PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The hippocampus is critical for capturing rich, multimodal representations of experience and facilitating
the long-term storage and later recall of these experiences.
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 #
TitleReal-time manipulations to understand and improve memory processes
Investigator
Anna Kathleen Gillespie
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleReal-time, all-optical interrogation of neural microcircuitry in the pretectum
Investigator
Eva Aimable Naumann, John Pearson
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
One of the major barriers to understanding how neural circuits give rise to behavior is that typical
experimental preparations make it difficult to study these circuits across different brain areas.
TitleRelating structure and function in synapse-level wiring diagrams
Investigator
Ashok Litwin-Kumar
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project summary:
Modern electron-microscopy (EM) imaging and analysis methods now permit the comprehensive reconstruction
of all neurons and synapses in large volumes of brain tissue or the entire brains of individual organisms. However,
relating this structure to function is difficult.
TitleRestoring Sight to the Blind: Neural Imaging with Retinal Prostheses
Investigator
Noelle Stiles
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary – Restoring Sight to the Blind: Neural Imaging with Retinal Prostheses
Retinal prostheses restore sight to the blind by electrically stimulating still viable cells in the
retina.
TitleRobust circuit computation in freely behaving animals.
Investigator
Keith B. Hengen
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Sleep is necessary for all brain function and ultimately life. The core function by which sleep contributes to
healthy cognition remains one of the great questions facing neuroscience.
TitleShedding light on brain circuits mediating navigation of the odor plume in a natural environment
Investigator
Emily Gibson, Diego Restrepo
Institute
university of colorado denver
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Navigating within an odor plume is a complex task due to unpredictable changes in odor concentration.
TitleSignificance of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic integration by interneurons for local circuit dynamics and behavior
Investigator
Brandon David Turner
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Localized structuring of neuronal output by inhibitory microcircuits is a fundamental component of
neuronal information processing.
TitleSingle-cell computation in auditory brainstem and its impact on cortical coding and behavior
Investigator
Nace L Golding, Lisa Goodrich, Philip Joris, Matthew J Mcginley
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Understanding how neuronal computations build up a perception of the external world is fundamental to our
understanding of how the brain works.
TitleSliced human neocortical organoids for modeling cortical laminar and columnar organization and function
Investigator
Guo-Li Ming
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The modular organization of the cerebral cortex is defined by anatomically and functionally segregated cortical
columns, as well as layer-specific anatomical and functional connections that span multiple columns.
Dysregulation of the developmental processes governing cortical formation can r
TitleSonogenetic control of neurons in a large volume of the rodent brain
Investigator
Sreekanth H. Chalasani
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
A key challenge in neuroscience is the development of methods to non-invasively manipulate specific neuronal
cell types in vivo.
TitleSpatial exploration and navigation in the primate hippocampus
Investigator
Cory T Miller, Kechen Zhang
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary.
Human and nonhuman primates are highly visual animals that are predominantly active during the daylight hours.
Yet our understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting spatial navigation is largely based on studies of
nocturnal, burrowing rodents with poor vision.
TitleSpinal Cord Nociceptive Circuits that Deliver Outputs to the Brain to Initiate Pain
Investigator
Jan Drugowitsch, David D Ginty, Clifford J Woolf
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Our goal is to generate a predictive model of the spinal cord nociceptive circuits that underlie the initiation of
pain perception and behavior. Nociceptive signals are conveyed from the periphery to the spinal cord dorsal
horn via highly specialized primary sensory neuron subtypes.
TitleStreamlining Volumetric Imaging, Analysis and Publication Using Immersive Virtual Reality
Investigator
Gianfranco Doretto, Michael David Morehead, George A Spirou
Institute
istovisr
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Over the past 15 years, new imaging technologies and methods for high throughput imaging
have revolutionized structural biology by extending the resolution and scale of collected images
in 3 dimensions.
TitleStructure and Function of a Cubic Millimeter of Cortex: Crowdsourcing for Proofreading and Discovery
Investigator
Hyunjune Sebastian Seung
Institute
princeton university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
At the end of 2020, the IARPA MICrONS program will conclude with an automated reconstruction of all
neurons in a cubic millimeter of mouse visual cortex, along with the neurons’ synaptic connectivity and
calcium-imaged responses to video stimuli.
TitleStudying how the hippocampal-prefrontal-hypothalamic circuit encodes social dominance
Investigator
Nancy Padilla Coreano
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Social deficits are common in psychiatric disorders and available treatments are limited. Our lack of basic
knowledge on how the brain controls social behaviors makes it challenging to develop therapeutics for social
deficits.
TitleSynaptic mechanisms of temporal pattern separation
Investigator
James Mcclure Jeanne
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Pattern separation is the process by which the brain distinguishes between similar or overlapping
features of the external world.
TitleSystems-level and in situ transcriptomics deconstruction of neural circuits underlying sensorimotor transformation in an innate behavior
Investigator
Catherine Dulac, Venkatesh N Murthy, Xiaowei Zhuang
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
In order to control specific behavioral responses, transcriptionally distinct cell types assembled
into dynamic brain circuits integrate environmental information with internal states and generate
purposeful motor actions.
TitleThe behavioral microstructure of a memory-guided food-caching behavior and its relationship to hippocampal replay
Investigator
Selmaan Chettih
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The hippocampus is a critical site for rapid memory formation and retrieval, with extensively documented
functions representing spatial and navigational variables, yet less is known of the means by which it guides
behavior.
TitleThe Emergence, Persistence and Plasticity of Neural Codes for Self-Selected Goal-Directed Navigation
Investigator
Michael Moshe Yartsev
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Goal-directed navigation often occurs in complex, large environments where the same goal can be reached
from different starting point and through different routes which are often self-selected.
TitleThe experience of human subjects with brain organoid research
Investigator
Kate E. Macduffie
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Efforts to understand the mechanisms of brain-based disease have been hindered by the limited
ability of animal models to reflect the full complexity of human brain and behavior.