Simons Foundation

The goal of the Simons Collaborations in Neuroscience is to bring together groups of outstanding scientists to address fundamental questions about brain function, with a focus on fields in which significant new developments have created novel opportunities for exploration. The foundation currently supports three neuroscience collaborations. The mission of the Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience (SCENE) is to understand how affordances offered by the world shape representations in the mind and the brain. The Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB) aims to discover mechanisms of resilience and functional maintenance in the aging brain, and to establish a baseline for plasticity-related changes with age across many model systems. The SCPAB’s focus on the basic biology of cognitive aging is foundational to future translational approaches aimed at minimizing cognitive decline and extending healthy lifespan. The Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB) aims to expand our understanding of the role of internal brain processes in the arc from sensation to action, thereby discovering the nature, role and mechanisms of the neural activity that produces cognition.