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We explore the brain’s circuits and activity

Discovering how information processed by networks of neurons generates our thoughts, emotions, and actions

Our Mission

From individual neurons to the whole brain, we work to reveal how the brain interprets environments to make decisions.

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Our approach

Innovative methods and groundbreaking discoveries to deepen our understanding of the brain, while paving the way for new treatments for brain disorders.

Scientists at the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics analyze and trace the path of signaling in neural circuits cascading across the whole brain and body.

Our approach is focused on how the parts of the brain work together to produce behavior. Teams of researchers develop next-generation neurotechnologies that capture rich data that are shared with the wider scientific community.  

Open Science

We are doing science in the open. Our data and tools are openly available to the community.

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Collaborative Process

We work in a coordinated manner to address complex and deep scientific challenges, leveraging the joint strengths and expertise of diverse scientists and technical staff.​

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Platforms accelerate our work

Surgery

The Surgery team offers a variety of aseptic rodent surgical procedures ranging from stereotaxic injections to headpost implantation and cranial windowing.

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Neuropixels Electrophysiology

The Neuropixels platform uses pioneering technology for highly reproducible, targeted, brain-wide, cell-type-specific electrophysiology to record neural activity from defined neuron types across the brain.

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Brain-Wide Anatomy at Cellular Resolution

The Molecular Anatomy platform combines innovative histology, imaging, and analysis techniques to map the morphology and molecular identity of neuron types across the whole brain.

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Fiber Photometry

The Fiber Photometry platform enables optical measurement of neural activity in live animals to study neural circuits' function and dynamics in behaving animals.

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Behavior

The Behavior platform uses advanced technology to implement a standardized, modular, multi-task virtual reality gymnasium for mice, with the goal to study brain function across different behaviors at scale.

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Projects

Team-based research efforts, with the primary goal of answering a foundational scientific question to make discoveries.

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Behavior and Motor Control

We are developing and using genetic, electrophysiological, optical, and behavioral approaches to investigate how the brain adaptively controls behavior. The team focuses on understanding the descending circuits that control the execution of actions and how they change when actions are reinforced and refined.

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Brain-Wide Circuit Dynamics

We are using large-scale electrophysiology to study how distributed brain regions coordinate their spiking activity to guide behavior in changing environments.

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Neural Dynamics in Multi-Regional Circuits with Thalamus in the Middle

We are uncovering how neural signals are transmitted from subcortical brain regions via the thalamus to modulate cortical activity and thereby influence behavior.

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Get Involved

Upcoming events

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NeurIPS Workshop

Join us at the Data on the Brain & Mind Workshop at NeurIPS 2025. This event is focused on applications of AI to neuroscience. We will be presenting a tutorial on accessing and using the Allen Brain Observatory Visual Behavior Neuropixels dataset. This dataset consists of dense electrophysiological recordings of neural activity in mice performing a visual change detection task. Each experiment includes data from up to six Neuropixels probes recording simultaneously in cortex, hippocampus, thalamus and midbrain, while mice were exposed to different sensory and behavioral contexts, including familiar and novel stimuli, as well as active and passive stimulus blocks. See An Overview of the Neuropixels Visual Behavior Dataset From the Allen Institute for a tutorial on analyzing the Visual Behavior Neuropixels dataset from the Allen Institute.

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