Members of the transforming growth factor b superfamily bind to a pair of transmembrane proteins, known as receptor types I and II, which contain serine/threonine kinases and associate to form a signaling complex (1). Activin has been shown to bind a heteromeric noncovalent complex, which consists of a type I receptor, ACTR-IA (also designated ACVRI and ALK-2) or ACTR-IB (also designated ALK-4 and SKR2), and a type II receptor, ACTR-IIA (also designated ACVR2A) or ACTR-IIB (also designated ACVR2B) (1-6). Both receptor types are highly expressed in brain (5). The activin receptor family members are thought to mediate distinct effects on gene expression, cell differentiation, and morpho- genesis in a dose dependent fashion (5,6).