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Despite significant scientific advancements made in substance use disorder research over the last century, the causes and consequences of drug use in later life remain poorly understood. The intent of this funding opportunity announcement is to support innovative research that examines aspects of marijuana and prescription opioid and benzodiazepine use in adults aged 50 and older. This FOA encourages research that examines the determinants of these types of drug use and/or characterizes the resulting neurobiological alterations, associated behaviors, and public health consequences. This initiative will focus on two distinct populations of older adults: individuals with earlier onset of drug use who are now entering this stage of adult development or individuals who initiate drug use after the age of 50. Applications are encouraged to utilize broad methodologies ranging from basic science, clinical, and epidemiological approaches. The insights gleaned from this initiative are critical to our understanding of the determinants of drug use in later life, as well as its consequences in the aging brain and on behavior. This knowledge may have the potential to identify risk factors and to guide clinical practices in older populations.

The Organization for Autism Research is inviting applications for its Graduate Research Grant program. Established in 2004, the grant program is intended to encourage and support students conducting research pursuant to graduate and post-graduate studies in disciplines related to assessment, intervention, and support of learners with autism spectrum disorders and their families. Grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded for projects related to the analysis, evaluation, or comparison of assessment models, treatment models, or service systems; applied aspects of early and/or school-based education, behavioral, or communication intervention; adult issues such as containing education, employment, housing models and later intervention; and/or issues related to family support, social and community integration, and assessment and intervention with challenging behavior. Priority will be given to studies that will likely produce practical and clearly objective results that may aid parents, families, professionals, and people with autism to make more fully informed choices that will lead to healthier and happier lives. International students are eligible to apply.

The Autism Science Foundation is inviting applications for its Pre- and Postdoctoral Training Awards from graduate students, medical students, and postdoctoral fellows interested in pursuing careers in basic and clinical research relevant to autism spectrum disorders. The proposed training must be scientifically linked to autism and may be broadened to include training in a closely related area of scientific research, including but not limited to human behavior across the lifespan (language, learning, behavior, communication, social function, motor skills & planning, epilepsy, sleep, repetitive disorders), neurobiology (anatomy, development, neuroimaging), pharmacology, neuropathology, genetics, epigenetics, genomics, epigenomics, immunology, molecular and cellular mechanisms, studies employing model organisms and systems, and studies of treatment and service delivery. Special consideration will be given to projects focused on gender issues in autism. This includes studies examining the female protective effect, neurobiological and neuroanatomical examination of the female autism brain, diagnostic differences and challenges in females, the female phenotype, and health and lifespan issues, including vocational services and employment. ASF also invites studies focused on unaffected siblings and recurrence risk in the offspring of unaffected siblings. ASF is also interested in supporting research on the neurobiology and molecular biology of autism using post-mortem brain tissue. The one-year awards include $25,000 for predoctoral and medical students and $35,000 for postdoctoral students.

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this NIH Blueprint R25 program is to encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research workforce, to pursue further studies or careers in research. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development, Research Experiences, and Mentoring Activities. The fully integrated educational activities should prepare undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral sciences to enter Ph.D. degree programs in the neurosciences. To accomplish this goal, this initiative will provide institutional awards to develop neuroscience research education programs comprised of collaborative partnerships integrated across different educational institution types.

The NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grant provides support for experienced investigators (full professor or equivalent) conducting neurobiological and behavioral research. A one-year grant of $100,000 is provided for established scientists pursuing innovative projects in diverse areas of neurobiological research. Areas of particular interest to the Scientific Council's Selection Committee include patient populations with unique or unusual characteristics and central nervous system developments

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 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.

NIH's $40M fiscal year 2014 investment in the BRAIN Initiative will focus on nine areas of research. The vision for the initiative is to combine these areas of research into a coherent, integrated science of cells, circuits, brain and behavior. Generate a census of brain cell types Create structural maps of the brain Develop new, large-scale neural network recording capabilities Develop a suite of tools for neural circuit manipulation Link neuronal activity to behavior Integrate theory, modeling, statistics and computation with neuroscience experiments Delineate mechanisms underlying human brain imaging technologies Create mechanisms to enable collection of human data for scientific research Disseminate knowledge and training

The purpose of this FOA is to provide resources for integrated development of experimental, analytic and theoretical capabilities for large-scale analysis of neural systems and circuits. We seek applications for exploratory studies that use new and emerging methods for large scale recording and manipulation of neural circuits across multiple brain regions. Applications should propose to elucidate the contributions of dynamic circuit activity to a specific behavioral or neural system. Studies should incorporate rich information on cell-types, on circuit functionality and connectivity, and should be performed in conjunction with sophisticated analysis of ethologically relevant behaviors. Applications should propose teams of investigators that seek to cross boundaries of interdisciplinary collaboration by bridging fields and linking theory and data analysis to experimental design. Exploratory studies supported by this FOA are intended to develop experimental capabilities and theoretical frameworks in preparation for a future competition for large scale awards.

A rich body of evidence suggests that cognitive processes are associated with particular patterns of neural activity. These data indicate 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 cognitive improvement in neuropsychiatric disorders. This initiative encourages applications to test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive abilities. Applications should use experimental designs that incorporate active manipulations to address at least one, and ideally more, of the following topics: (1) in behaving animals, determine which parameters of neural coordination, when manipulated in isolation, improve particular aspects of cognition; (2) in animals or humans, determine how particular abnormalities at the cellular or molecular level, such as specific receptor dysfunction, affect the 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 normal humans or clinical populations; and (4) use systems-level computational modeling to develop a principled understanding of the function and mechanisms by which oscillatory and other electrophysiological temporal dynamic patterns unfold across the brain (cortically and subcortically) to impact cognition.

A rich body of evidence suggests that cognitive processes are associated with particular patterns of neural activity. These data indicate 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 cognitive improvement in neuropsychiatric disorders. This initiative encourages applications to test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive abilities. Applications should use experimental designs that incorporate active manipulations to address at least one, and ideally more, of the following topics: (1) in behaving animals, determine which parameters of neural coordination, when manipulated in isolation, improve particular aspects of cognition; (2) in animals or humans, determine how particular abnormalities at the cellular or molecular level, such as specific receptor dysfunction, affect the 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 normal humans or clinical populations; and (4) use systems-level computational modeling to develop a principled understanding of the function and mechanisms by which oscillatory and other electrophysiological temporal dynamic patterns unfold across the brain (cortically and subcortically) to impact cognition.

A rich body of evidence suggests that cognitive processes are associated with particular patterns of neural activity. These data indicate 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 cognitive improvement in neuropsychiatric disorders.  This initiative encourages applications to test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive abilities.  Applications should use experimental designs that incorporate active manipulations to address at least one, and ideally more, of the following topics: (1) in behaving animals, determine which parameters of neural coordination, when manipulated in isolation, improve particular aspects of cognition;  (2) in animals or humans, determine how particular abnormalities at the cellular or molecular level, such as specific receptor dysfunction, affect the 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 normal humans or clinical populations; and (4) use systems-level computational modeling to develop a principled understanding of the function and mechanisms by which oscillatory and other electrophysiological temporal dynamic patterns unfold across the brain (cortically and subcortically) to impact cognition.

A rich body of evidence suggests that cognitive processes are associated with particular patterns of neural activity. These data indicate 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 cognitive improvement in neuropsychiatric disorders.  This initiative encourages applications to test whether modifying electrophysiological patterns during behavior can improve cognitive abilities.  Applications should use experimental designs that incorporate active manipulations to address at least one, and ideally more, of the following topics: (1) in behaving animals, determine which parameters of neural coordination, when manipulated in isolation, improve particular aspects of cognition;  (2) in animals or humans, determine how particular abnormalities at the cellular or molecular level, such as specific receptor dysfunction, affect the 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 normal humans or clinical populations; and (4) use systems-level computational modeling to develop a principled understanding of the function and mechanisms by which oscillatory and other electrophysiological temporal dynamic patterns unfold across the brain (cortically and subcortically) to impact cognition.   

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite applications that elucidate the mechanisms and/or behavioral outcomes of multisensory processing, the integration or processing of at least two distinct types of sensory input as defined by distinct receptor-type transduction, neural pathways and cognate perceptual quality. Specifically, multiple sensory inputs may include the major traditional modalities of hearing, vision, taste, smell, balance, and touch.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to provide infrastructure support to provide infrastructure support for advancing development of specific high priority areas of behavioral and social research of relevance to Alzheimers disease and Alzheimers disease related dementias (AD/ADRD). The infrastructure support will facilitate research networks through meetings, conferences, small scale pilots, short term educational opportunities (such as intensive workshops, summer institutes, or visiting scholar programs), and dissemination to encourage growth and development of specified priority areas and build resources for advancing aging-relevant research in the field at large. Network applications are limited to the following areas: (1) AD/ADRD care and services research and (2) the coordination of international studies conducting the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages the translation of technologies for brain or behavioral research from academic and other non-small business research sectors to the marketplace. Encouraged from Small Business Concerns (SBCs) are Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications that propose to further develop, make more robust, and make more user-friendly such technologies in preparation for commercial dissemination. It is expected that this activity will require partnerships and close collaboration between the original developers of these technologies and SBCs, which may be accomplished in any of a number of ways, including the use of multiple program directors/principal investigators.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages the translation of technologies for brain or behavioral research from academic and other non-small business research sectors to the marketplace. Encouraged from Small Business Concerns (SBCs) are Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications that propose to further develop, make more robust, and make more user-friendly such technologies in preparation for commercial dissemination. It is expected that this activity will require partnerships and close collaboration between the original developers of these technologies and SBCs, which may be accomplished in any of a number of ways, including the use of multiple program directors/principal investigators.

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.

REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia that presents with abnormal dream mentation, abnormal behaviors, and increased electromyographic tone on polysomnography during REM sleep. Older individuals with RBD frequently develop neurodegenerative diseases, particularly α-synucleinopathies: Parkinson's disease (PD), Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), and Multi-System Atrophy (MSA). Individuals with idiopathic RBD (iRBD) develop an overt synucleinopathy at high rates: 40-50% in 5 years and 80-92% in long-term follow up. iRBD provides a unique opportunity to understand the clinical development and evolution of α-synucleinopathies, as well as a potential path for developing disease prevention therapies. While it is not possible at this time to identify whether a person will develop PD, LBD, or MSA, iRBD is a preclinical/prodromal phase of neurodegenerative, particularly α-synucleinopathy, illness. The current iRBD research community includes investigators and centers across North America and the world. There have been attempts to carry out multi-center iRBD research, but interpretation of findings has been complicated by small numbers of iRBD subjects at individual centers; differences in assessment protocols, including collection methods for cognitive and biomarker data; and variability in diagnostic procedures at different centers. This FOA seeks to develop and support a consortium of investigators who will establish a common iRBD research protocol to collect and share harmonized clinical, cognitive, and biomarker data, establishing a centralized repository of biosamples from individuals with iRBD as they progress from prodromal α-synucleinopathy to PD, LBD, or MSA.

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.