There is a fundamental gap in our understanding of the computational principles and neural mechanisms by which neural circuits represent complex objects like faces.
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 #
TitleCRCNS: US-Japan Research Proposal: The Computational Principles of a Neural Face Processing System
Investigator
Winrich Freiwald
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleCRNS: An Integrative Study of Hippocampal-Neocortical Memory Coding during Sleep
Investigator
Zhe Sage Chen, Matthew A Wilson
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Sleep is critical to memory and learning.
TitleData Archive for the Brain Initiative (DABI)
Investigator
Dominique Duncan, Nader Pouratian, Arthur W Toga
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
The overarching goal of this project is to secure, link, and disseminate BRAIN Initiative data, including
electrophysiology, imaging, behavioral, and clinical data with all pertinent recording and imaging parameters,
coming from participating sites.
TitleData interface and apps for systems neurophysiology and imaging
Investigator
Stephen D Van Hooser
Institute
brandeis university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Technology for recording from the brain is developing at a breakneck pace.
TitleData-driven analysis for neuronal dynamic modeling
Investigator
Gal Mishne
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
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.
TitleDiscovering dynamic computations from large-scale neural activity recordings
Investigator
Tatiana Engel
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
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.
TitleDissecting corticostriatal circuitry underlying chronic binge eating
Investigator
Britny Hildebrandt
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
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.
TitleEarly Feasibility Clinical Trial of a Visual Cortical Prosthesis
Investigator
Jessy D Dorn, Robert Jay Greenberg, Nader Pouratian
Institute
second sight medical products, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Blindness in the United States is a large and increasing problem. Any significant vision loss is
debilitating, but profound blindness is devastating to an individual’s ability to be independent
and to perform everyday tasks and activities.
TitleHigh SNR Functional Brain Imaging using Oscillating Steady State MRI
Investigator
Douglas C Noll
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: High SNR Functional Brain Imaging using Oscillating Steady State MRI
Functional brain imaging using MRI (functional MRI or fMRI) has grown rapidly over the past 25 years and is
widely used for basic cognitive neuroscience research and for presurgical planning.
TitleHuman Agency and Brain-Computer Interfaces: Understanding users’ experiences and developing a tool for improved consent
Investigator
Sara Goering, Eran Klein
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Neural prosthetic devices for sensorimotor and psychiatric disorders are in development as a
priority area of the BRAIN Initiative yet they raise important ethical concerns about human
agency.
TitleIlluminating Neurodevelopment through Integrated Analysis and Vizualization of Multi-Omic Data
Investigator
Ronna Hertzano, Owen R White
Institute
university of maryland baltimore
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The wealth, depth and quality of multi-omic data generated through funding from the BRAIN
initiative is unprecedented. It ranges from bulk and single cell RNA-seq, to detailed cell type-
specific epigenetic analyses throughout development.
TitleIn Vivo Imaging of Local Synaptic Neuromodulation by Dopamine
Investigator
Paul Robert Evans
Institute
max planck florida corporation
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Dopamine (DA) is a powerful neuromodulator that facilitates memory formation and underlies reward-related
behaviors by regulating synaptic plasticity.
TitleInforming Choice for Neurotechnological Innovation in Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery
Investigator
Judy Illes, Patrick Mcdonald
Institute
university of british columbia
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
More than 500,000 children in the USA and Canada suffer from epilepsy today. Unmanaged, epilepsy can
result in cognitive decline, social isolation and poor quality of life, and has substantial economic impact on
families and society.
TitleInvestigating the hypocretin to VTA circuit in memory consolidation during sleep
Investigator
Jeremy Borniger
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Chronic sleep disturbance affects 10-20% of the population in the developed world, representing a substantial public
health problem. Given the ubiquitous nature of sleep across the animal kingdom, intense investigation is underway into
the biological functions of sleep.
TitleIs the Treatment Perceived to be Worse than the Disease?: Ethical Concerns and Attitudes towards Psychiatric Electroceutical Interventions
Investigator
Laura Yenisa Cabrera Trujillo
Institute
michigan state university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Mental health disorders cause immense personal suffering and represent a significant societal burden.
TitleLightweight, Compact, Low-Cryogen, Head-Only 7T MRI for High Spatial Resolution Brain Imaging
Investigator
Thomas Foo, Yunhong Shu, Duan Xu
Institute
general electric global research ctr
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
An innovative head-only 7T MRI system that delivers spatial resolution that is difficult to achieve with today's
whole-body 7T systems, and has the footprint and weight of a whole-body 3T scanner is proposed.
TitleMeasuring, Modeling, and Modulating Cross-Frequency Coupling
Investigator
Uri Tzvi Eden, Mark Alan Kramer
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Although rhythms are a prominent feature of brain activity, the role of rhythms in brain function (and
dysfunction) remains elusive.
TitleMechanisms of electrical stimulation of a canonical motor microcircuit
Investigator
Charles Heckman
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The neural circuitry of the spinal cord has a unique, repetitive structure that forms an especially promising
target for control via electrical stimulation.
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.