PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Monitoring local concentrations of neurochemicals in specific parts of the brain in vivo is critical for correlating
neural circuit functionality to behavior as long-range neuromodulation can significantly alter information
processing.
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 #
TitleMINIMALLY-INVASIVE NANO-DIALYSIS NEURAL PROBE FOR MULTIPLEXED MONITORING OF NEUROCHEMICALS WITH HIGH SPATIO-TEMPORAL RESOLUTION
Investigator
Rashid Bashir, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Yurii A Vlasov
Institute
university of illinois at urbana-champaign
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleModel behavior in zebrafish: characterization of the startle response
Investigator
Joy Hart Meserve
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Although behavioral deficits are common in neurological disorders, the genetic pathways and neural
circuits underlying behavior are largely unknown.
TitleModels and Methods for Calcium Imaging Data with Application to the Allen Brain Observatory
Investigator
Michael Buice, Daniela Witten
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY. New advances in calcium imaging make it possible to survey the brains of behaving animals at
single-neuron resolution, thereby promising to transform the field of neuroscience. However, existing statistical models
and methods are inadequate for this complex and noisy data.
TitleModular Systems for Large Scale, Long Lasting Measurements of Brain Activity
Investigator
Hillel Adesnik, Michael S Brainard, Elizabeth A Buffalo, Peter Denes, Loren M Frank, Razi-Ul Haque, Mattias Peter Karlsson, Allison Mika Yorita
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT
Understanding how brains process information and how dysfunction disrupts that processing requires
measuring patterns of neural activity with cellular spatial and millisecond temporal resolution.
TitleMulti-channel MR-compatible flexible microelectrode for recording and stimulation
Investigator
Robert Kyle Franklin, Yen-Yu Ian Shih
Institute
blackrock microsystems
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become one of the leading research tools to study brain function and is playing a pivotal role in several large-scale brain mapping projects worldwide.
TitleMultiplex imaging of neuronal activity and signaling dynamics underlying learning in discrete amygdala circuits of behaving mice.
Investigator
Bo Li, Tianyi Mao, Haining Zhong
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The amygdala plays a central role in diverse learned behaviors. By integrating the sensory information with
stress, punishment, and reward signals, the circuitry within the amygdala is thought to be modified during
learning to mediate specific behavioral outcomes.
TitleNetwork Control and Functional Context: Mechanisms for TMS Response
Investigator
Danielle Smith Bassett, Desmond Oathes, Theodore Satterthwaite
Institute
university of pennsylvania
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Despite the increasing use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in both research and clinical practice,
the field nonetheless lacks a theoretical framework to predict the impact of TMS on circuits.
TitleNeural circuit mechanisms underlying hierarchical visual processing in Drosophila
Investigator
Maxwell Holte Turner
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project summary
Understanding how neural circuits give rise to sensory computation and, ultimately, perception, requires
connecting biological features of neural circuits to abstract models of neural computation.
TitleNeural circuits for spatial navigation
Investigator
Gaby Maimon
Institute
rockefeller university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary / Abstract
Our brain provides us with a sense of where we are in space.
TitleNeural circuits underlying thirst and satiety regulation
Investigator
Yuki Oka
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A forebrain structure, lamina terminalis (LT), plays a key role in both sensing internal water balance and
regulating thirst through its downstream neural circuits.
TitleNeural Implant Insertion System using Ultrasonic Vibration to Reduce Tissue Dimpling and Improve Insertion Precision of Floating Arrays in the Neocortex
Investigator
Maureen L. Mulvihill
Institute
actuated medical, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This Phase I SBIR develops and tests a system for vibrating neural implant floating arrays during insertion to
reduce insertion force, dimpling, tissue damage, and bleeding. The approach will allow precise insertion of
electrode shanks into shallow cortical layers.
TitleNeural mechanisms of active avoidance behavior
Investigator
Manuel A Castro-Alamancos
Institute
drexel university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
Enormous progress has been made about the neural substrates of Pavlovian fear conditioning.
TitleNeural sequences for planning and production of learned vocalizations
Investigator
Brenton G. Cooper, Richard Hahnloser, Todd F Roberts
Institute
ut southwestern medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Sequences of neuronal activity are thought to underlie planning, preparation, and production of voluntary
skilled behaviors.
TitleNeuroethics of Predictive MRI Testing: Parental Attitudes Towards Pre-Symptomatic Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Investigator
Kate E. Macduffie
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Machine-learning-based classification of neuroimaging data (hereafter ML-MRI) to predict clinical
diagnoses has increased substantially in the last decade.
TitleNeuromodulation of Brain States
Investigator
Liqun Luo
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The monoamines, which include dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, are evolutionarily conserved
neurotransmitters that modulate the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons throughout the entire brain,
and are thus essential for diverse aspects of physiology and behavior.
TitleNeuronal and Dopaminergic Contributions to Dissimilar Evoked Hemodynamic Responses in the Striatum
Investigator
Lindsay Walton
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 a non-invasive
imaging technique that infers the presence of increased brain activity from localized increases in oxygenated
hemoglobin.
TitleNeuronal population dynamics within and across cortical areas
Investigator
Brent D. Doiron, Matthew A Smith, Byron M. Yu
Institute
university of pittsburgh at pittsburgh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: The cortex must both track and process dynamically changing environments as well
as store and combine diverse inputs to generate complex behavior. Further, the neuronal circuits that
accomplish this must be malleable to changing contexts, such as during attention related tasks.
TitleNew Proteomic and Genome Engineering Approaches to Decipher Astrocyte Function at Synapses
Investigator
Cagla Eroglu, Scott H Soderling
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells in the human brain. Interactions of astrocytes with synapses via thin
perisynaptic astrocytic processes are critical for proper synaptic connectivity and function.
TitleNew tools to target, identify and characterize astrocytes in the adult nervous system
Investigator
Viviana Gradinaru, Baljit Khakh
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
In order to understand how the CNS encodes, modifies, stores and retrieves information it is necessary to
explore the diverse cell populations that comprise the CNS. There is an emerging consensus that the CNS
cannot be satisfactorily understood solely as a collection of circuits1.
TitleNext-generation optical brain functional imaging platform
Investigator
Qianqian Fang
Institute
northeastern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
A more thorough understanding of human brain function has profound implications for advancing neuroscience
research and combatting neurological disease.
Last reviewed on July 02, 2025