NIH nearly doubles investment in BRAIN Initiative research

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News: Brain Initiative: NIH Nearly Doubles Investment in BRAIN Initiative Research
BRAIN Initiative

Many new projects explore human brain activity.

The National Institutes of Health announced its third round of grants to support the goals of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, bringing NIH’s total fiscal year 2016 investment to just over $150 million.

“In only three years we’ve already seen exciting new advances in neuroscience research come out of the BRAIN Initiative,” said Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Over one hundred new awards, totaling more than $70 million, will go to over 170 investigators working at 60 institutions. These awards expand NIH’s efforts to develop new tools and technologies to understand neural circuit function and capture a dynamic view of the brain in action. Projects include proposals to develop computer programs that may help researchers detect and diagnose autism and Alzheimer’s disease from brain scans, build a cap that uses ultrasound waves to precisely stimulate brain cells, create a “neural dust” system made of tiny electric sensors for wirelessly recording brain activity, improve current rehabilitation technologies for helping the lives of stroke patients, and study how the brain reads and speaks. More >>