U. neuro research awarded BRAIN Initiative grant

Two University neuroscience research projects received competitive grants totaling $2.29 million from the inaugural National Institutes of Health Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, a programput in placeby President Barack Obama to support studies on brain activity.

A $1.02 million grant was awarded to a collaborative research effort spearheaded by six University researchers. Carlos Brody, one of the collaborators, explained that the project endeavors to understand accumulation, a simple type of working memory. Working memory is a function of the brain that stores information temporarily and uses it to facilitate learning.

Brody and his colleagues — physics professor William Bialek, computer science professor Sebastian Seung, molecular biology professor David Tank, molecular biology professor Sam Wang and assistant professor of psychology Ilana Witten — developed mathematical models to depict the mechanisms of accumulation. Methods of analysis included connectomics, a technique used to see the function of each neuron in the brain, imaging of cellular behavior and opto-genetic experiments in rats and mice. Opto-genetics is the process of using light to control neurons.

The team’s interdisciplinary approach is pivotal to tackling as complex a scientific question as working memory, Brody said.

“The expertise of one lab is often not sufficient; it takes many labs together to winnow through the intricacies of neurological systems,” he said.

Brody explained that the team plans to use the three-year grant prize to determine key regions of the brain that control working memory, further visualize accumulation activities and examine inter-neuron connections. Ultimately, with progress, the team hopes to translate its research into clinical applications by formulating mechanisms to restore the impaired working memory among elderly people and patients with Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

Brody said he is especially thankful of the unique resources provided by the University, which pave groundwork for groundbreaking discoveries.

“[The neuroscience institute] just got a brand new building last year with plenty of new equipment,” Brody said. “The physical resources, the intellectual environment and the start-up grants from the university are unparalleled.”

Seung, another member of the team, will receive another $1.27 million grant to map how light is transformed into nerve signals by the circuits of the retina through EyeWire, an online video game he created. Seung plans to collaborate with other institutions.

Seung developed EyeWire at a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In EyeWire, players, typically “citizen scientists,” are presented a cubic structure with a partially reconstructed neuron branch stretching through it. The player then tries to outline the pathway of neuron branches using coloring methods. The works of multiple players are then compared, with the ultimate goal of mapping the connectivity and activity of individual neurons in the retina.

Previously, EyeWire has received a number of awards such as the National Science Foundation’s2013 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge in the Games and Apps Category and was also named one of Discover Magazine’s Top 100 Science Stories of 2013.

The BRAIN Initiative, announced by President Obama in April 2013, aims to outline the functions of every neuron in the human brain. Budding off the Human Genome Project, the initiative calls for collaboration of five different federal agencies and runs on a projected $300 million annual investment. The NIH proportioned $46 million this year under the initiative to sponsor BRAIN award grants.