Understanding how different parts of the brain communicate is perhaps the most fundamental question of neuroscience because it is at the heart of understanding all brain functions and disorders.

Tracking fast unpredictable movements is a valuable skill, applicable in many situations. In the animal kingdom, the context includes the action of a predator chasing its prey that is running and dodging at high speeds, like a cheetah chasing a gazelle.

Humans and other animals can choose their actions using multiple learning algorithms and decision­ making strategies.

Real-time neural decoding centers on predicting behavior variables based on neural activity data, where the prediction is performed at a pace that reliably keeps up with the speed of the activity that is being monitored.

Dopamine (DA) neurons are fundamental to many aspects of behavior, and dysfunction of the DA system contributes to a wide range of disorders, including drug addiction. How does DA contribute to such a diversity of functions and dysfunctions?

A fundamental goal for understanding the brain and mammalian and human intelligence, and to understand how processing goes awry in genetic and developmental diseases, is to understand the principles of operation of cerebral cortex.

There is a fundamental gap in our understanding of the computational principles and neural mechanisms by which neural circuits represent complex objects like faces.

Sleep is critical to memory and learning.

PROJECT SUMMARY Technology for recording from the brain is developing at a breakneck pace.

Project Summary / Abstract Our main goal is to unravel communication dynamics in the brain, as they relate to various sensory-motor actions and to the learning process. The sensory-motor system operates through the concerted interaction of multiple closed-loops feedback systems.

Abstract    A major challenge in the treatment of neurological diseases is the elaborate and diffuse nature of neural  circuits, where physically proximal neurons are engaged&

Project Summary We seek support to develop and build the positron emission tomography (PET) detector module for the next generation 7-Tesla magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible PET brain scanner with dramatically improved spatio-temporal resolution.

Development of predictive coding networks for spatial navigation Summary: Mammalian navigation uses internal models to predict the spatial-temporal statistical regularity of the sequence of environmental locations.

Project Summary/Abstract How neural activity is coordinated within local microcircuits and across brain regions to drive behavior is a central open question in neuroscience.

ABSTRACT Eating disorders are severe psychiatric conditions with a significant worldwide cost and disability burden. Binge eating (BE) is a behavior that cuts across nearly all eating disorder diagnoses.

Project Summary/Abstract Improved understanding of the brain processes underlying normal and abnormal function is necessary for devising better ways to diagnose, alleviate, or cure neurological or psychiatric disorders.