The Center for Integrative Neuroscience was established at UC San Francisco in 1990. Within the Center, more than 250 scientists in 15 laboratories are discovering how we see and hear, how we move our limbs, why we feel pain, how we learn and remember, and how we speak and understand language. Research is focused on questions of how the nerve cells in brains work together to generate human behaviors, rather than on the operation of the nerve cells themselves. Approaches in use in the Center include the rigorous analysis of behavior, measurements of the electrical activity of individual brain cells, imaging of brain tissue with modern microscopic techniques, computer modeling, and other theoretical approaches to brain function. Our research provides the foundation for applications to human neurological disease for disorders ranging from tremor to learning disabilities.

The laboratories within the Center were constructed with assistance from the Sandler Foundation. Research in the Center is funded heavily by the US Government through research and program grants from the National Institutes of Health and by the University of California.

Individual private donors play a crucial role in making possible the most daring and creative research. This research holds the greatest hope for major strides in understanding brain function and treating brain diseases, but is usually too innovative to receive governmental support.