The Ninth International Congress of Neuroethology Proposal

描述（申请人提供）：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由国际神经行为学学会组织，自1986年以来每三年举办一次，吸引了来自世界各地的数百名研究人员。这些会议的重点是汇集不同的神经科学家，他们正在研究脊椎动物和无脊椎动物广泛的行为神经基础。这次会议为国际科学家提供了一个出色的讨论场所，他们拥有广泛的观点，但专注于对神经功能和疾病具有重要影响的共同基础科学问题。2010年的计划包括17个受邀研讨会，四个参与者研讨会，其中发言者将从提交的摘要中选出，特别强调选择研究生和博士后研究员作为演讲者。此外，还将举行8次全体会议，主题包括鸟鸣学习、嗅觉行为神经网络、声学通信、视觉的分子进化、信息素引导的行为等。大会将讨论神经生物学的各种领域，其中许多主题与NIDCD的使命有关。具体来说，17个专题讨论会中的28个演讲集中在化学感觉，听力，视听互动，或语言习得或理解及其神经基础的比较方面。当参与者专题讨论会的发言者被选中时，名单几乎肯定会增加。要求提供支助，以资助青年研究者奖获得者、学生和少数民族神经科学家的旅费和登记费，并传播会议记录。对美国科学家的好处，特别是对年轻的研究人员，将有机会接触到来自世界各地的前沿研究和技术，其形式和地点鼓励学生和研究人员之间的互动。 公共卫生相关性：会议将讨论神经机制的主要主题，这些神经机制是正常行为的基础，重点是理解大脑中感知感官输入、做出重大决定和编码适当运动的通路。许多神经疾病是由于这些处理步骤的缺陷造成的。为了理解异常神经功能和疾病状态的功能基础，从各种生物体中提取的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.