International Congress for Neuroethology Proposal

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to help support the Eighth International Congress of Neuroethology, to be held July 23-27, 2007 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN) serves as the scientific meeting of the International Society for Neuroethology (ISN), and has been held every three years since 1986. The focus of these meetings is to bring together diverse neuroscientists who are investigating the neural basis of behavior across a broad spectrum of taxa (both vertebrate and invertebrate). This meeting provides an outstanding venue for discussions among international scientists who have a broad range of perspectives, but who focus on common basic-science questions that have important implications for neural function and disease. A series of plenary lectures, symposia and poster sessions focus on topics including sensory and motor processing, central integrative processes, development, synaptic plasticity and learning, regeneration, and systems-level approaches to understanding plasticity and behavior. Comparative approaches and emerging technologies are emphasized. The program for the meeting represents both different levels of analysis (from biophysics to behavior), and also different techniques and approaches (neurophysiology, molecular biology, genomics, imaging). Support is requested to fund travel and registration for winners of the Young Investigator Awards, for student and minority neuroscientists, and for dissemination of the proceedings of the conference. The benefits to American scientists in general, and to young investigators in particular, will be the opportunity for exposure to cutting- edge research and techniques from around the world in a format and venue that encourage interactions between students and investigators at all levels of experience. This conference will address major themes in the neural mechanisms that underlie normal behavior, with an emphasis on understanding the pathways in the brain that perceive sensory inputs, make major decisions and encode the appropriate movements. Many neural diseases result from defects in these processing steps; to understand the functional bases of abnormal neural function and disease states, multiple perspectives drawn from a variety of organisms are often critical. The comparative viewpoints and emerging technologies that are emphasized at the ICN therefore have the potential to contribute to the diagnosis of nervous system diseases and the development of treatments.