Food consumption is fundamental to species survival and understanding the neuronal circuitry underlying feeding behaviors is of the utmost importance.
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 #
TitleMapping the neuronal circuitry underlying indirect striatal to hypothalamicconnectivity and its role in feeding
Investigator
Miriam E Bocarsly
Institute
national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleMassively Multiplexed Gold Microprobe Arrays for Whole-Mouse-Brain Recording
Investigator
Hui Fang, Ross M Walker
Institute
northeastern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Understanding brain function requires the ability to record simultaneously from thousands or tens-of-
thousands of neurons contributing to the dynamic activity in a neural circuit.
TitleMechanism underlying Nerve Conduction Block by High Frequency (kHz) Biphasic Stimulation
Investigator
Changfeng Tai
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Based on the gate-control theory of pain, traditional spinal cord stimulation (SCS) to treat chronic back/leg pain
utilizes 40-60 Hz stimulation that activates spinal dorsal columns to elicit paresthesia over a patient’s painful
region.
TitleMechanisms of Active Sensing in Drosophila
Investigator
Marie Suver
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The goal of this project is to study the cellular basis of active sensation. A crucial function of all nervous systems is to distinguish between sensory stimuli originating from the external world and that generated by our own movements.
TitleMechanisms of Information Routing in Primate Fronto-striatal Circuits
Investigator
Thilo Womelsdorf
Institute
vanderbilt university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
This project focuses on developing new analysis tools to investigate the mechanisms of information
routing in primate fronto-striatal circuits during goal-directed behavior.
TitleMechanisms underlying large-scale coordination of cortical activity during perceptual decisions
Investigator
Lucas Pinto
Institute
princeton university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
It has become increasingly clear that both spontaneous and trained behaviors engage activity throughout the cortex. However, at least in the case of perceptual decisions, task complexity critically modulates the underlying large- and mesoscale cortical dynamics.
TitleMotion Sequencing for All: pipelining, distribution and training to enable broad adoption of a next-generation platform for behavioral and neurobehavioral analysis
Investigator
Sandeep R Datta
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Understanding the function of the nervous system requires a sophisticated understanding of its main
output, behavior.
TitleMulti-region 'Network of Networks' Recurrent Neural Network Models of Adaptive and Maladaptive Learning
Investigator
Kanaka Rajan
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The massive neural activity data collected through transformative new technologies present an incredible
opportunity in facilitating the mission of the BRAIN Initiative and the wider neuroscience community: to
understand brain function.
TitleMulti-regional neural circuit dynamics underlying short-term memory
Investigator
Shaul Druckmann, Nuo Li
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The focus of this BRAIN Initiative funding opportunity is to use “innovative approaches to understand how
circuit activity gives rise to a specific behavior”. Cognitive behaviors arise from collective interactions of
multiple brain systems.
TitleMultielectrode Arrays for Neurotransmitter Detection with Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry
Investigator
Alexandros George Zestos
Institute
microprobes for life science, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The brain is by far the most complex and heterogeneous organ in the human body. For years, there has
been a growing and unmet need to develop multielectrode arrays for neurotransmitter sensing in
multiple brain regions simultaneously.
TitleMultilevel Analysis of Neuronal Computations Underlying the Robust Encoding of Sensory Information in the Mammalian Olfactory System
Investigator
Benjamin R Arenkiel, Paul Pfaffinger
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
A key problem in neuroscience is to uncover fundamental principles and algorithms that allow
neuronal networks to perform the complex calculations that underlie normal behavior effectively and
efficiently.
TitleMultimodal Stainless Steel Neural Interfaces for Large-scale Recording and Modulation in Large Animals
Investigator
Maysamreza Chamanzar
Institute
carnegie-mellon university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
In this proposal a course of research is proposed to design and implement high-density multimodal (electrical
and optical) neural probes on stainless steel for robust, reliable and large-scale recording from thousands of
neurons in large animal (primate) brains.
TitleMultiscale analysis of how the basal ganglia impact cortical processing in behaving mice
Investigator
Dieter Jaeger
Institute
emory university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The overall goal of this project is to determine how output from the basal ganglia influences cerebral cortical
activity in the processes of decision making, motor planning, and movement execution.
TitleNeural Computation for Innate Behaviors in the Superior Colliculus
Investigator
Markus Meister
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Neural computation for innate behaviors in the superior colliculus
The long-term goal of the proposed research is to understand how the brain makes sense of the onslaught of
sensory data to extract just the few bits of relevant knowledge needed to make a decision.
TitleNeural Computations Underlying Vocal Sensorimotor Transformations
Investigator
Michael A Long
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This project aims to investigate the circuit mechanisms enabling an ethologically relevant sensorimotor
transformation.
TitleNeural representation of mating partners by male C. elegans
Investigator
Scott Warren Linderman, Aravinthan D. Samuel, Paul Warren Sternberg
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Understanding how neural circuits create animal behavior requires knowing the system-wide activity patterns
that connect sensory experience to motor activities, all within the full set of feedback loops by which actuated
motor decisions modulate the animal's perceptions of itself and
TitleNeural signatures of learning complex environments in the amygdala-prefrontal network
Investigator
David Barack
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The ability to learn and think about complex situations is central to a range of human cognitive
functions, including navigation, reasoning, and decision making.
TitleNeuro-glio-vascular interactions in vivo probed with optical imaging
Investigator
Congwu Du, Yingtian Pan
Institute
state university new york stony brook
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This application, "Neuro-glio-vascular interactions in vivo probed with optical imaging", will address the
broad challenge of the BRAIN Initiative (Innovative Neurotechnologies) and the targeted challenge
(tools to target, identify and characterize non-neuronal cells in the brain).
TitleNeuromodulation approaches for restoring dexterous control following cortical stroke.
Investigator
Preeya Khanna
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Stroke-causing illness, disability, and early death is set to double worldwide within the next 15 years.
Despite physical therapy, about 50% of stroke survivors have impaired hand function, which strongly impacts
activities of daily living and independence; novel treatment methods a
TitleNeuronal circuits for context-driven bias in auditory categorization
Investigator
Yale E Cohen, Maria Neimark Geffen, Konrad P. Kording
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
NEURONAL CIRCUITS FOR CONTEXT-DRIVEN BIAS IN AUDITORY CATEGORIZATION
In everyday life, because both sensory signals and neuronal responses are noisy, important cognitive tasks, such
as auditory categorization, are based on uncertain information.