Conference on Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一份为“视网膜神经生物学和视觉处理”会议申请部分资金的申请，该会议由美国实验生物学学会联合会（FASEB）主办，于2006年7月15日至20日在加利福尼亚州印第安维尔斯举行。这将是一系列备受推崇的两年一次的会议中的第八次，这些会议为具有不同背景的研究人员建立了一个独特的论坛来讨论视力。参与者来自神经生物学、计算神经科学、眼科学和视觉研究的许多领域，目的是应用最先进的技术来了解健康和患病视网膜的视觉神经生物学基础。本次会议的第二个目标是为研究生和博士后学生提供与知名研究人员会面的机会，以分享他们的想法，并了解更多关于博士后职位和初级教师职位的信息。提议的会议计划讨论了当前视觉社区非常感兴趣的问题。主要议题将包括：1)杆状和锥状突触信号传导的新见解；2)双极细胞视觉输出的形成机制；3)视网膜发育中的神经元可塑性；4)探索视觉处理的神经编码；5)外视网膜的反馈电路；6)视网膜疾病的转化研究和模型；7)视网膜中的非视觉光传导；8)形成视网膜输出的新抑制机制。还将举行第九次讲座，重点介绍提交摘要中的最佳工作。此外，将有两个海报会议和一个关于视网膜功能的数学和计算模型的研讨会。大约200名参与者将参加，他们来自积极参与视网膜研究的科学家，目的是促进自由和活跃的思想交流。主讲人将包括大量研究生和博士后。这既突出了令人兴奋的新主题，也促进了视觉研究界的新成员。会议为对最近的前沿研究进行批判性审查提供了一个特殊的环境，并为未来的研究提供了指导。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application for partial funding for the conference on "Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing", held under the auspices of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in Indian Wells, CA from July 15-20, 2006. This will be the eighth in a series of highly-regarded, biennial conferences that have established a unique forum for researchers with varied backgrounds to discuss vision. The participants are drawn from many areas of neurobiology, computational neuroscience, ophthalmology and vision research with the goal of applying state-of-the-art techniques to understanding the neurobiological basis of vision in healthy and diseased retinas. A second goal of this conference is to provide opportunities for graduate and postdoctoral students to meet with established investigators to share their ideas and learn more about postdoctoral positions and junior faculty positions. The proposed conference program addresses questions that are of high current interest to the vision community. The major session topics will be: 1) new insights into rod and cone synaptic signaling, 2) mechanisms shaping the visual output of bipolar cells, 3) neuronal plasticity in retinal development, 4) exploring the neural code of visual processing 5) feedback circuitry in outer retina, 6), translational research and models of retinal disease 7). non-visual phototransduction in the retina and 8) novel inhibitory mechanisms that shape the retinal output. There will also be a ninth talk session highlighting the best work from the submitted abstracts. In addition, there will be two poster sessions and a workshop on mathematical and computational models of retinal function. Approximately 200 participants will attend, drawn from scientists actively involved in retinal research and with the goal of stimulating a free and lively exchange of ideas. The speakers will include a large number of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This both highlights exciting new topics and also promotes new members of the vision research community. The conference provides a exceptional environment for the critical review of recent, cutting edge research and serves as a guidepost to future research.