The Brain/MINDS project aims to further understand the human brain and neuropsychiatric disorders through ‘‘translatable’’ biomarkers. Here, we describe the neuroethical issues of the project that have arisen from clinical data collection and the use of biological models of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) reduction is one of the most robust findings in schizophrenia that is related with early psychosis, functional abilities and translatable into animal models. We reviewed clinical MMN research and basic research in animal models and human intracranial recording for understanding neural mechanism of MMN.

We demonstrated that the gamma-band auditory steady-state response (ASSR), which is significantly impaired in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy controls, is significantly correlated with plasma levels of D-serine, a co-agonist of the glycine binding site of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, in the schizophrenia group. These findings suggest that the gamma-band ASSR may reflect NMDA receptor function in schizophrenia.

We developed a high-throughput neurohistological and computational pipeline to accurately map individual brains into a common reference atlas. This method uses a grid-based tracer injection strategy for systematic mesoscale connectivity mapping, providing the first detailed and large-scale presentation of a full resolution microscopic online database (http://marmoset.brainarchitecture.org/). Our method will lay a foundation for subsequent scientific outputs and help others establish their own workflows in the future.

We compare the performance of recently developed genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) under multiple experimental conditions in vitro and in vivo. Each indicator has advantages and disadvantages, and no single GEVI is ideal for every experiment. The results provide a guide for choosing optimal GEVIs for specific applications.