PROJECT SUMMARY To understand complex neural pathways and networks and their remarkable ability to generate human behaviors, it is critical to precisely map brain connectomics in vivo.
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 #
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Center for Mesoscale Connectomics
Investigator
Taner Akkin, Damien A Fair, Sarah Rachel Heilbronner, Christophe Lenglet, Kamil Ugurbil, Essa Yacoub, Jan Zimmermann
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Comprehensive regional projection map of marmoset with single axon and cell type resolution
Investigator
Guoping Feng, Partha Pratim Mitra, Xiao Wang
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY This ambitious proposal will establish an integrated experimental-computational platform to create the first comprehensive brain-wide mesoscale connectivity map in a non-human primate, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus),.
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Mapping brain-wide connectivity of neuronal types using barcoded connectomics
Investigator
Xiaoyin Chen, Justus M Kebschull, Ian R Wickersham
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary Mapping the brain-wide connections of neurons provides a foundation for understanding the structure and functions of a brain.
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Mapping Connectivity of the Human Brainstem in a Nuclear Coordinate System
Investigator
Bruce Fischl, Patrick R Hof, Hui Wang
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract (30 lines of text limit) The ~1 billion neurons that form the human brainstem are organized at multiple scales, ranging from their cell type-specific patterns of dendritic arborization, to local circuits embedded within large-scale projection systems spanning the brainste
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Multi-beam transmission electron microscopy of iteratively milled semi-thick tissue sections
Investigator
Andreas Schaefer, Adrian Andreas Wanner
Institute
paul scherrer institut psi
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract Volume electron microscopy is the only technique to-date that provides both sufficient resolution (100 μm) for the dense reconstruction of neuronal wiring diagrams.
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: PatchLink, scalable tools for integrating connectomes, projectomes, and transcriptomes
Investigator
Tim M Jarsky, Staci A Sorensen, Uygar Sumbul
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract Upcoming brain-wide descriptions of synaptic connectivity are poised to transform our understanding of brain circuitry in the same way single-cell genomics has revolutionized our understanding of cell type diversity.
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Rapid and Cost‐effective Connectomics with Intelligent Image Acquisition, Reconstruction, and Querying
Investigator
Jeff W Lichtman, Hanspeter Pfister, Aravinthan D. Samuel, Nir Shavit, Brock A. Wester
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY High-throughput connectomics is needed to generate the TB-, PB- and EB-scale wiring diagrams of mammalian brains, but is limited to the few research institutes (e.g., Janelia, Allen, Max Planck) with sufficient infrastructure.
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: Synaptic resolution whole-brain circuit mapping of molecularly defined cell types using a barcoded rabies virus
Investigator
Andreas Tolias, Anthony M Zador
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT Single-cell transcriptomics has revolutionized our understanding of neuronal diversity and enabled high-throughput characterization of molecular cell types across brain areas and species.
Title
BRAIN CONNECTS: The center for Large-scale Imaging of Neural Circuits (LINC)
Investigator
Suzanne N Haber, Elizabeth M. C. Hillman, Anastasia Yendiki
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project summary: This project will develop and validate a comprehensive toolset of novel technologies for imaging axonal projections across scales, and will deploy this toolset to map a complex system of cortico- subcortical projections in the macaque and human brain.
Title
Brain dynamics underlying long-term memory consolidation
Investigator
Priya Rajasethupathy
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract The hippocampus has a well-established role in the initial formation and storage of memory. However, little is understood about brain mechanisms that support the re-organization and transfer of memories into longer-term cortical storage.
Title
Brain-wide mapping of neuronal inhibition by novel inverse activity markers
Investigator
Li Ye
Institute
scripps research institute, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract This project aims to develop the first Inverse Activity Marker (IAM) for detecting neuronal inhibition (broadly defined as the decrease of neuronal activities).
Title
Capturing the neural signature of the paraventricular thalamus that underlies individual variability in cue-motivated behavior
Investigator
Shelly Beth Flagel
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Individuals make choices and prioritize actions using complex processes that assign value to rewards and associated stimuli based on prior experience.
Title
Cell type-specific mechanisms of history-dependent perceptual biases in sensory cortex
Investigator
Deepa L Ramamurthy
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY Sensory representations are influenced by an animal’s external context, internal state, past experiences, expectations, and future goals.
Title
Center for Advanced Muscle BioElectronics (CAMBER)
Investigator
Muhannad Bakir, Samuel Sober
Institute
emory university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
A central goal of neuroscience is to discover how neural circuits control the body’s muscles to produce behavior.
Title
Characterizing Lower Extremity Neurophysiological Responses to Sensory Augmentation after Stroke
Investigator
Jasmine Jamilah Cash
Institute
medical university of south carolina
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT After a stroke, walking ability can be compromised, which can lead to reduced quality of life and decreased ability to perform activities of daily living.
Title
Characterizing odor motion detection in flies
Investigator
Damon Alistair Clark, Thierry Emonet
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Many animals rely on their ability to navigate to the source of airborne odor plumes for survival. Studies dating back a century have shown that insects combine mechanosensory and olfactory cues to navigate, surging upwind when detecting odor but go crosswind or downwind when losing the signal.
Title
Chemigenetic voltage indicators for far-red and two-photon imaging in vivo
Investigator
Ahmed Abdelfattah
Institute
brown university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Changes in membrane potential are the fundamental language of the nervous system, but these voltage signals are not directly visible.
Title
Circuit architecture and dynamics of the insular cortex underlying motivational behaviors
Investigator
Tianyi Mao, Haining Zhong
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY The insular cortex (IC) is a multimodal hub that integrates interoceptive and exteroceptive information to control diverse aspects of animal behaviors related to cognition, emotion, and motivation.
Title
Circuit mechanisms of arbitration between distinct reinforcement learning systems
Investigator
Margaret Louise Demaegd
Institute
new york university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY Animals can exhibit goal-directed behaviors in novel environments, despite limited experience with them. How does the brain make and use inferences about the underlying statistics and generative structure of environments to guide behavior?
Title
Circuit-specific, chemogenetic neuromodulation in nonhuman primates.
Investigator
Serge E Przedborski, Charles E Schroeder
Institute
nathan s. kline institute for psych res
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT ‒ UG3/UH3 Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), applied to areas like the subthalamic nucleus (STN), is a standard treatment for Parkinson Disease (PD), however, DBS has inherent surgical risks as well as potential for infections and adverse side effects.