Tunable cortical dynamics across many timescales for awake brains
Official title: Tunable multi-timescale cortical dynamics: fundamental theory and practical tools
Funded at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville · NIH-11345645 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A broad theory and user-friendly tools to understand how the cortex keeps fast and slow neural activity in balance in awake mice.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Arkansas at Fayetteville NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Fayetteville, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2024 |
| Project end | May 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $295,122 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DA060744-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11345645 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are people with brain disorders where timing and neural coordination are affected, or researchers seeking tools to analyze cortical dynamics; this study itself uses animal models but informs human health.
✕Less likely to help
Healthy individuals without brain disorders may not directly benefit from participating in this line of basic research.
What this research studies
This project aims to build a unified theory and practical data-analysis tools to explain how a single group of cortical neurons can generate and control many timescales of activity. Researchers will combine theoretical development with data from awake mice to test how neural circuits distribute customer timescales across behavior. The work will produce new analytic methods to analyze multi-timescale dynamics and guide how to study cortex function in health and disease. The focus is on fundamental neuroscience with potential long-term relevance to brain disorders that affect timing and coordination.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could give clinicians and scientists better ways to interpret cortical timing in brain disorders and improve approaches to diagnosing or treating conditions that involve disrupted brain dynamics.
How similar studies have gone: Prior work shows promising progress in multi-timescale neural dynamics, but this project aims to unify theories and provide practical analysis tools, making it a novel and potentially impactful advancement.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
Fayetteville, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Shew, Woodrow L. — University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
- Study coordinator: Shew, Woodrow L.
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.