Developing from a Burroughs Wellcome Fund grant for graduate research, the program was inaugurated in 2009 as the Brown Institute for Brain Science.

[5][6] The Carney Institute houses seven research centers led by affiliated faculty members.

[8] Financed by two gifts totaling $30 million, the center plans to conduct clinical and laboratory-based research focusing on the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's and related conditions.

The device is capable of transmitting neural signals at a single-neuron resolution in full broadband fidelity.

[11][12] In 2019, the institute reported the discovery of a previously unknown set of neurons that spikes rhythmically at gamma range intervals, coordinating sensory encoding in a way analogous to a metronome.