Establishing a Research Network to Guide Foundational Research on Human Consciousness
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The contract aims to establish the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research Network focused on foundational research into human consciousness through a trans-NIH collaboration involving 14 participating Institutes, Centers, and Offices. This initiative addresses a critical gap in understanding the neural mechanisms that underlie conscious states, which are central to a variety of serious biomedical conditions such as coma, dementia, traumatic brain injury, and sleep disorders. The Network will coordinate interdisciplinary efforts across neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, anesthesiology, computational science, bioethics, and other fields to create shared standards, harmonize operational definitions, and develop research infrastructure. By doing so, it seeks to improve clinical decision-making and treatment outcomes for patients with complex neurological and systemic illnesses. Beyond fostering collaboration and standardization, the Network will focus on capacity building by providing resources, training workshops, and scholar programs aimed at advancing rigorous, reproducible, and ethically sound research on consciousness. Key goals include identifying effective research settings and measures of consciousness, exploring altered conscious states across various conditions, and evaluating innovative treatments such as neurostimulation and meditation. This initiative reflects NIH’s strategic priorities of enhancing population health and scientific leadership by creating a cohesive framework to support and accelerate advancements in the understanding of consciousness and its clinical implications.
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This Funding Opportunity will establish the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research Network to Guide Foundational Research on Human Consciousness, leveraging a trans-NIH collaboration of 14 Institutes, Centers, and Offices dedicated to reducing the burden of nervous system disorders. Consciousness is central to numerous serious biomedical conditions, including coma, delirium, dementia, traumatic brain injury, stroke, sleep disorders, metabolic disorders, and seizures - conditions central to NIH's biomedical mission. Yet the neural mechanisms that support conscious states remain insufficiently understood, limiting clinicians’ ability to diagnose and treat patients effectively. Advancing foundational science on human consciousness will strengthen clinical decision-making and improve outcomes for patients with costly and hard-to-treat neurologic and systemic illnesses by:
- Detecting consciousness in minimally responsive patients to guide prognosis, treatment, and ethical decisions (e.g., organ harvesting).
- Improving understanding of consciousness in Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias, and delirium.
- Investigating altered states in mental disorders to inform treatments.
- Identifying sentience and state transitions under anesthesia and during recovery.
- Advancing knowledge of sleep states and improving treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders.
- Exploring non-sensory visual perception (e.g., hallucinations, aphantasia) to deepen insight into mental health.
- Evaluating therapeutic effects of consciousness-modulating interventions such as meditation, hypnosis, and neurostimulation.
- Applying New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to study human consciousness.
Despite its importance, biomedical research on consciousness lacks shared standards, resulting in fragmented efforts and limiting understanding of underlying neurocircuitry. To accelerate rigorous, reproducible, and ethically grounded research, this initiative will create a national interdisciplinary Research Network to strengthen and integrate consciousness-related neuroscience, rather than support discrete, hypothesis-driven projects. The Network will develop coordination frameworks, standards, and infrastructure, uniting expertise from neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, psychology, anesthesiology, sleep and meditation research, computational science, AI, bioethics, and philosophy.
The Network’s goal is capacity building: developing and providing needed research resources to advance understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting conscious states. It will lead planning and consensus-building activities to:
- Harmonize operational definitions across consciousness research.
- Identify research settings, model systems, and experimental designs with the greatest potential.
- Evaluate indicators and measures of consciousness for diverse scientific approaches.
- Determine which measures best reflect preserved or perturbed neurobiological function.
- Address essential ethical considerations.
To strengthen U.S. leadership and cultivate a highly trained workforce, the Network will provide interdisciplinary cross-training opportunities, such as workshops and visiting scholar programs, not feasible in siloed environments. This initiative will create resources that enable rigorous biomedical research on the neural mechanisms of conscious states, aligning with NIH's strategic priorities to improve population health and well-being.
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