The Neural Circuits and Behavior Core (NCBC) was created within the Iowa Neuroscience Institute to enable members of the University of Iowa to perform transformative research on neural circuit function in health and disease using tools that are not often available within individual labs. The NCBC provides equipment, facilities, and services to aid investigators in performing behavioral assays of motor and sensory function, learning and memory, anxiety-like behaviors, social interaction, and sleep. The NCBC also provides imaging equipment and services for investigating the neural substrates of these behaviors, including a lightsheet microscope for fast volumetric imaging of cleared brains, multiphoton microscopes for in vitro or in vivo imaging, miniscopes for deep in vivo imaging, and a fiber photometry system for in vivo measurements of calcium activity and neurotransmitter release. Our staff can either perform experiments for investigators or train lab personnel to perform the experiments in the facility.

Initial funding for the NCBC was provided by generous gifts from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust and Carver College of Medicine.