International Congress for Neuroethology Proposal

描述(由申请者提供)：申请资助将于2007年7月23-27日在加拿大温哥华举行的第八届国际神经行为学大会。国际神经行为学大会(ICN)是国际神经行为学学会(ISN)的科学会议，自1986年以来每三年举行一次。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分类群(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。一系列的全体讲座、座谈会和海报会议集中在主题上，包括感觉和运动加工、中央整合过程、发育、突触可塑性和学习、再生，以及系统水平的方法来理解可塑性和行为。强调比较方法和新兴技术。会议的计划既代表了不同层次的分析(从生物物理学到行为学)，也代表了不同的技术和方法(神经生理学、分子生物学、基因组学、成像)。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。这次会议将讨论构成正常行为基础的神经机制中的主要主题，重点是了解大脑中感知感觉输入、做出重大决定和编码适当动作的路径。许多神经疾病是由这些处理步骤中的缺陷引起的；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通常是至关重要的。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 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.