NIH BRAIN Initiative Launches Projects to Develop Innovative Technologies to Map the Brain

In the human brain, 86 billion neurons form more than 100 trillion connections with other neurons at junctions called synapses. Scientists are now working on an ambitious effort to develop technologies to map these connections across the brain, from mice to humans. These detailed wiring diagrams can help uncover the logic of the brain’s neural code, leading to a better understanding of how this circuitry makes us who we are and how it could be re-wired to treat brain diseases.

The National Institutes of Health announces the third transformative project supported by the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative called BRAIN Initiative Connectivity Across Scales (BRAIN CONNECTS). This program complements two previous large-scale projects outlined in the BRAIN 2.0 report, which together, aim to transform neuroscience research by illuminating foundational principles governing the neural circuit basis of behavior and informing new approaches to the treatment of brain disorders.