The development of minimally invasive direct readouts of neural activity is one of the greatest challenges
facing neuroscience today.
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 #
TitleIntracellular calcium sensing with molecular fMRI
Investigator
Alan Jasanoff
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleInvestigating the hypocretin to VTA circuit in memory consolidation during sleep
Investigator
Jeremy Borniger
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Chronic sleep disturbance affects 10-20% of the population in the developed world, representing a substantial public
health problem. Given the ubiquitous nature of sleep across the animal kingdom, intense investigation is underway into
the biological functions of sleep.
TitleInvestigating the neurocircuitry of sleep duration regulation
Investigator
Ying-Hui Fu
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Sleep is essential for the maintenance of our cognition and neurological functions, and both quality and
quantity of sleep are critical. We likely have known this for the entire human history. Yet, we remain
astonishingly ignorant on how the quality and quantity of sleep are regulated.
TitleIs the Treatment Perceived to be Worse than the Disease?: Ethical Concerns and Attitudes towards Psychiatric Electroceutical Interventions
Investigator
Laura Yenisa Cabrera Trujillo
Institute
michigan state university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Mental health disorders cause immense personal suffering and represent a significant societal burden.
TitlekHz-rate in vivo imaging of neural activity througout the living brain
Investigator
Na Ji, Kevin Kin Man Tsia
Institute
university of california berkeley
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TITLE
kHz-rate in vivo imaging of neural activity throughout the living brain
SUMMARY
The overarching challenge in neuroscience today is how to monitor the neural signaling events in intact
brains of behaving animals at synaptic or cellular spatial resolution and millisecond time resolution.
Multiph
TitleLarge-scale cellular-resolution voltage imaging of the zebrafish brain
Investigator
Yiyang Gong
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Recording the spiking activity of many individual neurons in a densely packed region of the brain
has been a standing challenge for the neuroscience community.
TitleLarge-scale recording of population activity during social cognition in freely moving non-human primates
Investigator
Behnaam Aazhang, Valentin Dragoi, Anthony A Wright
Institute
university of texas hlth sci ctr houston
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Social interactions, a ubiquitous aspect of our everyday life, are critical to the health and survival of the species,
but little is known about their underlying neural computations.
TitleLightweight, Compact, Low-Cryogen, Head-Only 7T MRI for High Spatial Resolution Brain Imaging
Investigator
Thomas Foo, Yunhong Shu, Duan Xu
Institute
general electric global research ctr
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
An innovative head-only 7T MRI system that delivers spatial resolution that is difficult to achieve with today's
whole-body 7T systems, and has the footprint and weight of a whole-body 3T scanner is proposed.
TitleLinking neuronal, metabolic, and hemodynamic responses across scales
Investigator
Geoffrey M Ghose
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
While functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) has proved invaluable for identifying where in the
brain activation is occurring during a particular task, it has had less to say about how the
dynamics of that activation actually contribute to task performance.
TitleLinking Plasticity of Hippocampal Representation across the Single Neuron and Circuit Levels
Investigator
Jayeeta Basu, Claudia Clopath
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Functional interactions between the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus are critical for spatial navigation
and episodic memories related to people, places, objects and events.
TitleMagnetic camera based on optical magnetometer for neuroscience research
Investigator
Orang Alem
Institute
fieldline, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
During Phase I, we will test the feasibility of developing a magnetographic camera technology as a new tool in
neuroscience to facilitate the detailed analysis of electrical currents in diverse neuronal circuits.
TitleMapping neurotransmitter receptors onto the connectome
Investigator
S. Lawrence Zipursky
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
To interpret the detailed ultrastructural information of the connectomes in Drosophila and other species, it will
be necessary to know the physiological functions of synapses between specific cell types.
TitleMapping of spatiotemporal code features to neural and perceptual spaces
Investigator
Stefano Vt Panzeri, Dmitry Rinberg
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Two of the most fundamental questions of sensory neuroscience are: 1) how is stimulus information
represented by the activity of populations of neurons at different levels of information processing?
TitleMeasuring, Modeling, and Modulating Cross-Frequency Coupling
Investigator
Uri Tzvi Eden, Mark Alan Kramer
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Although rhythms are a prominent feature of brain activity, the role of rhythms in brain function (and
dysfunction) remains elusive.
TitleMechanisms of electrical stimulation of a canonical motor microcircuit
Investigator
Charles Heckman
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The neural circuitry of the spinal cord has a unique, repetitive structure that forms an especially promising
target for control via electrical stimulation.
TitleMechanisms of Rapid, Flexible Cognitive Control in Human Prefrontal Cortex
Investigator
Sameer Anil Sheth
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Humans have a remarkable ability to flexibly interact with the environment. A compelling demonstration of
this cognitive flexibility is our ability to perform complex, yet previously un-practiced tasks successfully on
the first attempt.
TitleMechanisms underlying positive and negative BOLD in the striatum
Investigator
Yen-Yu Ian Shih
Institute
univ of north carolina chapel hill
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) is widely used
as a non-invasive technique to study brain function.
TitleMechanistic and causal basis of fMRI functional connectivity in non-human primates
Investigator
Peter Rudebeck, Brian E Russ
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Measures of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) functional connectivity – correlated blood oxygen
level dependent (BOLD) responses – are fundamental to understanding the circuit-level mechanisms of brain
function and dysfunction.
TitleMemory consolidation during sleep studied by direct neuronal recording and stimulation inside human brain
Investigator
Itzhak Fried
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Memory is critical for cognitive well-being, and sleep is critical for memory consolidation, yet the underlying
mechanisms in the human brain are poorly understood.
TitleMental, measurement, and model complexity in neuroscience
Investigator
Vijay Balasubramanian, Joshua I Gold
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Neuroscience is producing increasingly complex data sets, including measures and manipulations of sub-
cellular, cellular, and multi-cellular mechanisms operating over multiple timescales and in the context of
different behaviors and task conditions.
Last reviewed on July 02, 2025