Humans have a remarkable ability to flexibly interact with the environment. A compelling demonstration of
this cognitive flexibility is our ability to perform complex, yet previously un-practiced tasks successfully on
the first attempt.
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 Rapid, Flexible Cognitive Control in Human Prefrontal Cortex
Investigator
Sameer Anil Sheth
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleMechanisms underlying positive and negative BOLD in the striatum
Investigator
Yen-Yu Ian Shih
Institute
univ of north carolina chapel hill
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) is widely used
as a non-invasive technique to study brain function.
TitleMechanistic and causal basis of fMRI functional connectivity in non-human primates
Investigator
Peter Rudebeck, Brian E Russ
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Measures of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) functional connectivity – correlated blood oxygen
level dependent (BOLD) responses – are fundamental to understanding the circuit-level mechanisms of brain
function and dysfunction.
TitleMemory consolidation during sleep studied by direct neuronal recording and stimulation inside human brain
Investigator
Itzhak Fried
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Memory is critical for cognitive well-being, and sleep is critical for memory consolidation, yet the underlying
mechanisms in the human brain are poorly understood.
TitleMental, measurement, and model complexity in neuroscience
Investigator
Vijay Balasubramanian, Joshua I Gold
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Neuroscience is producing increasingly complex data sets, including measures and manipulations of sub-
cellular, cellular, and multi-cellular mechanisms operating over multiple timescales and in the context of
different behaviors and task conditions.
TitleModel behavior in zebrafish: characterization of the startle response
Investigator
Joy Hart Meserve
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Although behavioral deficits are common in neurological disorders, the genetic pathways and neural
circuits underlying behavior are largely unknown.
TitleModels and Methods for Calcium Imaging Data with Application to the Allen Brain Observatory
Investigator
Michael Buice, Daniela Witten
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY. New advances in calcium imaging make it possible to survey the brains of behaving animals at
single-neuron resolution, thereby promising to transform the field of neuroscience. However, existing statistical models
and methods are inadequate for this complex and noisy data.
TitleMultiplex imaging of neuronal activity and signaling dynamics underlying learning in discrete amygdala circuits of behaving mice.
Investigator
Bo Li, Tianyi Mao, Haining Zhong
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The amygdala plays a central role in diverse learned behaviors. By integrating the sensory information with
stress, punishment, and reward signals, the circuitry within the amygdala is thought to be modified during
learning to mediate specific behavioral outcomes.
TitleNeural circuit mechanisms underlying hierarchical visual processing in Drosophila
Investigator
Maxwell Holte Turner
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project summary
Understanding how neural circuits give rise to sensory computation and, ultimately, perception, requires
connecting biological features of neural circuits to abstract models of neural computation.
TitleNeural circuits for spatial navigation
Investigator
Gaby Maimon
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
Our brain provides us with a sense of where we are in space.
TitleNeural circuits underlying thirst and satiety regulation
Investigator
Yuki Oka
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A forebrain structure, lamina terminalis (LT), plays a key role in both sensing internal water balance and
regulating thirst through its downstream neural circuits.
TitleNeural mechanisms of active avoidance behavior
Investigator
Manuel A Castro-Alamancos
Institute
drexel university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Enormous progress has been made about the neural substrates of Pavlovian fear conditioning.
TitleNeural sequences for planning and production of learned vocalizations
Investigator
Brenton G. Cooper, Richard Hahnloser, Todd F Roberts
Institute
ut southwestern medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Sequences of neuronal activity are thought to underlie planning, preparation, and production of voluntary
skilled behaviors.
TitleNeuroethics of Predictive MRI Testing: Parental Attitudes Towards Pre-Symptomatic Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Investigator
Kate E. Macduffie
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Machine-learning-based classification of neuroimaging data (hereafter ML-MRI) to predict clinical
diagnoses has increased substantially in the last decade.
TitleNeuromodulation of Brain States
Investigator
Liqun Luo
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The monoamines, which include dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, are evolutionarily conserved
neurotransmitters that modulate the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons throughout the entire brain,
and are thus essential for diverse aspects of physiology and behavior.
TitleNeuronal and Dopaminergic Contributions to Dissimilar Evoked Hemodynamic Responses in the Striatum
Investigator
Lindsay Walton
Institute
univ of north carolina chapel hill
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) is a non-invasive
imaging technique that infers the presence of increased brain activity from localized increases in oxygenated
hemoglobin.
TitleNeuronal population dynamics within and across cortical areas
Investigator
Brent D. Doiron, Matthew A Smith, Byron M. Yu
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: The cortex must both track and process dynamically changing environments as well
as store and combine diverse inputs to generate complex behavior. Further, the neuronal circuits that
accomplish this must be malleable to changing contexts, such as during attention related tasks.
TitleNext-generation optical brain functional imaging platform
Investigator
Qianqian Fang
Institute
northeastern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
A more thorough understanding of human brain function has profound implications for advancing neuroscience
research and combatting neurological disease.
TitleNonlinear Causal Analysis of Neural Signals
Investigator
Terrence J Sejnowski
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The goal of this research is to develop new multivariate data analysis techniques for neural recordings that
reveal causal dependencies between recording sites.
TitleNorepinephrine modulation of neocortex during flexible behavior
Investigator
Jeremiah Yaacov Cohen, Daniel Hans O'connor
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter thought to be involved in driving behavioral flexibility. It is released by a
small number of neurons throughout the neocortex.