Project Summary/Abstract
A major goal of the BRAIN Initiative is in creating new systems for being able to record and modulate neuronal
activity across wide areas of cortex and at the scale of small ensembles and even individual neurons.
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 #
TitleNovel Implantable Smart Magnetoelectric NanoRFIDs for Large-Scale Neural Magnetic Recording and Modulation
Investigator
Sydney S Cash, Nian Xiang Sun
Institute
northeastern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleNovel optical probe for dopamine release in neural circuits
Investigator
Marla Feller, Markita Landry
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
A major focus of modern neuroscience is understanding the role of neuromodulators
in neural circuit function and development, in behavior, and their dysfunction in
neurological disease. Neural circuit research has been revolutionized by powerful new
optical techniques.
TitleNWB:N: A Data Standard and Software Ecosystem for Neurophysiology
Investigator
Lydia Lup-Ming Ng, Oliver Ruebel
Institute
university of calif-lawrenc berkeley lab
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Brain function is produced by the coordinated activity of multiple neuronal types that are widely distributed
across many brain regions.
TitleObjective, MRI biomarkers for pre-symptomatic detection of autism spectrum disorder at 6 months old: commercial software development and optimization
Investigator
Bradley A. Bower
Institute
primeneuro, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a broad diagnosis for a disorder characterized by symptoms
affecting repetitive behavior, social communication, and cognitive ability.
TitleOpenNeuro: An open archive for analysis and sharing of BRAIN Initiative data
Investigator
Russell A Poldrack
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The NIH BRAIN Initiative is supporting a broad portfolio of neuroscience research aimed at
revolutionizing our understanding of the brain.
TitleOptical measurement of causal functional connectivity in posterior parietal cortex
Investigator
Daniel E Wilson
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The mouse posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has emerged as an essential region for decision-making during
memory-guided decision-making tasks.
TitleOptimization and distribution of high density cellular scale carbon and silicon arrays
Investigator
Cynthia Anne Chestek
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A longstanding goal in neuroscience is to understand the brain at the level of individual neurons. Existing
techniques involve inserting electrodes that heavily damage the area that they are recording.
TitleOptimizing noninvasive modulation of prediction and episodic memory networks via cerebellar stimulation
Investigator
Shruti Dave
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT
The lateral cerebellum (Crus I/II) interacts with two dissociable large-scale brain networks — the executive
control (ECN) and default mode networks (DMN), which support distinct cognitive functions (e.g., prediction
versus episodic memory, respectively).
TitleOxytocin Modulation of Neural Circuit Function and Behavior
Investigator
Richard W Tsien
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Oxytocin is a peptide hormone synthesized and released from the hypothalamus for reproduction and maternal
behavior. Recent studies have tagged oxytocin as a “trust” hormone, promising to improve social deficits in
various mental disorders, such as autism.
TitlePARALLEL ANALYSIS OF TRANSCRIPTION AND PROTEIN-DNA INTERACTIONS IN SINGLE CNS CELLS
Investigator
Joseph D Dougherty, Robi D Mitra
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The brain is the most complex organ in the body, consisting of hundreds of molecularly, physiologically, and
anatomically distinct cells.
TitlePopulation Imaging of Action Potentials by Novel Two-Photon Microscopes and Genetically Encoded Voltage Indicators
Investigator
Jerry L Chen, Vincent A Pieribone, Michelle Yen-Ling Sander
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Understanding how information is processed in the mammalian neocortex has been a longstanding question in
neuroscience. While the action potential is the fundamental bit of information, how these spikes encode
representations and drive behavior remains unclear.
TitlePopulation Neural Activity Mediating Sensory Perception Across Modalities
Investigator
Thomas Robert Clandinin, Surya Ganguli, Mala Murthy, Kristin E Scott
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary:
Natural sensory inputs are typically complex, and often combine multiple modalities. Human speech, for
example, combines auditory signals with visual cues, such as facial expressions, that inform the interpretation
of the spoken words.
TitlePrototyping an ultrasound system for spatiotemporally precise noninvasive neuromodulatory drug uncaging and functional imaging in awake primates
Investigator
Charles F Caskey
Institute
vanderbilt university medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project summary
Currently, no technology exists that has been specifically designed to allow high precision noninvasive
neuromodulation and neuroimaging in awake animals. Ultrasound is an ideal modality to fill this void since it has
been used (1) directly for neuromodulation,
TitleQuantifying the role of adaptation in olfactory coding through the logic of navigation
Investigator
Nirag Kadakia
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
This project’s long-term goal is a fuller understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of olfactory sensory
adaptation that facilitate odor discrimination in the natural world.
TitleQuantitative mapping of oxygenation around neural interfaces using novel PISTOL MR imaging
Investigator
Vikram D. Kodibagkar, Jitendran Muthuswamy, Arati Sridharan
Institute
arizona state university-tempe campus
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Oxygen levels (pO2) in the brain play a significant role in influencing the function of single neurons and
neuronal networks during normal and pathological states.
TitleRapid 3-D Nano-Printing to Create Multi-Thousand-Channel Microelectrode Arrays
Investigator
Rahul Panat, Eric Yttri
Institute
carnegie-mellon university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Recent advances in technology have enabled the sampling of activity from up to a few hundred neurons within
a limited area of the brain.
TitleRAVE: A New Open Software Tool for Analysis and Visualization of Electrocorticography Data
Investigator
Michael S Beauchamp
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
A fast-growing technique in human neuroscience is electrocorticography (ECOG), the only technique
that allows the activity of small population of neurons in the human brain to be directly recorded.
TitleReadout and control of spatiotemporal neuronal codes for behavior
Investigator
Behtash Babadi, Dante R Chialvo, Tommaso Fellin, Mark H Histed, Patrick O Kanold, Wolfgang Losert, John H.r. Maunsell, Stefano Vt Panzeri, Dietmar Plenz, Dmitry Rinberg, Shy Shoham
Institute
university of chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
To survive, organisms must both accurately represent stimuli in the outside world, and use that representation
to generate beneficial behavioral actions.
TitleReal-time statistical algorithms for controlling neural dynamics and behavior
Investigator
Il Memming Park, Jonathan William Pillow
Institute
state university new york stony brook
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
High-throughput experimental neuroscience has made it possible to observe behavior of many
animals, as well as a large groups of neurons simultaneously, providing an exciting opportunity for
figuring out how the neural system performs computations that underlie perception,
TitleRecombinant Immunolabels for Nanoprecise Brain Mapping Across Scales
Investigator
James S Trimmer
Institute
university of california at davis
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Recombinant Immunolabels for Nanoprecise Brain Mapping Across Scales
Understanding brain function and dysfunction requires an understanding of the circuitry of the brain from
molecules to cells to circuits.