To understand how the brain computes, we need to understand how individual neurons in a circuit integrate
their numerous inputs into output signals, as well as how they work together to encode a sensory input or
execute a motor command in a behaving animal.
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 #
TitleHigh-speed volumetric imaging of neural activity throughout the living brain
Investigator
Na Ji
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleImaging 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.
TitleImpact of Timing, Targeting, and Brain State on rTMS of Human and Non-Human Primates
Investigator
Marc A Sommer
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Non-invasive methods for stimulating the human brain show great promise for safe, effective treatments of
psychiatric and motor disorders, and are in widespread use for basic research on human behavior and
cognition.
TitleIntegrated compressive sensing microscope for high-speed functional biological imaging
Investigator
Sang Peter Chin
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Direct readout of spiking and subthreshold voltage activity from genetically-specified neural
populations will facilitate major advances in our understanding of neural computation at the
network level.
TitleIntraoperative 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).
TitleInvestigating the Role of Neurotensin on Valence Assignment During Associative Learning in the Basolateral Amygdala
Investigator
Jacob Michael Olson
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Learned associations between environmental stimuli and organism-effecting outcomes guide adaptive
behavior. When healthy, this process results in increased rewards and decreased harm.
TitleLarge-scale analysis of functional synapses during circuit plasticity with novel optogenetic sensors
Investigator
Karen Zito
Institute
university of california at davis
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
One of the major challenges in neuroscience is to understand the experience-dependent mechanisms
that drive the changes in neural circuits that underlie complex behaviors, and how these mechanisms are
altered in disease.
TitleLarge-scale monitoring of sensory transformations in the mammalian olfactory system
Investigator
Shawn Denver Burton
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
How information is transformed as it propagates through a neural circuit remains an outstanding question of modern
neuroscience.
TitleLow cost, fully implantable wireless optoeletronic devices for optogenetics research
Investigator
Roozbeh Ghaffari
Institute
neurolux, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
The methods of optogenetics enable light-induced, area-confined stimulation or inhibition
of genetically targeted neurons, thereby bypassing key disadvantages of electrical approaches.
As a result, optogenetics is now widely viewed as an essential tool in neuroscience res
TitleMechanism and dosimetry exploration in transcranial electrical stimulation using magnetic resonance current mapping methods.
Investigator
Rosalind J Sadleir
Institute
arizona state university-tempe campus
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) methods, principally transcranial direct current simulation
(tDCS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) are neuromodulation techniques that
have been the subject of great recent interest.
TitleMRI CORTICOGRAPHY: DEVELOPING NEXT GENERATION MICROSCALE HUMAN CORTEX MRI SCANNER
Investigator
David Alan Feinberg, Chunlei Liu, Pratik Mukherjee, Kawin Setsompop, Lawrence L Wald
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The overarching objective of our proposal is to bring noninvasive human brain imaging into the microscale
(50-500 micron isotropic) resolution in order to create a tool for studies of neuronal circuitry and network
organization in the human brain.
TitleMulti-context software for robust and reproducible neuroscience image analysis
Investigator
Xenophon Papademetris, Dustin Scheinost
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary (Abstract)
The goal of this application is to develop, test, and disseminate multi-context (command line, desktop, server,
and web applications) software for robust and reproducible neuroscience image analysis from data across mul-
tiple scales (two photon microscopy, mesoscale Ca2+
TitleNeuroethics of aDBS Systems Targeting Neuropsychiatric and Movement Disorders
Investigator
Wayne K Goodman, Gabriel Lazaro-Munoz, Amy L Mcguire
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) systems can record neural activity and adjust stimulation in real
time.
TitleNeuronal mechanisms of human episodic memory
Investigator
Adam Nathaniel Mamelak, Ueli Rutishauser
Institute
cedars-sinai medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The rapid formation of new memories and the recall of old memories to inform decisions is essential for human
cognition, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood.
TitleNeuroPET HD: A low-cost high performance neuro-PET imaging system
Investigator
William Coulis Jason Hunter
Institute
pet/x, llc
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This revised proposal is in response to PAR-15-090 "BRAIN Initiative: Development, Optimization, and
Validation of Novel Tools and Technologies for Neuroscience Research".
TitleNeurostimulation and Recording of Real World Spatial Navigation in Humans
Investigator
Nanthia A Suthana
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Decades of research and clinical observations have established that episodic memory, the ability to remember
recently experienced events, depends on the hippocampus and associated structures in the medial temporal
lobe (MTL), including entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocam
TitleNoninvasive neuromodulation via focused ultrasonic drug uncaging
Investigator
Raag D Airan
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY .
In psychiatry, we are limited by the mismatch between the diverse heterogeneity of the brain and the tools we
have to treat it.
TitleNovel fluorescent sensors based on GPCRs for imaging neuromodulation
Investigator
Samuel Andrew Hires, Yulong Li, Li I Zhang
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Neuromodulators are essential signaling molecules that regulate many neural processes, including
cognition, mood, memory, and sleep, through their influence on brain circuits.
TitleNovel Neuromodulation by Transcranial Infrared Brain Stimulation with Imaging
Investigator
Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, Hanli Liu
Institute
university of texas arlington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
This project will develop a novel infrared-based neuro-stimulation tool for specifically modulating neural
circuitry. Transcranial infrared brain stimulation (TIBS) at 1064 nm will be developed as a new tool for non-
invasive neuromodulation of the human brain.
TitleOptimization of multiphoton microscopy for large scale activity mapping in adult zebrafish
Investigator
Joseph R. Fetcho, Chris Xu
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Vertebrate behaviors emerge from interactions of neurons across the brain, but the tools for revealing
neuronal structure and function at the cellular level in living animals access only small portions of the brain.