Associated organisationsCentro Champalimaud · Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory · Columbia University · Howard Hughes Medical Institute · Institut National de La Sante Et Recherche Medicale (INSERM) · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics · New York University · Princeton University · Stanford University · University College London · University of California, Berkeley · University of GenevaEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£9.6M
PeriodApr 2020 — Mar 2025
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Twenty-one laboratories across the world are pooling their data to build a complete wiring diagram of how a mouse brain makes a single decision. No single lab can study all the brain regions, cell types, and connections that work together during decision-making. This gap between the complexity of the problem and the capacity of individual teams has stalled progress. The International Brain Laboratory solves this by standardising every step of the experiment—from the behavioural task to the data pipeline—so that results from different labs can be combined into one large dataset. The task itself requires mice to weigh sensory evidence, choose between options, and learn from past outcomes. This is fundamental science. If it succeeds, it will produce the first end-to-end “standard model” of a complex mammalian behaviour, linking single neurons to local circuits to communication between brain areas. That model would give neuroscientists a concrete, testable framework for how brains actually work—something the field has lacked. Historically, such foundational understanding has enabled everything from brain-computer interfaces to treatments for neurological disorders, though no immediate application is promised here. The project also aims to change how large-scale neuroscience is done, offering a blueprint for collaboration on problems too big for any one team.
View original technical description
Understanding the neural circuit basis of behaviour is one of the great challenges in biology. Yet no single laboratory can study the many brain regions, connections, and cell types working together o coordinate decision-making. There is thus a disparity between the capacity of individual laboratories and the complexity of problems being addressed. The International Brain Laboratory orchestrates the efforts of 21 experimental and theoretical laboratories to understand a single behavior. By standardizing experimental procedures and data pipelines, we enable the data acquired by different laboratories to be assembled into a large combined dataset. Our mouse decision-making task requires valuation of different choices based on sensory evidence, choice selection based on this valuation, and integration of prior experience to update a model of the world. We seek a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying these functions, at scales ranging from single neurons to local microcircuits to inter-area communication. To do so we will harness powerful electrophysiological, optical, and genetic tools, and exploit the rich set of theories and analytical approaches developed in recent years. This large-scale effort will provide the first end-to-end “standard model” of a complex mammalian behavior, and inspire new ways to collaborate on difficult problems in neuroscience.
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