This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeks applications to assemble diverse, integrated, multi-disciplinary teams to conduct exploratory research and planning activities using intracranial surgical procedures in human neuroscience. The next application due date is September 22, 2023.
Investigations within the human brain offer revolutionary, but challenging, opportunities for studying how the human brain senses, perceives, remembers, plans, makes decisions, registers emotions, understands and generates language, and activates movements. Certain surgical procedures offer the opportunity for unique interventions such as the ability to record and stimulate intracranially within precisely localized brain structures in humans. However, human studies using intracranial technology are often constrained by a limited number of patients and available resources, and frequently the resulting datasets need to be aggregated across sites to achieve sufficient statistical power.
Exploratory Research Opportunities Using Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulating Technologies in the Human Brain (R61 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required) RFA-DC-24-001 is a funding opportunity that seeks applications to assemble diverse, integrated, multi-disciplinary teams that cross boundaries of interdisciplinary collaboration to overcome existing barriers and to investigate high-impact questions in human neuroscience.
Activities supported by this funding opportunity include:
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Utilizing direct intracranial recording, interventions (e.g. tract transections) and/or stimulation to answer high-impact questions in human neuroscience.
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Integrating non-invasive technologies to image and/or perturb the nervous system for use in conjunction with the invasive implants in order to cross spatial and temporal scales.
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Proposing a combination of quantitative psychophysics and behavioral assays in combination with brain recording or stimulating that test mechanistic hypotheses. Behavioral assays with time resolution comparable to neural recording assays are strongly encouraged.
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Utilizing approved, chronic implants, (e.g., DBS implants; FDA-approved indwelling electrodes) to address mechanistic hypotheses about brain function, plasticity, etc.
Participants can submit their applications starting on August 22, 2023. The next application deadline is September 22, 2023. For more information, please view the full funding opportunity (RFA-DC-24-001).
This funding opportunity requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP) as part of the application (see further below). Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the NOFO instructions carefully and view the available PEDP guidance material.