Circuit Diagrams

Project Summary Public and private research funders have heavily invested in the application of implantable neurotechnologies to improve the management of treatment-resistant conditions and loss of function (e.g., deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems for recovery after traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, disorders of consciousness, movement disorders, and psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression). These devices are trialed with people who have had severe impairments and treatment-resistant disorders for many years.

Project Summary/Abstract The BRAIN Initiative is supporting a broad portfolio of neuroscience research aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the brain.

Project Summary/Abstract: The field of optogenetics — utilizing light to engage biological systems — is widely used for the dissection of neural circuits, cellular signaling and manipulating neurophysiological systems in awake, behaving animals. However, while many new opsins have been developed and are actively used, challenges still remain, and the current technology lacks a full toolbox for sub-cellular, spatiotemporal control of signaling — the predominant means for neuromodulator communication in the brain.

Project Summary Plasticity is a fundamental aspect of neuronal circuits across all species. It is at the base of learning and memory, sensory adaption, and many disease-related processes such as addiction, chronic pain or regeneration. On the molecular level biochemical mechanisms have been well described, but little is known on how these are coordinated in space and time within neuronal circuits of living brains.

ABSTRACT BRAIN Initiative-funded, large-scale approaches to classify neurons based on transcriptomic, morphological and electrical properties have unveiled dozens of unique cell classes in the mouse brain.

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT. Research Project: Spatial memory – memory of where an event happened or an object was located – depends on the hippocampus in a wide range of vertebrate species, including mammals and birds. In humans, most spatial memories are formed through visual experience. However, it is unclear how visual information is processed by hippocampal memory circuits to support spatial memory formation.

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Functional MRI (fMRI) is today the predominant tool for noninvasive imaging of brain function, which has revolutionized our understanding of the human brain. To date, echo-planar imaging (EPI) has been the standard fMRI acquisition method, but suffers from intrinsic limitations such as static and dynamic distortion, image/contrast blurring, signal voids, suboptimal CNR and physiological noises.

A central goal of neuroscience is to discover how neural circuits control the body’s muscles to produce behavior. However, despite recent advances in tools for studying brain activity, methods for examining the signals that actually control behavior – spiking activity in muscle fibers – have advanced little since the 1950s, fundamentally limiting our understanding of how the brain controls the body. By combining our expertise in electrophysiology (Dr. Sober) and engineering (Dr.

This study proposes to refine, integrate and disseminate the NeuroImaging Brain Chart (NIBCh) software toolbox and machine learning (ML) model library, an ecosystem of software components enabling constructive integration, statistical harmonization, and ML-centric data analyses across studies. NIBCh enables large-scale analyses of multi-modal brain MRI data by mapping such data into a compact coordinate system of informative neuroimaging signatures implemented by our library of ML models.

This proposal describes a five-year career development program to prepare the candidate, Dr. Nan Xu, for a career as independent investigator at a major academic research institute, with the expertise of modeling dynamics of brain causal system to provide novel insights into the basic pathophysiology of neurologic disorders. This proposal develops upon Dr.