The Ninth International Congress of Neuroethology Proposal

描述(由申请者提供)：申请资助将于2010年8月2日至7日在西班牙萨拉曼卡举行的第九届国际神经行为学大会(ICN)。ICN由国际神经行为学学会组织，自1986年以来每三年举行一次，吸引了来自世界各地的数百名研究人员。这些会议的重点是让不同的神经科学家聚集在一起，他们正在研究广泛的脊椎动物和无脊椎动物行为的神经基础。这次会议为国际科学家之间的讨论提供了一个绝佳的场所，他们具有广泛的视角，但专注于对神经功能和疾病具有重要影响的常见基础科学问题。2010年的计划包括17个受邀座谈会，4个参与者座谈会，发言者将从提交的摘要中选出，其中将特别强调选择研究生和博士后研究员作为讲演者。还将举行8场全体会议，主题包括鸟类歌唱学习、嗅觉行为的神经网络、声音通信、视觉的分子进化、信息素引导的行为等。虽然大会将讨论神经生物学的广泛领域，但许多议题都与NIDCD的使命有关。具体地说，在17个研讨会中，有28个演讲集中在化学感觉、听力、视听互动或语言习得或理解的比较方面及其神经基础。几乎可以肯定的是，当参与者座谈会的发言者被选中时，名单将会增加。请求提供支助，以资助青年研究人员奖获得者、学生和少数族裔神经科学家的旅费和登记，以及会议记录的传播。对美国科学家，尤其是年轻的研究人员来说，这将是一个机会，让他们有机会接触到来自世界各地的尖端研究和技术，其形式和场所将鼓励学生和研究人员在各个层次的经验之间进行互动。 与公共健康相关：会议将讨论神经机制中的主要主题，这些机制构成正常行为的基础，重点是了解大脑中感知感觉输入、做出重大决策和编码适当动作的路径。许多神经疾病都是由于这些处理步骤中的缺陷造成的。要了解神经功能异常和疾病状态的功能基础，从各种生物体中提取多个视角往往是至关重要的。因此，ICN强调的比较观点和新兴技术有可能有助于神经系统疾病的诊断和治疗方法的开发。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to help support the Ninth International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN) to held on August 2-7, 2010 in Salamanca, Spain. The ICN, which is organized by the International Society for Neuroethology, has been held every three years since 1986 and attracts hundreds or researchers from around the world. The focus of these meetings is to bring together diverse neuroscientists who are investigating the neural basis of behavior across a broad spectrum of both vertebrates and invertebrates. 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. The program for 2010 includes 17 invited symposia, four Participant Symposia in which the speakers will be selected from submitted abstracts where special emphasis will be given to selecting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows as presenters. There also will be 8 plenary sessions on topics such as bird song learning, neural networks for olfactory behavior, acoustic communication, molecular evolution of vision, behaviors guided by pheromones, among others. While a wide variety of areas in neurobiology will be addressed in the Congress, many of the topics are relevant to the mission of the NIDCD. Specifically, 28 talks in the 17 symposia focus on chemosensation, hearing, audio- visual interactions, or comparative aspects of language acquisition or comprehension and its neural underpinnings. The list will almost certainly grow when the speakers in the Participant Symposia are chosen. Support is requested to fund travel and registration for winners of the Young Investigator Awards, for student and minority neuroscientists, and for the 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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The 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 basis 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.