# Cross-brain, multi-region interactions in decision formation and decision commitment

> **NIH NIH R01** · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $823,252

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The brain is composed of many densely interconnected regions, in constant communication and interaction
with each other; cognition and behavior emerge from this interacting network. Yet, to date the vast majority of
our knowledge regarding brain function, at cellular resolution, has come from studies focused on single brain
regions. Understanding the joint cellular-resolution dynamics of large sets of brain regions remains a major
challenge for two main reasons. The first is (a) experimental: simultaneous recordings, from many regions
across the brain, with sufficient power to identify neural dynamics at a fine timescale and cellular resolution
remain extremely rare, meaning that the joint dynamics are rarely even measured in spiking datasets. The
second obstacle is (b) analytical: even when recordings from multiple regions are available, analysis methods
for understanding communication and interactions across many regions, at cellular resolution, are limited and
still under development. We propose to address both of these challenges head on. We will develop methods
for chronic electrophysiological recordings from hundreds of neurons in each of tens of regions across the
brain. We expect to record from 6,000 to 12,000 neurons simultaneously in well-trained, freely-moving rats. We
will also develop modeling and analysis methods to understand the interactions between brain regions
contained in that data. We will do this in the context of elucidating the multi-region interactions underlying the
accumulation of sensory evidence for decision-making. Moreover, to begin to understand to what extent our
findings generalize to other types of decision-making, we will also apply our methods to a value-based
reward-guided task, and compare across the two tasks.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11040135
- **Project number:** 1R01MH138935-01
- **Recipient organization:** PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Carlos D Brody
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $823,252
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-18 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11040135

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11040135, Cross-brain, multi-region interactions in decision formation and decision commitment (1R01MH138935-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11040135. Licensed CC0.

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