The BRAIN Initiative Photo and Video Contest

The 2026 BRAIN Initiative Conference is hosting a photo and video contest. This unique contest is an opportunity to showcase the stunning, colorful, and inspiring images captured by today's advances in neurotechnology. We're excited to showcase the BRAIN community’s creative fusions of art and science!

Visit the 2026 BRAIN Initiative Conference website for information. Following the conference, this webpage will feature the 2026 winning photos and videos.

Past Winners

Explore the winners of previous year's entries. 

2024

First place: Exploring the 3D nanoarchitecture of neuronal membranes at dendritic spine by labeling Channelrhodopsin-2 | 00:29

By Hao-Cheng Gao, Xi Cheng, Alexander Chubykin, and Fang Huang, Purdue University  

Second place: Spinal motor neurons illuminated by enhancer AAV | 00:29

By Tanya Daigle and Emily Kussick, Allen Institute for Brain Science

Third place: Neuronal 'fireworks' when the salamander sniffs | 00:28

By Lu Xu, Wenze Li, Eliza Jaeger, Elizabeth Hillman, and Maria Tosches, Columbia University

BRAIN at 10 Video Finalist: Cortical Density | 00:29

By Tyler Sloan, Quorumetrix Studio

2023

First Place Video: Simian Symphony: Ripple Assemblies During Rest | 00:29

By Kari Hoffman, Tyler Sloan, Saman Abbaspoor, Vanderbilt University

Second Place Video: Functional Ultrasound Localization Microscopy | 00:29

By Alexandre Dizeux, Physics for Medicine Paris

Third Place Video: Synaptic Balance | 00:25

By Scalable Minds

Dark Commute at 4am - First Place Photo Winner 2023. A confocal image of sparse GCaMP6f-expressing Purkinje cells in mouse cerebellum resembles the industrious contours of pre-dawn commuters.

First Place Photo: Dark Commute at 4am

By Silas Busch, University of Chicago

Premotor Neurons Controlling the Fruit Fly Leg. Second Place Photo Winner 2023. Reconstruction of premotor neurons from a serial-section electron microscopy dataset of the Drosophila Female Adult Nerve Cord.

Second Place Photo: Premotor Neurons Controlling the Fruit Fly Leg

By Andrew Cook, Jasper Phelps, Anthony Azevedo, Ellen Lesser, Leila Elabbady, Brandon Pratt, Wei-Chung Allen Lee, John Tuthill, University of Washington and Harvard Medical School

Memory Lanes. Third Place Photo Winner 2023. A rendering of MRI data –combining cortical surface and hippocampal segmentations from a T1 weighted scan and diffusion tractography.

Third Place Photo: Memory Lanes

By Tyler Ard, USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute

2022

First Place Video: Neurons In Action | 00:55

By Andreas Tolias, Jacob Reimer, R.J. Cotton, Xaq Pitkow, Nuno da Costa, Forrest Collman, Clay Reid, and Sebastian Seung, Baylor College of Medicine, Allen Institute, Princeton University, Northwestern University/Shirley Ryan Ability Lab

Second Place Video: Ictal Cinema | 00:51

By Jon Kleen, University of California San Francisco

Third Place Video: Pyramidal Christmas Tree | 00:17

By Forrest Collman, Allen Institute for Brain Science

2021

First Place Video: DBS Lead Placement for OCD | 00:30

By Nicole Provenza, Raissa Mathura, Noam Peled, Evan Dastin-van Rijn, Kelly Bijanki, Sameer Sheth, David Borton, Wayne Goodman, Brown University, Baylor College of Medicine

Second Place Video (TIE): Pyramidal Tract Reconstruction in Vivo | 00:22

By Patryk Filipiak, Timothy Shepherd, Ying-Chia Lin, Dimitris G. Placantonakis, Fernando E. Boada, Steven H. Baete, New York University School of Medicine

Second Place Video (TIE): Non-invasive in vivo Mapping of the Human Amygdala Circuit | 00:27

By Josue Avecillas-Chasin, Ausaf Bari, Jean-Philippe Langevin, University of California, Los Angeles

Third Place Video: Reconstructed Mouse Cervical Spinal Cord | 00:30

By Jamie Anne Mortel, Salk Institute