Completed Brain & Nervous System Psychology & Behaviour

International Brain Laboratory

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University College London
Funding £2.0M
Period Sept 2017 — Mar 2020

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Twenty laboratories will join forces to map the neural circuitry behind a mouse’s split-second decision to forage for food. Understanding how the brain integrates sensory information with internal estimates of reward—such as when to keep searching or give up—is a fundamental puzzle in neuroscience. The brain’s complexity has made it impossible for any single lab to tackle alone. This consortium, the International Brain Laboratory, will combine 2-photon imaging and high-yield Neuropixels recordings to measure brain-wide activity as mice perform a foraging-like task. Theorists and experimentalists will share data instantly via cloud-based pipelines, a level of collaboration unprecedented in the field. This is primarily fundamental science. If successful, it will provide the first mechanistic explanation of decision-making across multiple brain structures, not just one region. The project also aims to set a new template for global neuroscience collaborations, with standardised data processing and open sharing that could improve reproducibility across the field. While no immediate clinical or technological application is promised, deeper understanding of how the brain weighs evidence and updates expectations could, in the long term, inform treatments for disorders where decision-making goes awry, such as addiction or Parkinson’s disease.

View original technical description
Understanding mechanisms of brain function is a scientific frontier with enormous potential benefits which is now within reach, thanks to recent exciting technical innovations. However, given the brain’s extraordinary complexity, effectively harnessing these tools is beyond the reach of single laboratories pursuing problems in isolation. This initiative - the International Brain Laboratory - will focus the efforts of 20 laboratories to understand the neural mechanisms supporting decision-making behavior in mice. As in real-world foraging contexts, mice will combine information from sensory stimuli with internal estimates of evolving reward availability. To understand how sensory signals are integrated across the brain and combined with an internal, dynamic understanding of reward structure, we will measure brain-wide neuronal activity using 2-photon imaging and high-yield electrophysiology with Neuropixels probes. Theorists and experimentalists will work closely together to interpret data, making use of standardized data processing pipelines and immediate cloud-based data sharing. This is a paradigm-shifting approach in terms of its large-scale collaborative structure and its aim to provide a mechanistic explanation of decision-making behavior across brain structures. Further, by harnessing strategies for sharing data and analyses to ensure tight collaboration and improved reproducibility, we aim to provide a new template for global neuroscience collaborations.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Michael Hausser (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

International Brain Laboratory Core: global dissemination and outreach
BrainSight: Imaging of neural codes over the lifecourse
Ultrastructural visualisation of synaptic function in brains of behaving mice
Resolving the neural circuitry underpinning decision-making in mice
Correlating neuronal activity and large volume nanoscale imaging using AI

Original classification

Strategic Support: Science

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