Brain and body together: understanding how the heart, lungs, and brain work as a system in zebrafish
Official title: The Heart and the Mind: An Integrative Approach to Brain-Body Interactions in the Zebrafish
Funded at Harvard University · NIH-11404074 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project studies how internal body signals like heart rate and breathing influence brain activity and behavior in zebrafish to better understand brain-body interactions.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Harvard University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Cambridge, United States) |
| Project start | September 25, 2017 |
| Project end | August 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $3,381,121 |
| NIH project number | 5U19NS104653-10 |
| Project ID | NIH-11404074 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are researchers and clinicians interested in neurobiology and behavior who can translate zebrafish findings to human brain–body interactions.
✕Less likely to help
This research is basic science in a zebrafish model and does not involve direct patient participation.
What this research studies
Researchers will study how internal bodily states shape brain computations in larval zebrafish by measuring cardiac and respiratory signals alongside brain activity during behavior. They will model how autonomic and intracardiac nerves contribute to how animals respond to rewards, strife, and diurnal changes. The project will build a comprehensive body-and-brain connectome to map how body signals propagate to neural circuits and influence behavior, using integrative computational approaches. This work aims to create a more complete picture of embodied cognition that links physiology with neural processing in a whole-organism model.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could lead to better understanding of how bodily states affect decision-making and behavior, potentially informing treatments for disorders involving brain-body regulation.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work shows that integrating body signals with brain activity can reveal important mechanisms of behavior in model systems; this project extends those insights with a connectome approach.
Where this research is happening
-
Harvard University
Cambridge, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Engert, Florian — Harvard University
- Study coordinator: Engert, Florian
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.