Princeton photo / Denise Applewhite

Jeff Bezos, shown speaking at Princeton University's 2010 graduation, and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, are donating $15 million to establish the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, are donating $15 million to their alma mater Princeton University to help launch a brain research center.

The Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics will focus on an emerging field of research known as “connectomics,” which includes measuring neural connectivity and the mining of that data to help better understand the brain.

Researchers at the center will look for patterns of activity that reveal how the brain works, including how decisions are made or memories are recalled. The center will be led by David Tank, co-director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and is expected to open in the summer of 2013.

“Professor Tank and his colleagues are on an epic quest to unravel one of humankind’s greatest challenges — understanding the brain,” said Jeff Bezos said in an announcement of the gift. “New tools and techniques are making possible discoveries that would have been unthinkable just two decades ago. We can hope for advancements that lead to understanding deep behaviors, more effective learning methods for young children, and cures for neurological diseases. MacKenzie and I are delighted and excited to support Princeton in their focus on fundamental neuroscience.”

Jeff Bezos was an electrical engineering and computer science major at Princeton, in New Jersey, where he graduated in 1986. MacKenzie Bezos was an English major who graduated from the school in 1992.