Neuroscience

The goal of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute is to understand how the brain gives rise to mental life and behavior.

The Institute's interdisciplinary community of scholars will draw from a multiplicity of disciplines, including neuroscience, medicine, education, law and business. Their discoveries aim to remodel understanding of brain function, individuals, and society, enabling positive change and enhancing human potential. Current research themes: The Changing Brain, Cracking the Neural Code, Enhancing the Brain, Understanding Thought, and How We Learn.

Director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute and Professor of Neurobiology
HHMI scientist
Co-Chair, Advisory Committee to the NIH Director

Dr. Newsome's research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying visually based decision making and related issues in cognitive neuroscience. He seeks to understand how higher mammals acquire sensory information about the world, how that information is processed within the brain, and how behavioral responses to that information are organized.

Deisseroth focuses on developing molecular and cellular tools to observe, perturb, and re-engineer brain circuits. His laboratory is based in the James H. Clark Center at Stanford and employs a range of techniques including neural stem cell and tissue engineering methods, electrophysiology, molecular biology, neural activity imaging, animal behavior, and computational neural network modeling. Also a clinician in the psychiatry department, Dr. Deisseroth employs novel electromagnetic brain stimulation techniques in human patients for therapeutic purpose

Associate Professor of Biology and Applied Physics, Stanford
HHMI Investigator
Principal Investigator, Schnizer Group

Dr. Schnitzer has longstanding interests in neural circuit dynamics and optical imaging focusing on: the development and application of fiber-optic, micro-optic, and nanophotonic imaging techniques for studies of learning and memory; in vivo fluorescence imaging and behavioral studies of hippocampal-dependent cognition and learning; and development of high-throughput, massively parallel imaging techniques for studying brain function in Drosophila.

Professor of Law, Stanford University
Director, Center for Law and the Biosciences
Director, Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society
At large member, BRAIN Initiative Multi-Council Working Group

Henry Greely specializes in the ethical, legal, and social implications of new biomedical technologies, particularly those related to neuroscience, genetics, or stem cell research.

This lecture describes recent work on developing small microscopes for deep tissue imaging that can surgically implementing into living and awake animals. Exciting applications are described for imaging the activity and long term shape changes of single neurons in the brain.

Video published on Nov. 11, 2013 by iBioEducation

"OpenfMRI allows neuroscientists to share brain research data"
Science Nation - March 15, 2015

Researchers around the world can compare notes on one of the most powerful tools available for imaging human brain function, the fMRI, thanks to support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). An fMRI is a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood oxygenation and flow.

Principal Investigator: Mark J Schnitzer
Stanford Neurosciencs Institute

The Schnitzer Group has three major research efforts: Development and application of fiber-optic, micro-optic, and nanophotonic imaging techniques for studies of learning and memory in behaving mice and for clinical uses in humans; In vivo fluorescence imaging and behavioral studies of hippocampal-dependent cognition and learning; and Development of high-throughput, massively parallel imaging techniques for studying brain function in large numbers of Drosophila concurrently

Principal Investigator: Mark J Schnitzer
Stanford Neuroscience
Title: "Protein voltage sensors: kilohertz imaging of neural dynamics in behaving animals"
BRAIN Category: Large-Scale Recording-Modulation - Optimization (RFA NS-14-008)

Dr. Schnitzer and his team have created a new system for developing optical voltage sensors, which will allow scientists to simultaneously record firing of large groups of neurons or electrical activity in precise locations inside of neurons, such as synapses.