Brain, Mind & Behavior

The Brain, Mind, and Behavior (BMB) Program supports research studying how neural systems are linked to and support cognitive functions and how cognitive systems are related to an organism’s (preferably human) observable behavior. The program is intended to help investigators pursue experiments designed to answer well-articulated questions.

Applicants should keep in mind that JSMF usually funds less than a dozen BMB research projects each year. The foundation is looking for well-designed experiments matched to intriguing questions. By intriguing questions we do not mean that the questions derive from whatever is the current reigning trend or need be something way “out there”. The proposed question should not stretch beyond what is answerable with available or develop-able research tools. Aspects of proposals appropriate to the JSMF BMB program would include, but are not limited to

• characterizing the cognitive operations involved in performing a task,
• studying how the brain extracts and uses relevant information from complicated environments
• examining how manipulations and/or perturbations at one spatial or temporal scale are meaningful at finer or coarser levels of organization (e.g. does a synaptic change account for a change in network function and vice versa?)
• re-examining ‘common wisdom’ assumptions (such as the existence of critical periods in human learning)
• evaluating the usefulness of methodologies or improving the usefulness of methodologies commonly used in mind/brain research
• applying approaches and knowledge from cognitive psychology or cognitive science to important problems in education, training, or rehabilitation.

Proposals proposing to use functional imaging to identify the “neural correlates” of cognitive or behavioral tasks (for example, mapping the parts of the brain that ‘light up” when different groups of subjects play chess, solve physics problems, or choose apples over oranges) are not funded through this program. In general, JSMF and its expert advisors have taken an unfavorable view of projects attempting too wide a leap in a single bound. Functional imaging studies using poorly characterized tasks as proxies for complex behavioral issues involving empathy, moral judgments, or social decision-making are generally not appropriate responses to this call for proposals. In past competitions, proposals structured along such lines were eliminated from funding consideration early in the review process. Proposals seriously and carefully considering how to best understand the neural and cognitive basis of behavior are welcomed.