Each year, we invite all those engaged with or interested in the BRAIN Initiative at various career stages to submit their most fantastic, most artistic, and eye-catching images or short videos of the brain to the Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo and Video Contest.
The voting is now CLOSED. The top three photo and video winners will receive a certificate recognizing their accomplishment, recognition during the 9th Annual BRAIN Initiative Meeting. They will have also their submissions posted on the BRAIN Initiative website and featured in The Art of the BRAIN snapshot article. In addition, winners and finalists will have a chance to be featured in next year's BRAIN Initiative calendar.
Check out the winning entries from past Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Contests below.
2023 BRAIN Initiative Calendar
Download the 2023 BRAIN Initiative single page calendar (PDF, 9 MB)
Check out the winning entries from past Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Contests below.
2022 Winners
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FIRST PLACE VIDEO WINNER
Neurons In Action
Functional activity measured in vivo with 2-Photon imaging with matching morphologies from the same neurons measured with electron microscopy.
By Andreas Tolias, Jacob Reimer, R.J. Cotton, Xaq Pitkow, Nuno da Costa, Forrest Collman, Clay Reid, and Sebastian Seung, Baylor College of Medicine, Allen Institute, Princeton University, Northwestern University/Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
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SECOND PLACE VIDEO WINNER
Ictal Cinema
Transforming intracranial recordings of an ongoing seizure into a heatmap (line length transform) using a reconstruction of the patient's own brain.
By Jon Kleen, University of California San Francisco
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THIRD PLACE VIDEO WINNER
Pyramidal Christmas Tree
A rendering of an electron microscope reconstruction of a layer 5 cortical neuron from the MICrONs dataset, where input synapses are blinking lights.
By Forrest Collman, Allen Institute for Brain Science
FIRST PLACE PHOTO WINNER
The Intersection of Memory and Memory
Two memories captured under the microscope. Peering into the hippocampus of a mouse using viral technology and optogenetics.
By Stephanie Grella, Boston University
SECOND PLACE PHOTO WINNER
Mindmap – The Intricate Wiring of The Human Brain
Brain activity is orchestrated by propagating information between brain regions through fiber tracts, visualized via diffusion MRI tractography.
By Sahar Ahmad, Ye Wu, and Pew-Thian Yap, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
THIRD PLACE PHOTO WINNER
Zebrafish Brain Thinking Abraham Lincoln
Image taken from a Zebrafish brain tissue section, synaptophysin as the primary antibody, Alexa555 and DAPI as secondary antibody, and looks like Abraham Lincoln's side profile.
By Esengül Öztürk, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University
Check out the winning entries from past Show Us Your BRAINs! Photo & Video Contests below.
2021 Winners
Download the 2022 BRAIN Initiative single page calendar (PDF, 5.8MB)
Featuring the top entries from the 2021 BRAIN Initiative Photo & Video Contest
2020 Winners
Download the 2021 BRAIN Initiative Calendar (PDF – 2.18 MB)
Featuring the top entries from the 2020 BRAIN Initiative Photo & Video Contest
FIRST PLACE VIDEO WINNER Intact Whole-brain Imaging of Neurons Thy1-GFP mouse brain optically cleared and imaged with the Zeiss Light-sheet Z.1 microscope using a Mesoscale Imaging System. By Sunil Gandhi, Ricardo Azevedo and Damian Wheeler, University of California, Irvine and Translucence Biosystems |
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SECOND PLACE VIDEO WINNER Reconstructing the Mind of a Worm The C. elegans brain, including every nerve and muscle fiber, being reconstructed by serial-section electron microscopy. By Daniel Witvliet, University of Toronto and Harvard University |
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THIRD PLACE VIDEO WINNER Fly Through a Fly Brain These cells were reconstructed by artificial intelligence from Princeton University's Murthy Seung Lab using electron microscope images HHMI Janelia. By Amy Sterling, Princeton University and EyeWire |
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FIRST PLACE PHOTO WINNER Cortical Forest Mouse Layer V cortical neurons eYFP-labeled (Thy1-H) and imaged after CLARITY processing of a whole brain. Maximum projection with depth color coding. By Linus Manubens-Gil and Jim Swoger, Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG) and EMBL Mesoscopic Imaging Facility |
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SECOND PLACE PHOTO WINNER Radiating Neurons 4-week-old rat cortical neurons labeled for dendrites (red), axons (green), and nuclei (blue). By Karthik Krishnamurthy, Davide Trotti, and Piera Pasinelli, Thomas Jefferson University |
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THIRD PLACE PHOTO WINNER The Ephemeral Hippocampus The brain is everywhere to us neuroscientists. This exquisite 'hippocampus', with delicate dendrites, is actually a waterdrop captured at highspeed. By Tallie Z. Baram, Jeremy Barry, and Joan Morris, University of California, Irvine, © 2017 Joan Morris (www.joanmorrisartist.com) |
2019 Winners
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FIRST PLACE VIDEO WINNER High-Resolution MORF3-labeled Hippocampal Neurons Using MORF3 and SHIELD, pyramidal neurons were sparsely labeled and imaged at very high resolution deep within a whole hemisphere. By X. William Yang and Kwanghun (KC) Chung, University of California, Los Angeles and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
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SECOND PLACE VIDEO WINNER 3D Diffusion Tractography In neuroscience, tractography is a 3D modeling technique used to visually represent nerve tracts using data collected by diffusion MRI. By James Stanis, University of Southern California Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute |
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THIRD PLACE VIDEO WINNER Neural Circuit in The Storm 3D image of parvalbumin+ neurons (red, neurites; green, presynaptic puncta) swimming through the waves of GAD1+ (cyan) neurons. By Young-Gyun Park, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
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FIRST PLACE PHOTO WINNER Light Me Up! Light-based rendering of deep brain stimulation’s electrical excitation of neuronal fiber pathways to treat patients with traumatic brain injury. By Andrew Janson, University of Utah Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute |
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SECOND PLACE PHOTO WINNER Dancing Devils Mouse hippocampal neuron stained for f-actin (red) and tubulin (green). By Sharada Tilve, NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) |
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THIRD PLACE PHOTO WINNER Neural Circuit in The Storm 3D image of parvalbumin+ neurons (red, neurites; green, presynaptic puncta) swimming through the waves of GAD1+ (cyan) neurons. By Young-Gyun Park, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |