Project Summary/Abstract
Connectomics is a new field, created with the goal of densely or completely mapping the connections in the
brain. Because this goal is at present only achievable for small organisms, connectomics has taken on two forms
in the study of larger brains.
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 #
TitleAxonal connectomics: dense mapping of projection patterns between cortical areas
Investigator
R Clay Reid
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleBCI2000: Software Resource for Adaptive Neurotechnology Research
Investigator
Peter Brunner, Gerwin Schalk
Institute
wadsworth center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The central nervous system (CNS) changes throughout life, and its interactions with the world produce activity-
dependent plasticity that enables it to acquire and maintain useful behaviors.
TitleBilateral Closed Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Freezing of Gait using Neural and Kinematic Feedback
Investigator
Helen Bronte-Stewart
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Gait impairment and Freezing of gait (FOG), lead to falls, injury (even death), loss of independent living, and are
common in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD), affecting over 7 million people
worldwide.
TitleBRAIN INITIATIVE RESOURCE: DEVELOPMENT OF A HUMAN NEUROELECTROMAGNETIC DATA ARCHIVE AND TOOLS RESOURCE (NEMAR)
Investigator
Amitava Majumdar, Scott Makeig, Russell A Poldrack, Arnaud Delorme
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
To take advantage of recent and ongoing advances in intensive and large-scale computational methods,
and to preserve the scientific data created by publicly funded research projects, data archives must be
created as well as standards for specifying, identifying, and annotating deposited data.
TitleBreaking the Barriers to Microscale fMRI
Investigator
An Vu
Institute
northern california institute/res/edu
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The goal of this proposal is to develop technology that is both novel and disruptive in order to achieve
anatomical quality, dynamic B0 corrected, whole brain, microscale (≤ 500 µm isotropic) fMRI.
TitleBridging structure, dynamics, and information processing in brain networks
Investigator
Hannah Choi
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The mammalian brain is believed to be optimally designed for robust and adaptable computation of the
sensory inputs from the world, with respect to both its hardware (network structure) and software (network
dynamics).
TitleBuilding a Complete, Predictive, Data-Driven Model of Action Selection During Olfactory Navigation
Investigator
Matthieu R. P. J. C. G. Louis
Institute
university of california santa barbara
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
To survive, living organisms must collect information about their environment and use it to select appropriate
behaviors. However, information from the environment is often noisy, incomplete and ambiguous.
TitleCanonical computations for motor learning by the cerebellar cortex micro-circuit
Investigator
Nicolas Brunel, Court A Hull, Stephen G Lisberger, Javier F Medina
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The cerebellum is critical for learning and executing coordinated, well-timed movements. The cerebellar
cortex seems to have a particular role in learning to time movements.
TitleCell class- or type-specific viruses for brain-wide labeling and neural circuit examination
Investigator
Bosiljka Tasic
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Experimental access to specific cell classes or types in the brain is essential for elucidating their roles in neural
circuit function.
TitleCell-Specific Visualization of Endogenous Proteins
Investigator
Tianyi Mao, Haining Zhong
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
A major goal of the BRAIN initiative is to understand neuronal connectivity and plasticity in the context of
animal behavior. The functions and connectivity of neurons are established and manifested by their constituent
proteins. Monitoring the organization of individual proteins
TitleCellular mechanisms of hippocampal network neuroplasticity generated by brain stimulation
Investigator
John F Disterhoft, Joel L Voss
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The distributed brain network of the hippocampus supports memory and related cognitive abilities. Disruptions
of this network occur in many neurological disorders such as epilepsy, brain injury, and neurodegenerative
disease.
TitleChromatin Plasticity, Transcriptional Activity and Kinetics in Developing and Adult Human Astrocyte and Oligodendroglial Lineages
Investigator
Nadejda Mincheva Tsankova
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
While glial research has advanced in rodent models, significantly less progress has been made in
understanding human-specific diversity of glia at a molecular and a functional level, both during development
and in adulthood.
TitleCircuit Dynamics for encoding and remembering sequence of events
Investigator
Anna Jafarpour
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We experience the world as a continuous sequence of events, but we remember the events as segmented
episodes (e.g., my sister’s wedding). During encoding, we associate a sequence of relevant events and segment
deviant events.
TitleCircuit principles of demotivation in the decision to switch behaviors
Investigator
Michael A Crickmore
Institute
boston children's hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: The decision to commence a new behavior often requires termination of the ongoing
behavior. This implies that the many drive states produced by an animal impact not only the neural circuits
underlying their directly associated behaviors, but also those of many other behaviors.
TitleClose-loop, spatially addressable multiphoton functional imaging
Investigator
Chris Xu
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
A major goal of brain research is to image the dynamics of groups of neurons during behavior.
TitleCognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability Rights
Investigator
Joseph J. Fins
Institute
weill medical coll of cornell univ
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Approximately, 40% of TBI patients discharged from the hospital will develop long-term disability with 70%
experiencing chronic cognitive impairments that disrupt vocational, social, and emotional functioning.
TitleComprehensive Analysis of a Decision Circuit
Investigator
Cengiz Pehlevan, Aravinthan D. Samuel, Paul Warren Sternberg, Mei Zhen
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Animal brains integrate information to make crucial developmental and behavioral decisions.
TitleComputational and circuit mechanisms of decision making
Investigator
Michael Neil Shadlen
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The neurobiology of perceptual decision-making elucidates fundamental neural mechanisms of higher cognitive
function, the understanding of which will inspire new strategies to treat neurological and psychiatric diseases
affecting thought, perception and awareness.
TitleCortical dynamics underlying visual working memory
Investigator
Arbora Resulaj
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Playing a game of chess, driving a car, or even reading this sentence all require that the brain retain and integrate information over short periods of time. This retaining and integration of information is accomplished by working memory.
TitleCortical Spatial Processing for Solving the Cocktail Party Problem
Investigator
Xue Han, Kamal K Sen
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The ability of our auditory systems to recognize target sounds in a mixture of other sounds is fundamental
to normal healthy function and communication.