# Brain Registration and Histology

> **NIH NIH U19** · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $169,693

## Abstract

Project Summary: Core 4, Brain Registration and Pathway Tracing 
 
Working memory, the ability to temporarily hold multiple pieces of information in mind for manipulation, is 
central to virtually all cognitive abilities. This multi-component research project aims to comprehensively 
dissect the neural circuit mechanisms of this ability across multiple brain areas. The behavior to be studied is 
a type of decision-making task that is based on the gradual accumulation of sensory evidence and thus relies 
on working memory. A full understanding of how this behavior relates to this brain function requires 
explanation at multiple levels: from neural activity in particular regions to how those regions interact in 
brain-wide networks via specific pathways. These levels of analysis require distinct technical approaches, 
which are often difficult to relate to one another rigorously. This Core will promote rigor and reproducibility in 
the proposed research by producing an anatomical framework to standardize and compare the various types 
of data that will be collected. The facility will serve several essential functions in building a broad integrative 
structure for the project. First, it will produce standardized functional maps that will be used to accurately 
determine the boundaries of visual cortical regions before cellular-resolution imaging or inactivation studies. 
Second, it will register all studied brain areas into an anatomical context that includes connectivity and 
functional significance. Automated cell-recognition methods will be used to survey directly imaged regions 
and indirectly connected regions, and to classify neurons and other objects of interest. Third, it will support 
long-distance tracing across synapses to identify paths of connectivity between distant brain regions involved 
in evidence accumulation. Fourth, it will organize this information in a relational database that links all the 
experiments, in a format that can be shared with the neuroscience research community. As technologies for 
functional mapping, registration, and tracing advance over time, this facility will evaluate new methods, adopt 
those that will substantially improve the Core’s capabilities, and train project personnel in their use. Taken 
together, these functions are essential for placing recorded and perturbed neural activity into a brain-wide 
anatomical context, which will enable the integration of information produced by individual experiments and 
techniques into a coherent theoretical framework.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10247577
- **Project number:** 5U19NS104648-05
- **Recipient organization:** PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Samuel Sheng-Hung Wang
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $169,693
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-28 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10247577

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10247577, Brain Registration and Histology (5U19NS104648-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10247577. Licensed CC0.

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