Project Summary
Dopamine neurons (DNs) are key regulators of motivated behaviors, and defects in dopamine
signaling may underlie some psychiatric disorders including addiction, depression, and schizophrenia,
as well as neurological disorders such as Parkinson's.
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 #
TitleThe diversity of dopamine neurons: from connectivity and activity to functions.
Investigator
Naoshige Uchida
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleThe impact of spontaneous cortical activity on neural oscillations and behavioral performance: Evidence from high-definition tDCS and MEG
Investigator
Tony W Wilson
Institute
university of nebraska medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This proposal responds to RFA-MH-17-245, which requests applications focusing on the mechanisms and dose-
response relationships of noninvasive neuromodulatory methods.
TitleThe Neuronal Underpinnings of Non-invasive Laminar fMRI
Investigator
Orrin Devinsky, Essa Yacoub
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The six layers of cortex form distinct computational units that together govern the information flow and
processing required for complex behavior. Hence, unravelling the brain's computational strategies requires
understanding the layer-specific organization of the neocortex.
TitleToward 3D human brain-like tissues for targeting dysregulated synapse and proteostasis mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder
Investigator
Joshua Dean Erndt-Marino
Institute
tufts university medford
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TOWARD 3D HUMAN BRAIN-LIKE TISSUES FOR TARGETING DYSREGULATED SYNAPSE AND
PROTEOSTASIS MECHANISMS IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disease affecting nearly 1/50 children in US with an
estimated $268 billion in annual costs.
TitleToward a human adult brain cell atlas with single-cell technologies
Investigator
Jerold Chun, Kun Zhang
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Human brain is an exceedingly complex network of spatially organized and functionally
connected neurons imbedded in glia.
TitleTowards integrated 3D reconstruction of whole human brains at subcellular resolution
Investigator
Kwanghun Chung
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A detailed understanding of the anatomical and molecular architectures of brain cells and their brain-wide
organization is essential for interrogating human brain function and dysfunction.
TitleTRACT: A TOOL TO INVESTIGATE BRAIN CONNECTIVITY AND TO GENETICALLY MANIPULATE NEURONS CONNECTED BY SYNAPSES
Investigator
Elizabeth Jennifer Hong, Carlos Lois
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
!
PROJECT SUMMARY
Deciphering the brain’s wiring diagram is widely thought to be necessary towards understanding how brain
circuits process information. However, this goal is extremely challenging because currently available methods
to study brain connectivity suffer from important limitations.
TitleTrans-synaptic bidirectional tracing tools for imaging and omics analysis
Investigator
Nirao Mahesh Shah, Alice Y Ting
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Trans‐synaptic bidirectional tracing tools for imaging and omics analysis
A central question in systems neuroscience is how hormones, such as estrogen, regulate animal behavior at the level of
synapses and circuits.
TitleTransgenic mice and multiplexed, multi-beam instrumentation for large-scale optical experiments on brain states and ensemble cellular dynamics in behaving animals
Investigator
Mark J Schnitzer, Hongkui Zeng
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The NIH BRAIN Initiative report emphasizes the importance of integrated technological approaches that
combine multiple, complementary and groundbreaking capabilities in a single, highly advanced instrument.
Optical methods have tremendous potential for integration, by combining massive reco
TitleTransparent graphene electrode arrays for simultaneous electrical and optical investigation of computations in the olfactory bulb
Investigator
Morgan A Brown
Institute
university of oregon
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary and Abstract
A major obstacle to understanding the link between behavior and neuronal activity is the difficulty of
electrophysiologically recording the activity of large neuronal populations without limiting visual access.
TitleUltra High Resolution Brain PET Scanner for in-vivo Autoradiography Imaging
Investigator
Georges El Fakhri, Roger Lecomte
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We propose to design, build, and evaluate the Scanner Approaching in Vivo
Autoradiographic Neuro Tomography (SAVANT), a next generation PET scanner for
ultra-high resolution imaging of the human brain using hardware advances
developed by members of our collaborative team to achieve unprecedented spa
TitleUltrasonic neuromodulation: establishing mechanisms and parameters to optimize targeted neuromodulation and control sensory side-effects
Investigator
Michael Ortiz, Shinsuke Shimojo, Mikhail Shapiro
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
One of the major goals of the BRAIN initiative is to develop technologies capable of interfacing with specific
neural circuits in the human brain.
TitleUnderstanding V1 circuit dynamics and computations
Investigator
Kenneth D Miller, Massimo Scanziani
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Understanding the cerebral cortex requires data-based theoretical models that can yield in-
sight into the circuit mechanisms of cortical computation, and reproduce detailed cortical dynamics across stimuli
and brain states.
TitleUnraveling constraints on motor cortical activity exploration and shaping during structural skill learning using large-scale 2-photon imaging and holographic optogenetic stimulation
Investigator
Vivek Athalye
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
When learning new skills, experience with previously-learned skills can facilitate faster learning by constraining
behavioral exploration and shaping, a concept known as “structural learning”3,4.
TitleUnveiling the mechanisms of ultrasound neuromodulation via spatially confined stimulation and temporally resolved recording
Investigator
Ji-Xin Cheng, Xue Han
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Ultrasound has been explored as a modality to modulate nerves and muscles back in the 1920s. A number of
recent studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using ultrasound to stimulate peripheral nerves, spinal cord,
and brain.
TitleUsing functionally-defined glomeruli to probe circuit function in the mammalian olfactory bulb
Investigator
Dale M Wachowiak
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
We seek to better understand how the brain processes olfactory information by focusing on how circuits
of the olfactory bulb control two fundamental aspects of sensory processing: the relationship between sensory
input and olfactory bulb output as a function of stimulus intensity, a
TitleValidating and extending optical tools for extended neural silencing
Investigator
Christopher Peter Ford, Matthew J Kennedy, Chandra L Tucker
Institute
university of colorado denver
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Conditionally silencing the activity of specific neural ensembles is a powerful approach
for mapping brain circuits responsible for specific behaviors.
TitleWhat are we Stimulating with Transcranial Ultrasound in Mice?
Investigator
Kim Butts-Pauly
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Completely noninvasive neuromodulation using focused ultrasound (FUS) offers the promise of precisely
stimulating specific targets deep in the brain, at power levels commonly used for diagnostic imaging studies.
Having a working mouse model to study neuromodulation with ultrasound i
TitleWhole-brain recording into nucleic acids using template-independent polymerases
Investigator
Keith Edward Jaggard Tyo
Institute
northwestern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
This proposal aims to record and store neural activity into DNA/RNA strands with high spatial and temporal
resolution, enabling neural activity recording densely within local circuits, yet broadly across large scale neural
circuits, and potentially across the entire brain.
TitleWireless High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography for Decoding Brain Activity
Investigator
Joseph P Culver
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
This grant will develop a wireless wearable high-performance, high-density diffuse optical tomography (DOT)
instrument for mapping of brain function in naturalistic settings.