2016 Gordon Research Conference on Neurobiology of Cognition, Newry, Maine, July 23-29, 2016

人类对世界的所有体验--我们的感知、行动、情感和决定--都是大脑的产物。神经生物学家试图通过研究大脑的解剖学和功能组织原则来理解这一事实。作为一个社区，他们同时在多个层面上研究大脑，不同的亚组专注于单细胞之间的化学通讯，或神经通路内的细胞类型特异性，或全脑网络之间活动的时间协调。从这些和许多其他调查路线中获得的知识必须在整个社区中整合和共享，这需要会议机会来解释，询问，讨论和提供健康的怀疑态度。神经科学的发现在揭示人类行为的各个方面时是最有用的，因为这是对大脑功能最直接和最熟悉的测量。从长远来看，这一点尤其重要，因为神经科学研究的一个中心目标是确定神经和精神疾病中行为缺陷的潜在机制。过去十年的技术进步，包括多电极技术，光学方法和功能磁共振成像，使研究人员能够从人类和动物模型的大脑中快速提取新的和扩展的信息。关于认知神经生物学的戈登研究会议（GRC）成立于2010年，旨在提供一个论坛，通过该论坛，顶级研究人员能够报告未发表的数据，接收来自其直接领域内外的同事的反馈，并进行丰富和实质性的讨论。2016年GRC将展出顶级科学家的工作，以及最有前途的年轻科学家和学员，他们研究人类认知的核心方面，包括记忆，注意力和社会感知。与GRC组织的精神相适应，其目的是促进讨论和辩论，并在神经生物学的部分重叠领域分享信息。重要的是，会议的安排是邀请年轻和代表性不足的科学家充分参与讨论，并在神经生物学领域建立联系。 会议将持续五天，第一天晚上开始的两个主题演讲，介绍了功能成像和脑损伤患者研究提供的人类大脑的观点。八个半天的会议，然后将探讨与认知的神经生物学相关的主题，这些主题在过去几年中取得了特别的进展。其中包括专门讨论认知对感觉处理的影响、社会互动的神经生物学、前额叶皮层功能以及大脑产生和维持意识的会议。为每一次会议做出贡献的发言者被选择来提供来自实验动物以及人类志愿者和患者的结果，以促进使用不同方法的团体之间的想法分享。由于新科学家和新思想的注入是全球研究理事会会议使命的核心，会议的一个重要主题是吸收早期职业调查人员和受训人员以及妇女和少数民族。多样性是会议成功的关键，会议旨在捕捉和整合认知神经生物学的独特观点。除了会议之外，这种形式还包括预定的公开讨论时间，以及许多小组或一对一讨论的机会。 这种形式特别有利于促进跨越神经科学研究既定层面的新合作，促进理论家，实验学家和临床医生之间的讨论。只有通过这种积极的努力来分享和整合信息，神经科学领域作为一个整体才能利用和整合许多新的结果和见解，这些结果和见解共同塑造了我们对认知神经生物学的理解。

All human experiences of the world - our perceptions, actions, emotions, and decisions - are products of the brain. Neurobiologists attempt to comprehend this fact by studying the brain's anatomical and functional organizing principles. As a community, they investigate the brain at multiple levels simultaneously, with different subgroups focusing on the chemical communication between single cells, or cell-type specificity within neural pathways, or the temporal coordination of activity among brain-wide networks. The knowledge that results from these and many other lines of inquiry must then be integrated and shared throughout the community, which requires meeting opportunities to explain, inquire, discuss, and offer healthy skepticism. Neuroscientific findings are most useful when they shed light on aspects of human behavior, as this is the most immediate and familiar measure of brain function. In the long run, this is particularly important, because a central goal of neuroscience research is to identify mechanisms underlying behavioral deficits in neurological and psychiatric illness. Technical advances in the past decade, including multi-electrode technology, optical methods, and functional magnetic resonance imaging, have enabled researchers to rapidly extract new and expanded information from the brain of humans and animal models. The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Neurobiology of Cognition was established in 2010 to provide a forum through which top researchers are able to report unpublished data, receive feedback from colleagues inside and outside their immediate field, and hold rich and substantive discussions. The 2016 GRC will feature work from top scientists, as well as the most promising young scientists and trainees, who study core aspects of human cognition, including memory, attention, and social perception. In fitting with the spirit of the GRC organization, the aim is catalyze discussion and debate and to share information across partially overlapping fields of neurobiology. Importantly, the conference is arranged to invite young and underrepresented scientists to participate fully in the discussion and establish connections in the field of neurobiology. The meeting will take place over five days, beginning the first evening with two keynote lectures presenting perspectives on the human brain provided by functional imaging and studies of brain damaged patients. Eight half-day sessions will then explore topics related to the neurobiology of cognition that have shown particular progress in the last years. Among these are sessions dedicated to cognitive influences on sensory processing, the neurobiology of social interaction, prefrontal cortex function, and the brain's production and maintenance of consciousness. Speakers contributing to each session are selected to provide a mix of results from experimental animals and those from human volunteers and patients in an effort to promote the sharing of ideas between groups using different methodologies. As the infusion of new scientists and new ideas is central to the mission of the GRC conferences, an important theme of the meeting is the inclusion of early career investigators and trainees, as well as women and minorities. Diversity is the key to the success of the meeting, which aims to capture and integrate unique perspectives on the neurobiology of cognition. In addition to the sessions, the format includes scheduled periods of open discussion, as well as many opportunities for small groups or one-on-one discussions. This format is particularly conducive to the fostering of new collaborations that cut across established planes of neuroscientific inquiry, promoting discussion between theorists, experimentalists, and clinicians. It is only through such active efforts to share and integrate information that the field of neuroscience as a whole can harness and integrate the many new results and insights that together shape our understanding of the neurobiology of cognition.