Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R01) and Clinical Trial Optional | PAR 18 555

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 18 555

Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R01) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding opportunity (PAR-18-555) aimed at advancing what is sometimes called the "systems-level timing" view of brain function. The central idea behind the announcement is that many core human capacities, including cognition (such as attention, learning, working memory, and decision-making), affect (emotion and mood regulation), and social behavior, tend to work best when activity across brain regions is tightly coordinated in time. This coordination can show up as oscillatory rhythms (brain waves), interactions between different frequency bands (cross-frequency coupling), relationships between neuronal spiking and ongoing rhythms (spike-phase coupling), and broader population-level patterns of activity across networks. Because many neuropsychiatric disorders involve disruptions in these coordinated dynamics, the FOA encourages projects that directly test whether changing these electrophysiological patterns during behavior can produce measurable improvements in cognitive, emotional, or social functioning.

A key emphasis of this opportunity is active manipulation rather than purely observational measurement. The NIH is looking for experimental designs where investigators do something that perturbs, drives, or modifies neural coordination and then evaluates causal effects on behavior and relevant outcomes. That manipulation could be done in animals or humans, and the announcement leaves room for clinical trials but does not require them (the FOA is labeled "Clinical Trial Optional"). The broader translational motivation is to identify actionable neural dynamics that could eventually serve as targets for interventions that treat symptoms common across neuropsychiatric conditions, especially symptoms related to cognition, social processing, or affect.

Applications must address at least one of four main scientific directions, and the FOA makes clear that stronger applications may integrate more than one. First, applicants can focus on identifying which specific parameters of neural coordination matter for particular behavioral functions, and whether manipulating those parameters in isolation improves performance. In practice, this could mean systematically testing features like phase synchrony, oscillation frequency or amplitude, timing relationships between regions, or specific coupling patterns, and then linking those manipulations to discrete improvements in attention, memory, emotional reactivity, or social perception. The emphasis on "in isolation" signals interest in careful experimental control, where a project tries to pinpoint the functional role of a defined coordination feature rather than broadly stimulating or suppressing large portions of the brain without mechanistic clarity.

Second, the FOA invites work that bridges biological mechanisms across scales by asking how abnormalities at the genomic, molecular, or cellular levels impact systems-level coordination during behavior. This direction is designed for projects that connect risk factors or disease-relevant perturbations (for example, genetic variants, altered neurotransmission, circuit-level inhibitory/excitatory balance changes, or cell-type-specific dysfunction) to measurable changes in network timing and coordination. The practical payoff is a clearer account of how underlying pathophysiology produces network-level timing disruptions, which can sharpen both mechanistic understanding and intervention strategies.

Third, the opportunity supports translational alignment between animal and human work by encouraging studies that test whether systems-level electrophysiological changes observed in behaving animals can predict analogous electrophysiological and cognitive improvements in healthy humans or clinical populations. In other words, the NIH is not only interested in finding an effect in an animal model; it also wants applicants to consider whether the same kind of timing-based neural signature can be measured and moved in humans in a way that tracks with meaningful cognitive or behavioral gains. This direction supports the development of cross-species biomarkers and intervention targets that are more likely to generalize from preclinical findings to clinical impact.

Fourth, the FOA highlights the role of biologically realistic computational modeling, specifically models that incorporate systems-level aspects of brain function. The focus here is not abstract modeling divorced from biology, but models grounded in realistic neural dynamics that can help explain how oscillations and other temporal coordination patterns emerge, propagate across circuits, and influence cognition, affect, or social behavior. This direction supports projects where modeling is used to generate mechanistic hypotheses, interpret complex multiregion recordings, predict the outcomes of specific manipulations, or optimize intervention parameters for driving beneficial coordination patterns.

From a funding structure standpoint, this is an R01 opportunity, which generally supports larger, longer-term, hypothesis-driven projects compared with exploratory mechanisms. The FOA notes that there is a companion R21 announcement aimed at shorter, potentially higher-risk exploratory work, while PAR-18-555 is the R01 pathway for more developed research programs. The activity category is Health, and the CFDA number listed is 93.242. The funding instrument is a grant, and the opportunity is categorized as discretionary.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of institutions and organizations. Standard eligible applicants include state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; and nonprofits both with and without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education, depending on category). The FOA also allows for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses, as well as other categories. In addition, it explicitly calls out a wide range of other eligible applicants, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). It also includes faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), reflecting an intent to broaden participation and leverage diverse research settings and populations.

Finally, the administrative details provided in the source indicate the opportunity was created on January 2, 2018, with an original closing date listed as March 5, 2021. The award ceiling and expected awards fields are not specified in the provided excerpt, so applicants would typically look to NIH budget guidance for R01s and any FOA-specific budget instructions in the full notice. Overall, the announcement is best understood as a targeted call for causal, mechanistically grounded studies that treat coordinated neural timing patterns not just as correlates of healthy brain function, but as modifiable levers that can be tuned to improve cognitive, affective, and social outcomes in both basic and translational contexts.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Understanding and Modifying Temporal Dynamics of Coordinated Neural Activity (R01) and Clinical Trial Optional" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-01-02.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-03-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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