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The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage projects to generate fundamental knowledge of affective processes. Basic affective science projects should have key downstream consequences for single (e.g., genetic testing consent) and multiple (e.g., adherence to oral chemotherapy regimen) event decisions and behaviors across the cancer prevention and control continuum. The FOA is expected to encourage scientific disciplines that have not traditionally conducted cancer research such as affective and cognitive neuroscience, decision science, and consumer science to elucidate perplexing and understudied problems in basic affective and decision sciences with promise of having downstream implications for cancer prevention and control science.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage projects to generate fundamental knowledge of affective processes. Basic affective science projects should have key consequences for single (e.g., cancer screening) and multiple (e.g., adherence to oral chemotherapy regimen) event decisions and behaviors across the cancer prevention and control continuum. The FOA is expected to encourage collaboration among cancer control researchers and those from scientific disciplines not traditionally connected to cancer control applications (e.g., affective and cognitive neuroscience, decision science, consumer science) to elucidate perplexing and understudied problems in affective and decision sciences with downstream implications for cancer prevention and control.

This funding opportunity supports projects that test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive, affective, or social processing. Applications must use experimental designs that incorporate active manipulations to address at least one, and ideally more, of the following topics: (1) in animals or humans, determine which parameters of neural coordination, when manipulated in isolation, improve particular aspects of cognitive, affective, or social processing; (2) in animals or humans, determine how particular abnormalities at the genomic, molecular, or cellular levels affect the systems-level coordination of electrophysiological patterns during behavior; (3) determine whether in vivo, systems-level electrophysiological changes in behaving animals predict analogous electrophysiological and cognitive improvements in healthy persons or clinical populations; and (4) use biologically-realistic computational models that include systems-level aspects to understand the function and mechanisms by which oscillatory and other electrophysiological patterns unfold across the brain to impact cognitive, affective, or social processing.

Repeated exposure to drugs of abuse can cause changes in neuronal structure and function that contribute to and sustain drug use. Research has largely focused on the interactions of drugs with specific neuronal targets, and on the consequences of drug exposure on neuronal function, excitability, neuroplasticity, and neurochemistry. However, emerging evidence shows that neuroimmune factors, released from both glia or neurons, can modulate neuronal structure and function, either by affecting neuron-glia interactions or through direct effects on neurons. Yet the role of neuroimmune signaling in the modulation of neuronal function as it affects the expression of substance use behaviors is poorly understood. Research has shown that drugs of abuse, including methamphetamine, morphine, cocaine and nicotine, can elicit neuroinflammatory responses. Stress, an important contributor to relapse, can also elicit neuroimmune responses. Consequently, neuroimmune signaling may be integral to mechanisms underlying drug misuse, addiction, and other consequences of repeated drug use. Further, because the molecular targets and receptors for abused substances differ, the complement of neuroimmune factors affected by exposure to a particular drug may be drug-specific. Research to identify the commonalities between specific drugs of abuse, the neuroimmune factors released by drug use, and the neuroanatomical specificity of the responses is needed. It is expected that the contributing actions of neuroimmune signaling to addictive behaviors are most likely due not to obvious brain damage and overt pathology, but to the consequences of such signaling in altering specific molecular and cellular processes within glia, neurons, and neural circuits.

A rich body of evidence suggests that optimal cognitive, affective, and social processes are associated with highly coordinated neural activity.  These findings suggest that oscillatory rhythms, their co-modulation across frequency bands, spike-phase correlations, spike population dynamics, and other patterns might be useful drivers of therapeutic development for treatment of cognitive, social, or affective symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders. This funding opportunity supports projects that test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive, affective, or social processing.

This FOA is intended to encourage exploratory studies to : (1) increase our understanding of how music affects the brain, body, and behavior and (2) use that knowledge to develop evidence-based music interventions to enhance health or treat specific diseases and disorders.  Proposed R21 projects can investigate how music is processed by or modifies the brain, or how it affects specific biological functions during childhood development and learning, adulthood, and aging.  Projects can also include preliminary interventions that provide a basis for therapeutic interventions. When appropriate, collaborations among basic researchers, technology developers, music intervention experts, or other clinical researchers are highly encouraged.

This broad spectrum FOA is intended to: (1) increase our understanding of how music affects the brain, body, and behavior and (2) use that knowledge to develop evidence-based music interventions to enhance health or treat specific diseases and disorders.  Proposed R01 projects can investigate how music is processed by or modifies the brain, or how it affects specific biological functions during childhood development and learning, adulthood, and aging.  Projects can also include preliminary interventions that provide a basis for therapeutic interventions. When appropriate, collaborations among basic researchers, technology developers, music intervention experts, or other clinical researchers are highly encouraged.

The HEALing Communities Study will test the immediate impact of implementing an integrated set of evidence-based interventions across healthcare, behavioral health, justice, and other community-based settings to prevent and treat opioid misuse and Opioid Use Disorders (OUD) within highly affected communities. Highly affected communities of interest could include counties or cities within states that are burdened with higher than average rates of overdose mortality and opioid-related morbidity, and other complications.  Combined, all the communities participating in a single research site application must demonstrate having experienced at least 150 opioid related overdose fatalities (15% of these fatalities must be from rural communities) and a rate of 25 opioid related overdose fatalities per 100,000 persons or higher in the past year, based on the most recent complete year of data available.

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) aims to provide strong predictive value along with mechanistic understanding of AI by combining machine learning techniques with effective explanatory techniques. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits applications in the area of XAI applied to neuroscientific questions of encoding, decoding, and modulation of neural circuits linked to behavior. This FOA encourages collaborations between computationally and experimentally-focused investigators. This FOA seeks the development of machine learning algorithms that are able to mechanistically explain how experimental manipulations affect cognitive, affective, or social processing in humans or animals. Proof-of-concept applications aimed at improving the current state of the technology that uses XAI to provide unbiased, hierarchical explanations of causal relationships between complex neural and behavioral data are also appropriate .

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) invites applications for basic research to better characterize the affective, cognitive, social, and motivational parameters of impaired and intact decision making in both normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Research is sought that will characterize the extent to which basic behavioral and neural processes involved in decision-making are differentially impacted in normal aging and AD, investigate the influence of social factors on decision-making, and investigate the decision-making factors that render older adults (with or without cognitive impairment) vulnerable to financial exploitation and other forms of mistreatment and abuse. The FOA also invites applications to apply basic research on the processes involved in decision-making to the design of decision-supportive interventions for midlife and older adults with and without AD. Specific opportunities include the development of decision-supportive interventions to leverage cognitive, emotional and motivational strengths of these populations; tools to assess decisional capacity; strategies for simplifying choices and offering better defaults; and the promotion of timely adoption of optimal delegation practices (e.g., power of attorney, living wells, etc.).

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) invites applications for basic research to better characterize the affective, cognitive, social, and motivational parameters of impaired and intact decision making in both normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Research is sought that will characterize the extent to which basic behavioral and neural processes involved in decision-making are differentially impacted in normal aging and AD, investigate the influence of social factors on decision-making, and investigate the decision-making factors that render older adults (with or without cognitive impairment) vulnerable to financial exploitation and other forms of mistreatment and abuse. The FOA also invites applications to apply basic research on the processes involved in decision-making to the design of decision-supportive interventions for midlife and older adults with and without AD. Specific opportunities include the development of decision-supportive interventions to leverage cognitive, emotional and motivational strengths of these populations; tools to assess decisional capacity; strategies for simplifying choices and offering better defaults; and the promotion of timely adoption of optimal delegation practices (e.g., power of attorney, living wells, etc.).

The prize supports research that aims to advance, both empirically and theoretically, a materialistic understanding of the human mind. The research may address any aspect of mental function (e.g., cognition, affect, motivation) and should utilize behavioral and/or neuroscientific methods. 

The purpose of this Dear Colleague Letter is to advise you about funding opportunities at the National Science Foundation for the research community to propose research projects or workshops that will gather data on the implementation and impacts of recent science policy initiatives including, but not limited to those noted earlier.  Especially encouraged are proposals that will: Develop new, or improve existing, analytical frameworks for evaluating the impacts of federal science policy initiatives; Explore different agencies' approaches to the implementation of particular policies to examine how variations in approach affect the achievement of intended policy outcomes; Collect case-study or quantitative data that facilitate identification of best practices in science and innovation policy implementation.

The focus of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to better understand how existing non-invasive neuromodulation devices affect brain circuity. This information should shed light on dose/response relationships that could be used for neuroscience applications and clinical interventions.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to encourage research on the basic biology of the intervertebral disc and on the molecular mechanisms underlying intervertebral disc degeneration. Back/spinal pain, which is a major public health concern in the United States, is strongly associated with intervertebral disc degeneration. Acute low back pain that is serious enough to disrupt daily routines affects about 70 percent of adults sometime during their lives. In the vast majority of patients, low back pain resolves within a few weeks with conservative medical management. 

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications from investigators that propose to study the developing brain or brain areas that play significant roles in mediating emotional and motivated behavior and in substance use and dependence.  All stages of brain development are of interest, but a new emphasis of the current reissue of this initiative is to support basic neuroscience research on fundamental mechanisms of brain development during prepuberty and the adolescent period in relation to the problems of substance abuse and co-morbidity with psychiatric disorders.  Topics of interest pertaining to brain development of this initiative include, but are not limited to, the euphoric properties of abused substances, actions of psychotherapeutic agents, and their consequences on memory, cognitive and emotional processes.  A major goal of this initiative is to understand how exposure to substances of abuse and environmental insults affects the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system development and neural circuit functions implicated in substance use and addiction. 

The Edward N. & Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation was created in 2002 to advance the health of older adults through the support of direct service projects and medical research on diseases and disorders affecting older adults. In keeping with the Foundation's mission, the goal of the Awards Program is to support translational research that will lead to improved therapies for individuals suffering from age- related macular degeneration (AMD)

The primary objective of this FOA is to stimulate innovative Convergent Neuroscience (CN) approaches to establish causal and/or probabilistic linkages across contiguous levels of analysis (e.g., gene, molecule, cell, circuit, system, behavior) in an explanatory model of psychopathology. In particular, applicants should focus on how specific constituent biological processes at one level of analysis contribute to quantifiable properties at other levels, either directly or as emergent phenomena.  Although not required, it is preferable that applications link at least three levels of analysis and include an emphasis on genetics. The projects under this FOA will develop novel methods, theories, and approaches through a CN team framework, bringing together highly synergistic inter/transdisciplinary teams from neuroscience and "orthogonal" fields (e.g., data/computational science, physics, engineering, mathematics, and environmental sciences). Successful teams will combine, expand upon, or develop conceptual frameworks and theoretical approaches, and build explanatory computational models that connect contiguous levels of analysis. Such frameworks, theories, and computational explanatory models should be validated through experimental approaches to elucidate biological underpinnings of complex behavioral (including cognitive and affective) outcomes in psychopathology. Additionally, a goal of this program is to advance research in CN by creating a shared community framework of resources which may be used by the broader research community to further research, as such, successful team will have robust plan for sharing data and other resources.

Substance abuse results in widespread changes in brain structure and function, and research is needed to explain these changes and how they affect behavior. The goals of the research areas described in this Neuroscience of Drug Abuse FOA are to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug abuse and addiction, with special emphasis on changes that occur during chronic drug use, withdrawal and relapse. An understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying drug addiction can help to identify targets for prevention and treatment interventions. Research utilizing basic, translational, or clinical approaches is appropriate.

Substance abuse results in widespread changes in brain structure and function, and research is needed to explain these changes and how they affect behavior. The goals of the research areas described in this Neuroscience of Drug Abuse FOA are to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug abuse and addiction, with special emphasis on changes that occur during chronic drug use, withdrawal and relapse. An understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying drug addiction can help to identify targets for prevention and treatment interventions. Research utilizing basic, translational, or clinical approaches is appropriate.

Substance abuse results in widespread changes in brain structure and function, and research is needed to explain these changes and how they affect behavior. The goals of the research areas described in this Neuroscience of Drug Abuse FOA are to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug abuse and addiction, with special emphasis on changes that occur during chronic drug use, withdrawal and relapse. An understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying drug addiction can help to identify targets for prevention and treatment interventions. Research utilizing basic, translational, or clinical approaches is appropriate.