Conference: 2022 Thalamocortical Interactions: Thalamic Architecture, Dynamics, and Function in Health and Disease GRC and GRS

该奖项将为美国的学生和博士后研究员和初级科学家提供支持，以参加2022年戈登研究会议和丘脑皮质相互作用研究研讨会。这个为期五天的会议是第一次会议，汇集了研究人员，以展示结果和讨论丘脑皮质相互作用的细胞和电路特性，并在此基础上探索它们在认知和行为中的作用。这次会议为对丘脑皮质相互作用感兴趣的神经科学家提供了一个难得的机会，可以在许多层面上交流新的结果，假设和想法，从细胞到系统到认知和临床。这是特别及时的，因为这一领域已显着扩大与最近的认识，丘脑在皮质功能中发挥着持续和关键的作用。 关于更广泛的影响，这次会议将以多种方式使更大的社区受益。首先，它将通过让学生和博士后接触令人兴奋的科学和科学家，帮助培养和激励下一代科学家。第二，将特别重视初级教师。最后，将共同努力从代表性不足的群体中招募科学家，这次会议的智力价值来自其规模小，这促进了参与者之间的互动，以及许多顶尖科学家的聚集，他们的研究跨越了多种感觉方式的丘脑皮质相互作用，强调了共性。这种结合导致了富有成效的比较分析，提出了关于基本机制的新问题，并往往导致新的合作。通过最大化正式讨论和非正式互动，戈登会议将突出令人兴奋的新发展，这些发展对神经回路的紧急特性以及涉及丘脑皮质破坏的病理学的基本理解都有影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This award will provide support to US-based students and post-doctoral fellows and junior scientists to attend the 2022 Gordon Research Conference and Research seminar on Thalamocortical Interactions. This five-day meeting is the premier meeting that brings together researchers to present results and enagage in discussions on the cell and circuit properties of thalamocortical interactions, and build on these to explore their roles in cognition and behavior. This conference represents a rare opportunity for neuroscientists interested in thalamocortical interactions to exchange new results, hypotheses, and ideas at many levels, from cellular through systems to cognitive and clinical. This is especially timely because this field has been expanding significantly with the recent appreciation that the thalamus plays an ongoing and critical role in cortical functioning. With respect to broader impacts, this meeting will benefit the larger community in multiple ways. First, it will help train and inspire the next generation of scientists by exposing students and postdoctoral fellows to exciting science and scientists. Second, special emphasis will be given to junior faculty. Finally, a concerted effort will be made to recruit scientists from under-represented groups.The intellectual merit of this meeting derives from its small size, which promotes interactions between participants, and the assembly of many top scientists whose research spans thalamocortical interactions across multiple sensory modalities, emphasizing the commonalities. This combination leads to fruitful comparative analyses, raises new questions about underlying mechanisms and often leads to new collaborations. By maximizing both formal discussion and informal interactions, the Gordon Conference will highlight exciting new developments that have implications both for a basic understanding of the emergent properties of neural circuits as well as pathologies that involve thalamocortical disruptions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.