SUMMARY
Controlling specific neural circuits across large areas of the brain is a major technology goal of the BRAIN
Initiative.
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 #
TitleAcoustically targeted molecular control of cell type specific neural circuits in non-human primates
Investigator
Mikhail Shapiro, Doris Ying Tsao
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleADVANCED NEXT GEENRATION RADIO FREQUENCY COILS FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
Investigator
Ravi Srinivasan
Institute
advanced imaging research, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe, non-ionizing diagnostic tool. The overall goal of this
project is to arrive very close to the ultimate intrinsic signal to noise ratio (UISNR) for a given MRI
magnet field strength by combining innovations in very advanced transceiver technology.
TitleAn open software solution to integrate non-invasive brain stimulation with functional imaging data
Investigator
Alexander Opitz
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Noninvasive tools capable of selectively manipulating neural systems in the human brain are needed to
advance our neuroscientific understanding of brain function and develop novel non-pharmacologic
psychotherapeutics and are a major focus of Brain Initiative funding.
TitleAn optogenetic brain implant with EEG monitoring and response for mice
Investigator
Kevan Sayed Hashemi
Institute
open source instruments, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract: Optogenetics can be used to selectively stimulate or suppress the firing of genetically
targeted and spatially targeted mammalian neurons. It is used to study neuropsychiatric
diseases in vivo with mouse models of conditions including epilepsy, schizophrenia, and
Parkinson's.
TitleBCI2000: Software Resource for Adaptive Neurotechnology Research
Investigator
Peter Brunner, Gerwin Schalk
Institute
wadsworth center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The central nervous system (CNS) changes throughout life, and its interactions with the world produce activity-
dependent plasticity that enables it to acquire and maintain useful behaviors.
TitleBilateral Closed Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Freezing of Gait using Neural and Kinematic Feedback
Investigator
Helen Bronte-Stewart
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Gait impairment and Freezing of gait (FOG), lead to falls, injury (even death), loss of independent living, and are
common in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD), affecting over 7 million people
worldwide.
TitleBRAIN INITIATIVE RESOURCE: DEVELOPMENT OF A HUMAN NEUROELECTROMAGNETIC DATA ARCHIVE AND TOOLS RESOURCE (NEMAR)
Investigator
Amitava Majumdar, Scott Makeig, Russell A Poldrack, Arnaud Delorme
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
To take advantage of recent and ongoing advances in intensive and large-scale computational methods,
and to preserve the scientific data created by publicly funded research projects, data archives must be
created as well as standards for specifying, identifying, and annotating deposited data.
TitleBreaking the Barriers to Microscale fMRI
Investigator
An Vu
Institute
northern california institute/res/edu
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The goal of this proposal is to develop technology that is both novel and disruptive in order to achieve
anatomical quality, dynamic B0 corrected, whole brain, microscale (≤ 500 µm isotropic) fMRI.
TitleBridging structure, dynamics, and information processing in brain networks
Investigator
Hannah Choi
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The mammalian brain is believed to be optimally designed for robust and adaptable computation of the
sensory inputs from the world, with respect to both its hardware (network structure) and software (network
dynamics).
TitleCell-Specific Visualization of Endogenous Proteins
Investigator
Tianyi Mao, Haining Zhong
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
A major goal of the BRAIN initiative is to understand neuronal connectivity and plasticity in the context of
animal behavior. The functions and connectivity of neurons are established and manifested by their constituent
proteins. Monitoring the organization of individual proteins
TitleCellular mechanisms of hippocampal network neuroplasticity generated by brain stimulation
Investigator
John F Disterhoft, Joel L Voss
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The distributed brain network of the hippocampus supports memory and related cognitive abilities. Disruptions
of this network occur in many neurological disorders such as epilepsy, brain injury, and neurodegenerative
disease.
TitleChromatin Plasticity, Transcriptional Activity and Kinetics in Developing and Adult Human Astrocyte and Oligodendroglial Lineages
Investigator
Nadejda Mincheva Tsankova
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
While glial research has advanced in rodent models, significantly less progress has been made in
understanding human-specific diversity of glia at a molecular and a functional level, both during development
and in adulthood.
TitleCircuit Dynamics for encoding and remembering sequence of events
Investigator
Anna Jafarpour
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We experience the world as a continuous sequence of events, but we remember the events as segmented
episodes (e.g., my sister’s wedding). During encoding, we associate a sequence of relevant events and segment
deviant events.
TitleClose-loop, spatially addressable multiphoton functional imaging
Investigator
Chris Xu
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
A major goal of brain research is to image the dynamics of groups of neurons during behavior.
TitleCognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability Rights
Investigator
Joseph J. Fins
Institute
weill medical coll of cornell univ
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Approximately, 40% of TBI patients discharged from the hospital will develop long-term disability with 70%
experiencing chronic cognitive impairments that disrupt vocational, social, and emotional functioning.
TitleCortical dynamics underlying visual working memory
Investigator
Arbora Resulaj
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Playing a game of chess, driving a car, or even reading this sentence all require that the brain retain and integrate information over short periods of time. This retaining and integration of information is accomplished by working memory.
TitleCortico-striatal representations of multisensory decision-making
Investigator
Xiaonan Sun
Institute
feinstein institute for medical research
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Perceptual decision-making is a complex cognitive function critical for health, reproductive success, and
survival. In this process, an informed choice based on sensory evidence is made through engagement of
circuits across the brain.
TitleCustomizable, Ultra-high Density Optic Fiber-paired Multielectrode Array by 3D Nanoparticle Printing
Investigator
Rahul Panat
Institute
carnegie-mellon university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Recent technological advances have led to the realization recording devices that can sample neuronal
activity from up to a few hundred channels in a limited area.
TitleDANDI: Distributed Archives for Neurophysiology Data Integration
Investigator
Satrajit Sujit Ghosh, Yaroslav O Halchenko
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Neuroscientific data contain information from an incredible diversity of species, are generated by a plethora of
devices, and encapsulate the results of scientific thinking and decision making.
TitleDeep brain live imaging of cAMP and protein kinase A activities underlying synaptic- and circuit-level mechanisms during learned behaviors
Investigator
Shana M Augustin
Institute
national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Neuromodulation is crucial for information processing throughout the brain. Neuromodulators influence neuronal function by acting through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to alter neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission, which can then affect circuit functions.