Dr. Bing Brunton, assistant professor of biology at the University of Washington (UW) and Dr. Raj Rao, Director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and professor in the UW Computer Science & Engineering department, have received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how the brain functions without being given structured tasks or direction. Their study is aimed at understanding neural processing outside of traditionally structured and controlled experiments in a laboratory setting.

In Brunton’s and Rao’s study, subjects receive no explicit instructions, but instead, simply behave as they wish in their hospital-room, including eating, sleeping and conversing with family. By observing non-structured behavior, the study aims to build a better understanding of the brain in action, in a real-world scenario. Learn more about this grant and study on the NSF website.