Project Grant R01NS148475

This Project Grant, awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders program (CFDA 93.853), provides $636,084 in federal funding to Harvard College for basic neuroscience research investigating experience-dependent plasticity in neural circuits. The research will be conducted at Harvard's Cambridge, Massachusetts campus between May 12, 2026, and February 28, 2031. The project focuses on understanding how environmental conditions shape sensorimotor circuit function and behavior by studying the mating behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans males, which exhibit distinct behavioral adaptations depending on whether they are reared in two-dimensional or three-dimensional environments.

The primary deliverables include comprehensive mapping of the neural wiring diagram of the mating circuit as it adapts to different environmental conditions, circuit-wide neural activity recordings during both parallel and spiral mating behaviors, and mechanistic analysis of synaptic and cellular remodeling using spatial transcriptomics and genetic manipulation techniques. The research will employ computational modeling to integrate these findings and elucidate how fundamental synaptic plasticity mechanisms translate into system-wide circuit remodeling and adaptive behavioral outcomes. This basic research initiative directly supports NINDS's mission to advance fundamental knowledge of brain and nervous system structure and function to reduce the burden of neurological disease.