Phylogenetic Principles of Brain Structure and Function: A Workshop at Janelia Farm, October 23-25, 2013

了解大脑如何运作来指定生物体的行为、思想和记忆是21世纪的一个主要挑战。美国和其他国家的大脑研究计划倾向于关注人类大脑，但了解非人类物种的神经回路和活动如何控制行为也可能对大脑功能产生重要的见解。当然，探索神经回路和许多不同动物行为的活动模式需要大量的工作。因此，需要仔细规划这些努力，以最大限度地发挥其对实地的影响。为了促进这一规划过程，本次研讨会将召集比较神经生物学、大脑研究和相关学科的40名专家，就关键问题进行辩论，例如，是否应该对整个大脑或子系统进行功能映射，是否应该关注密切相关的动物物种或远亲，如何将发育数据与成年数据相结合，如何在看似非常不同的物种中识别相同的大脑成分。以及如何将有关大脑结构的信息与大脑功能和行为的数据相结合。研讨会参与者将在小组中讨论这些问题，然后向整个小组报告他们的答案，整个小组将把这些答案综合成一个具有短期和长期目标的连贯研究议程。本次研讨会的一个重要成果将是一份书面报告或发表在期刊上的文章，为研究人员和资助机构提供指导。为了最大限度地发挥讲习班的影响，关键会议的录象记录将通过一个可公开访问的网站传播，该网站还将载有该报告和一些有关文件。四分之一的研讨会参与者将是博士后研究人员。期望他们作出重要贡献，同时获得宝贵的经验。将作出强有力的努力，包括妇女和代表性不足的群体的成员，以扩大参与这一重要的神经科学领域。

Understanding how brains function to specify behavior, thoughts and memories of an organism is a major challenge of the twenty first century. Brain initiatives in the US and other countries tend to focus on the human brain, but understanding how neural circuitry and activity control behavior in non-human species may also yield important insights into brain function. Of course, exploring the neural circuitry, activity patterns responsible for behavior in many different animal species requires large amounts of work. Therefore, careful planning for these efforts is required to maximize their impact on the field. To facilitate this planning process, this workshop will convene a group of 40 experts in comparative neurobiology, brain research and allied disciplines to debate critical questions, such as whether one should functionally map entire brains or subsystems, whether to focus on closely related animal species or distant relatives, how to integrate developmental with adult data, how to identify equivalent brain components in seemingly very different brains across species, and how to integrate information about brain structure with data on brain function and behavior. Workshop participants will discuss these questions in small groups and then report their answers to the entire group, which will synthesize those answers into a coherent research agenda with short- and long-term goals. An important outcome of this workshop will be a written report or published journal article that will offer guidance to both researchers and funding agencies. To maximize the workshop's impact, video recordings of key sessions will be disseminated through a publicly accessible web site, which will also host the report and some related documents. One quarter of all workshop participants will be postdoctoral researchers. They are expected to make important contributions and, simultaneously, gain valuable experience. A strong effort will be made to include women and members of underrepresented groups to broaden participation in this important area of neuroscience.