2017 Seed Grant Projects

The 2017 seed grants tackle such topics as the relationship between social anxiety and substance abuse, language acquisition and long-term auditory memory, the connections between meditation and gut health, the non-visual neural registration of ambient light, the genetic changes associated with fatherhood, the physical properties of mosquitos’ attraction to humans, the genetic variables associated with hereditary hearing loss, the development of a superior EEG for studying the neural correlates of dance, and how to improve analysis of the temporal properties of fMRI data.

Dance and EEG: Neural correlates of expressive movement

  • Pamela Abshire, Karen Bradley, Adrianne Fang, Brad Hatfield, Jonathan Simon

This project engineers an ambulatory EEG that can better account for the movement artifacts that degrade EEG measurements when subjects are not just thinking but moving—for example, when dancing.

Biobehavioral links among social anxiety, risk-taking, and substance use

  • Andres De Los Reyes, Sarah Racz, and Erica Glasper

This project looks to objectively distinguish inhibited social anxiety from disinhibited social anxiety with the long-term goal of developing targeted treatments for anxiety subtypes.

Computing with trajectories: Novel methods for understanding spatiotemporal function MRI data

  • Luiz Pessoa, Joseph Jájá

This project proposes to develop dynamic and distributed methods—computing with trajectories—to understand the dynamics of large-scale brain network interactions via fMRI

Unraveling the neurogenetic architecture of human preference in mosquitoes

  • Megan Fritz, Carlos Machado, Quentin Gaudry

Using an RNA sequencing approach, this project identifies multiple differentially expressed genes involved in chemosensation and visual perception between two distinct biological forms of Culex pipiens mosquitoes.

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Control of cross-modal sensory plasticity by intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells

  • Joshua Singer, Patrick Kanold

This project tests the hypothesis that non-image-forming vision (intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells) mediates the influence of visual stimulation on auditory system synaptic function and is responsible for light-dependent plasticity in auditory circuits.

Characterizing biological changes associated with shift in reproductive strategy

  • Heidi Fisher, Erica Glasper

This project uses an innovative, integrative approach to identify how changes in gene expression in neural and reproductive tissues regular the physiological and behavioral changes associates with shifts in male reproductive strategy.

Identifying candidate genes associated with sensorineural hearing loss in a novel vertebrate model

  • Robert Dooling, Karen Carleton, Farrah Madison

This project investigates the molecular mechanisms of high-frequency hearing loss in the canary to assess whether this phenotypic trait may have been the result of artificial selection (breeding for song quality or plumage).

Impact of meditation experience on the brain-body connection: Behavioral, physiological, and neural measures of stress-resilience

  • Robin Puett, Stephanie Kuchinsky

This project examines neurophysiological and behavioral outcomes in order to discover the complex, interactive processes by which meditation could impact stress resilience and to identify those for whom meditation is most beneficial (e.g., older adults).

New representations in neuronal ensembles during initial language acquisition

  • Jonathan Fritz, Bill Idsardi

This project looks to understand the neural basis of adaptive plasticity and dynamic information processing in brain networks by focusing on how complex sounds in spoken language are learned, associated with meaning and stored in long-term auditory memory.


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