Understanding the mechanisms that the nervous system uses to control movement is critical for
understanding brain and behavior, and one of the fundamental questions in neuroscience.
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
Computational and circuit mechanisms underlying motor control
Investigator
Rui M. Costa
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Title
Decoding the neural basis of resting-state functional connectivity mapping
Investigator
Elizabeth M. C. Hillman
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is an important modality for imaging the human
brain.
Title
Deep brain stimulation for depression using directional current steering an individualized network targeting
Investigator
Wayne K Goodman, Nader Pouratian, Sameer Anil Sheth
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
The public health burden of Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) has prompted clinical trials of deep brain
stimulation (DBS) that have, unfortunately, produced inconsistent outcomes.
Title
Defining Cell Type Specific Contributions to fMRI Signals
Investigator
Jin Hyung Lee
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract: The blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI) signal source has been long debated since the invention of fMRI in the early 90s.
While fMRI is one of the most successful technologies utilized in numerous studies, the debate over
Title
Development of Line-Scan Temporal Focusing for fast structural imaging of synapse assembly/disassembly in vivo
Investigator
Josiah R Boivin
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
A disproportionately large number of mutations resulting in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric
disorders target synaptic proteins. Synapse remodeling and loss precede cell death in neurodegenerative
disorders, and addictive drugs can alter circuit connectivity.
Title
Electrophysiological Biomarkers to Optimize DBS for Depression
Investigator
Helen S Mayberg
Institute
emory university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subcallosal cingulate (SCC) white matter is an emerging new treatment
strategy for treatment resistant depression (TRD) with published studies demonstrating sustained long-term
antidepressant effects in 40-60% of implanted patients.
Title
Elementary Neuronal Ensembles to Whole Brain Networks: Ultrahigh Resolution Imaging of Function and Connectivity in Humans
Investigator
Kamil Ugurbil
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT:
The strategic plan of the NIH's BRAIN Initiative (BRAIN 2025: A scientific Vision) calls for transformative
technological developments with MRI to achieve “submillimeter spatial resolution descriptions of neuronal
activity, functional and structural connectivity, and network analysis in t
Title
Enabling ethical participation in innovative neuroscience on mental illness and addiction: towards a new screening tool enhancing informed consent for transformative research on the human brain
Investigator
Laura W Roberts
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Great discoveries in neuroscience hold promise for reducing the burden of many of the most disabling
conditions that threaten human health on a global scale, including mental illnesses and addictions.
Increasingly, exceptionally innovative science inspires hope that these devastating brain-based dis
Title
Engineering optogenetic tools for studying neuropeptide activity
Investigator
Alexander Robert French
Institute
purdue university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
7. Project Summary/Abstract
Opioid receptors (ORs), consisting of -, -, and -ORs, are neuropeptide receptors that are broadly involved
in regulating analgesia, mood, reward, and motor coordination.
Title
Ensemble neural dynamics in the medial prefrontal cortex underlying cognitive flexibility and reinforcement learning
Investigator
Surya Ganguli, Mark J Schnitzer
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The prefrontal cortex is thought to play a crucial role in cognitive flexibility, in part by updating a person's
expectations about the external world and the likely consequences of candidate actions based on the feedback
gained from past actions.
Title
Ethical Safeguards for Exit and Withdrawal from Implanted Neurotechnology Research
Investigator
Lauren Sankary
Institute
cleveland clinic lerner com-cwru
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Research participants face complex decisions about the surgical removal of implanted devices
upon exiting clinical trials of implanted neurotechnology.
Title
Ethics of Patients and Care Partners Perspectives on Personality Change in Parkinsons disease and Deep Brain Stimulation
Investigator
Cynthia M. S. Kubu
Institute
cleveland clinic lerner com-cwru
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
In our work with patients with neurological disorders, we often encounter patients and families who are afraid.
They are afraid that due to their neurodegenerative disorder or potential treatment, such as neurosurgery, they
will cease to exist – they will no longer be who they “are”.
Title
From microscale structure to population coding of normal and learned behavior
Investigator
Wiliam Mcintyre Debello, Mark H Ellisman, Brian J Fischer, Jose L Pena
Institute
albert einstein college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
This study aims to understand how the ensemble activity and network architecture of a neuronal population
guides natural and learned behavior.
Title
GABAergic circuit interactions within the behaving mouse dLGN
Investigator
Martha E Bickford, William Guido
Institute
university of louisville
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The flow of visual information from the retina, through the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus
(dLGN) to the cortex, is regulated by behavior. However, the dynamic circuit interactions that occur in
the dLGN of awake animals, and their modulation by behavior, have yet to be revealed.
Title
Gated Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy for functional imaging of the human brain
Investigator
Maria Angela Franceschini
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
With this grant application we aim to dramatically improve over the capabilities of functional near-infrared
spectroscopy (fNIRS) by developing a completely novel approach to measure human brain function.
Title
Genetic analyses of complete circuit formation in Caenorhabditis elegans
Investigator
Steven Jay Cook
Institute
columbia univ new york morningside
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
Despite the central importance of neural circuit development to brain function and behavior, we lack the genetic
information required to assemble a complete circuit.
Title
Imaging Human Brain Function with Minimal Mobility Restrictions
Investigator
Michael Garwood
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), by offering the sole means of imaging human brain
structure and activity with high spatial resolution, has evolved into an indispensable tool for
studying brain function in health and disease.
Title
Impact of cortical feedback on odor concentration change coding
Investigator
Roman Shusterman, Matthew C Smear
Institute
university of oregon
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Top-down feedback connections between “higher” and “lower” brain areas are quite common, but
their functional role remains a mystery. This general principle applies to the olfactory system, in which the
olfactory bulb receives dense feedback innervation from its cortical targets.
Title
Integrative Analysis of Long-range Top-down Cortical Circuit for Attentional Behavior
Investigator
Hirofumi Morishita
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Attention deficit symptoms are frequently observed in psychiatric disorders, yet finite understanding of the
neural circuits mediating attentional behavior has limited pathophysiologic insight.
Title
Intraoperative studies of flexible decision-making
Investigator
Gordon H Baltuch, Joshua I Gold
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure that is used to treat the debilitating symptoms of
Parkinson's Disease (PD).