Topic: Human neural circuits

NIMH supports exploratory research using opportunities for invasive recording and stimulation in humans to understand neural circuits relevant to mental health disorders. Projects should connect measurements or causal interventions with mechanistic questions about brain function. This R21 mechanism provides up to USD 275,000 in direct costs over two years, with no more than USD 200,000 in either year. The next deadline for new applications is 16 October 2026, at 5 p.m. in the applicant organisation’s local time. Therapeutic device intervention trials are outside this call’s intended scope.

A four-year FPI-funded experimental PhD position is available in Jake Watson's new Human Circuits Barcelona research team at Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain. The project investigates how human cells and synapses generate neural computations and how these processes change in epilepsy. Working closely with the Hospital del Mar Epilepsy Unit and Neurosurgery team, researchers apply advanced imaging and patch-clamp electrophysiology to rodent and neurosurgical human brain samples. The group combines electrophysiology with super-resolution imaging to study the