PROJECT SUMMARY
The SCid, a sensorimotor hub in the midbrain, plays a fundamental role in stimulus-guided behavior as well as spatial
attention control.
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 #
TitleDissecting circuits for local and long-range competitive inhibition in the mouse superior colliculus
Investigator
Shreesh P Mysore
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleDissecting distributed representations by advanced population activity analysis methods and modeling
Investigator
Shaul Druckmann
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A central goal of systems neuroscience is to relate behavior to its underlying circuit dynamics. This task is
complicated by the complex and circuitous paths along which information flows as it is encoded and processed
in the many steps between sensory inputs and motor outputs.
TitleDissecting the dual role of dopamine in context-dependent and learned behaviors
Investigator
Vanessa Ruta
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Dopamine plays a central role in motivation and reinforcement learning, allowing animals to take advantage of
their current circumstances to optimize both present and future behavior.
TitleDissecting the inhibitory architecture governing basal ganglia output
Investigator
Rebekah C Evans
Institute
national institute of neurological disorders and stroke
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The initiation and maintenance of organized movement through the basal ganglia is strongly influenced by its feed-forward and feedback inhibitory architecture. The substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) contribute to the overall output of the basal ganglia.
TitleDual Lead Thalamic DBR-DBS Interface for Closed Loop Control of Severe Essential Tremor
Investigator
Kelly D Foote, Karim G Oweiss
Institute
university of florida
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Essential Tremor (ET) is a progressive disease that leads to significant disability and
markedly diminished quality of life.
TitleDynamic Neural Mechanisms of Audiovisual Speech Perception
Investigator
Michael S Beauchamp, Charles E Schroeder
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Speech perception is inherently multisensory: when conversing with someone that we can see,
our brains combine auditory information from the voice with visual information from the face.
Speech perception lies at the heart of our interactions with other people and is thus one
TitleEffects of standard fMRI calibrations on the diverse microvascular blood flow and oxygenation responses in cortical layers
Investigator
Ikbal Sencan-Egilmez
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This proposed project focuses on quantifying the spatial and temporal diversity in cortical oxygen metabolism and neurovascular coupling, and informing next generation of biophysical models of the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) measurements by integr
TitleEfficiency and Safety of Microstimulation Via Different Electrode Materials
Investigator
Xinyan Tracy Cui
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Microstimulation has been an invaluable tool for neuroscience researchers to infer functional connections
between brain structures or causal links between structure and behavior.
TitleEfficient resource allocation and information retention in working memory circuits
Investigator
Shinung Ching, Lawrence H Snyder
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Short-term working memory is critical for all cognition. It is important to fluid intelligence by definition and is
disordered in many psychiatric conditions. It is also an ideal model system for studying the link between the
dynamics and functions of neural circuits.
TitleEpigenomic cell-type classification and regulatory element identification in the human brain
Investigator
M Margarita Behrens, Joseph R Ecker
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Understanding the exact cell-type composition in the different regions of the human brain is a fundamental step
when trying to integrate physiological, behavioral, neurochemical and molecular data. At present, although
major categories of cell-types present in the human brain have been
TitleExpanding access to open-source data acquisition software for next-generation silicon probes
Investigator
Joshua H Siegle
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We plan to provide software support services for Neuropixels probes, a groundbreaking new tool for recording
electrical signals from the brain.
TitleExpanding field-of-view with reduced tissue displacement in micro-endoscopic computational imaging
Investigator
Steven M Blair, Rajesh Menon, Jason D Shepherd
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Optical imaging methods are well-established in neuroscience, but high-speed, high-
resolution volumetric imaging of neural activity in deep tissue remains a challenge.
TitleExploring the role of reactive astrocytes in brain inflammation using a novel combinatorial strategy
Investigator
Todd A Fiacco, Martin Miguel Riccomagno, Emma H Wilson
Institute
university of california riverside
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
While numerous transgenic tools and approaches exist to enable manipulation of gene expression in
many cell types in the healthy brain, tools designed to target and study cells present only in the dis-
eased or damaged brain are lacking.
TitleFlexible active electrodes for frequency-multiplexed large-scale neural recording
Investigator
Matthew L Johnston, Ethan D Minot
Institute
oregon state university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
State-of-the art neural recording technologies for in vivo applications can record simultaneously from a few
hundred microelectrode recording sites. These recording sites are passive electrodes wired to read-out circuitry
outside the brain.
TitleFunctional Dissection of Neural Circuitry Underlying Parenting Behavior
Investigator
Weizhe Hong
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Impairments in social functioning is a prominent, debilitating symptom in many neuropsychiatric disorders, such
as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.
TitleFunctional dissection of thalamocortical interactions through genetically-defined TRN subnetworks
Investigator
Guoping Feng, Michael M Halassa
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), the major source of thalamic inhibition, plays essential roles in
sensory processing, arousal and cognition.
TitleFunctional implications of a patch/matrix-like compartmental organization in the mouse inferior colliculus
Investigator
Alexandria Marie Lesicko
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
A major unresolved question in systems neuroscience is whether specialized anatomical structures support
specific functions in behavior. Therefore, this proposal will bridge the gap between anatomical circuit diagrams
and their predicted functional roles.
TitleGenerating a formal set of collaborative standards for sharing behavioral data and task designs to enable reproducibility in neuroscience
Investigator
Stephen Anthony Edwards, Adam Kepecs
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The goal of this project is to develop an archival data format and a formal task specification
language to serve as standards for describing behavioral experiments.
TitleGenetically engineered anterograde monosynaptic viral tracers for multi-species neural circuit analysis
Investigator
Gregory D Horwitz, Rozanne M Sandri-Goldin, Bert L Semler, Xiangmin Xu
Institute
university of california-irvine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The development of trans-synaptic viral tracers is an important component of the BRAIN Initiative. At present,
the lack of viral-based anterograde monosynaptic tracing tools with high signal strength and low toxicity is a gap
in neuroscience.
TitleGenetically targeted high sensitivity voltage sensitive dyes
Investigator
Leslie M Loew
Institute
university of connecticut sch of med/dnt
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A primary focus of the NIH BRAIN Initiative is to develop new technologies for large scale high
resolution imaging of brain activity. Imaging, as opposed to traditional electrode array based
measurements, promise much greater spatial resolution and specificity.