A team of University researchers including Greg DeAngelis, the George Eastman Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Ralf Haefner, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, have received a $12.2 million grant award from the National Institutes of Health for a project to better understand how the brain uses causal inference to distinguish self-motion from object motion.

It is the biggest research award in the history of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

The five-year award is part of the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative. The insights generated by the award, which also involves researchers at New York University, Harvard Medical School, Rice University, and the University of Washington, may have important applications in developing treatments and therapies for neural disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, as well as inspire advances in artificial intelligence.

“This research builds on a longstanding strength of BCS of using computational methods to understand both behavior and underlying neural mechanisms,” says Duje Tadin, professor and chair of the department at Rochester.

Causal inference involves a complicated circuit of neurons and other sensory mechanisms that are not widely understood, DeAngelis says, because “sensory perception works so well most of the time, so we take for granted how difficult of a computational problem it is.”

Sometimes people feel impulsive, while other times, their choices and actions feel more deliberative; one morning a person might reach into his closet and pick out an outfit without much consideration, whereas another time the person might spend a lot of time weighing what to wear.

In a paper published in the journal Neuron, Adam Snyder, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and his colleagues found that mental impulsivity states fluctuate up and down several times each hour. These fluctuations are associated with large-scale changes in patterns of neural activity in the visual cortex.

This poses a problem: how does the brain consistently process visual information when faced with such impulsivity-related changes in neural activity?

The researchers hypothesized that one potential solution to this problem would be if these impulsivity signals were broadcast throughout the brain, so that down-stream brain areas could account for these fluctuations when making visually-guided behaviors. To test if this was the case, the researchers simultaneously recorded neural populations in the visual cortex as well as a frontal brain area involved in decision-making and action planning. They found that large-scale, impulsivity-related fluctuations were coordinated across the two brain areas. This could explain how we maintain a consistent visual experience throughout the day despite our constantly changing impulsivity state.

“We still don’t understand how the brain encodes information about the environment,” Snyder says. “That knowledge will be essential to understanding how those processes break down across a wide range of mental diseases and disorders affecting perception (e.g., schizophrenia, blindness, etc.). One long-term goal of neuroscience is to be able to intervene in neural activity to restore ‘healthy’ activity patterns for patients (e.g., cortical visual prosthetics to restore vision in people with damage to their eyes or optic nerves). Our research suggests that the right type of activity pattern needs to take into account non-sensory factors, such as the internal ‘impulsivity’ state.”

A collaborative project between researchers at the Medical Center (URMC), New York University and University of Idaho will examine whether mothers can transmit COVID-19 through breast milk, and whether the breast milk itself has immunological properties against the disease.

URMC was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for roughly $600,000 over the next two years for this study, which could result in critical guidance for an issue that currently lacks high-quality evidence. The research group is led by Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo in the Department of Pediatrics.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, major health organizations have often provided contradictory advice on whether and/or when to separate COVID-19 positive mothers and their newborns, according to co-investigator Bridget Young, research assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics. “We only want to sequester a mother from her baby if it’s medically necessary,” says Young, “However, the issue is very confusing for practitioners who don’t have sufficient evidence, and that’s what drove the urgency. We’re looking to drive the evidence so we can provide the best care.”

“Lots of viruses aren’t present in breast milk,” says Young, “If a mom has influenza, we don’t tell her to stop breast feeding her babies. A lot of factors in breast milk can help in keeping babies healthy. Plus, there’s a lot of data showing that moms vaccinated against influenza provide specific influenza antibodies that help their infants remain healthy.”

Young’s hypothesis is that, similar to the flu, COVID-19 antibodies will be found in the mother’s breast milk. “We’re particularly interested in when antibodies may appear in breast milk and how this timing overlaps with any potential detection of virus in milk,” says Young. Read more here.

One new Faculty Pilot awardee and two new Trainee Pilot awardees who have begun their Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI)-funded projects. Faculty Pilot awards provide $50,000 and Trainee Pilot awards provide $25,000 over one year to help researchers build a solid research foundation and obtain subsequent extramural funding.

Faculty Pilot awardee Andrew J. Anderson, research assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience, and his team will investigate whether story comprehension can predict Alzheimer’s disease. The team will scan a mix of cognitively healthy and unhealthy seniors in an fMRI while they listen to 45 minutes of an audiobook with subtitles. They hope to establish new fMRI decoding indices that can estimate cognitive health.

Trainee Pilot awardee Alan Brooks, a cardiology fellow mentored by Eric Small, Jeffrey Alexis, and Ilan Goldenberg, will tap into URMC’s heart tissue bank to compare gene expression in hearts from left ventricular assist device (LVAD) patients who developed right heart failure and those who did not. Through this comparison, Brooks hopes to discover biomarkers and develop a diagnostic test to predict which patients will develop right heart failure if they receive an LVAD.

Trainee Pilot awardee Carlos Diaz-Balzac, an endocrinology fellow mentored by Douglas Portman, aims to better understand the genetic mutations that disrupt normal brain function and cause intellectual disabilities. Using the nematode C. elegans as a model, he will study genetic mutations of a transcription factor known to cause intellectual disabilities.

Read more here.

The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) is now accepting applications for four funding programs with a potential start date of July 1, 2021. Initial abstracts are due for all opportunities on Monday, September 14.

• The Pilot Studies Program supports translational and clinical research that moves new discoveries along the translational continuum to humans and the community. There are three award categories:  Faculty, Trainee and UNYTE Translational Research Network. View the RFA.
• The Incubator Program supports the development of promising clinical and translational research in a collaborative fashion within the institution, where substantial, carefully targeted investments can accelerate progress and create stand-alone research programs. Learn more and view the RFA.

Michael Mendoza, Monroe County commissioner of public health, will summarize how the COVID pandemic has unfolded over the last nine months in Monroe County and within the broader context of our local health department and beyond, from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, September 18.

He will review preliminary successes and areas for ongoing work and will outline a path forward so our community emerges from this pandemic even stronger and more prepared for future public health challenges. Pre-registration for this session is required.

Startup Bytes, a new Ain Center digital brown bag lunch series about and for entrepreneurs, will feature speakers from UR Health Lab, the great minds behind Dr. Chat Bot and RocCovid, from noon to 1 p.m., September 18.

The two platforms enable communities to operate safely and to track COVID spread during the current public health crisis. Register online to receive the Zoom link.

The Ain Center invites all innovators, including students, faculty, staff, and community members, to tune in via Zoom once per month to hear from local or alumni entrepreneurs and connect on different topics in entrepreneurship.

Here are important links for researchers:

• University’s COVID-19 website for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) site on Coronavirus 2019 resources related to sponsored programs
• University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page.

COVID fatigue: Check out the Life-Work Connections/EAP September blog post to find out if you might be suffering from “COVID fatigue.” Life-Work Connections/EAP is brought to you by Well-U, helping eligible individuals to assess issues, and provide short-term counseling and referrals.

COVID-19 test available to students participating in recent protests or rallies: Because protests and rallies sometimes involve large groups of people congregating together for an extended period of time, University Health Service (UHS) is making available a free COVID-19 test to any full-time University student who requests it based on their participation in these recent and ongoing events. This testing program, conducted by UHS staff for asymptomatic students, will be available for as long as UHS’s testing capacity allows; students who are having symptoms should always call UHS immediately to make an appointment to be tested. Students are reminded to wear a mask and maintain physical distancing while at a protest. To schedule an appointment, email ldudman@uhs.rochester.edu . Testing takes about 5 to 8 minutes. You must show the ALL CLEAR on Dr. Chat Bot before entering the building. Your appointment will be confirmed by email.

Adding more fresh air to indoor spaces: Based on guidance from health experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, University Facilities and Services has been working this summer and into the fall to evaluate and update the air circulation in residential, administrative, and academic buildings on River Campus and at the Eastman School of Music, making improvements for occupant comfort and safety.