Neuroethology: Behavior, Evolution & Neurobiology 2008 Gordon Research Conference

描述(由申请人提供)：本提案请求部分支持将于2008年8月10日至15日在牛津大学马格达伦学院举行的戈登研究会议系列的一部分--神经行为学国际会议，以及之前的研究生研究研讨会。会议的广泛和长期目标是增加我们对神经回路进化的理解。这次会议的具体目的是召集42位代表神经行为学、进化和发展的关键领域的演讲者，总共135人，在一个孤立的学术环境中举行为期五天的会议。由于戈登会议是一个很好的论坛，可以将学生和该领域的领导者聚集在一起讨论尖端问题，所以这次会议的目的是提出一些具有挑衅性的问题，这些主题将产生真正的讨论。在正式的戈登研究会议之前，将会有一个名为“研究生研究研讨会：神经行为学2050”的GRC项目，研究生和博士后将在非正式的气氛中会面，讨论他们认为神经行为学的未来是什么。主节目将有一个主旨演讲和七个会议。它将从两个关于基本原理的会议开始：第一个会议关于神经系统起源的当前观点，第二个会议关于神经回路的同源性、同质性和发散，讨论进化是否总是产生类似神经编码问题的共同解决方案。会议还将集中讨论具有广泛跨学科影响的其他三个领域。将讨论神经回路的进化和发展(EVO-DEVO)，以询问从发育和遗传学规则中可以了解多少神经回路的功能。一个会议将致力于不同系统中决策的神经回路属性，另一个会议将讨论变异性和动态平衡。最后两次会议涉及该领域的未来方向。其中一节将讨论人类特征的动物模型，其中将提出这样的问题：研究人员是否正在拟人化，或者是否存在人类特征的基本共同基础，如爱、梦想和社会互动？我们的最后一次会议是关于揭示神经行为学一般原理的圆桌讨论。此外，每晚还将举行招贴会，让所有参与者都能参与其中。这一应用的意义在于，戈登神经行为学研究会议是一年一度的系列会议的关键组成部分，这些会议推动了国际神经生物学家的研究，这些研究致力于神经系统如何在特定环境背景下整合感觉信号来提供行为，以及这些行为以及这些行为的基础电路如何适应自然环境。公共卫生相关性：这项应用的健康相关性是，讨论将定义在神经可塑性、运动控制、神经遗传学和建模研究中需要实验解决的问题。戈登神经行为学会议：行为、进化和神经生物学将于8月10日至15日在英国牛津大学马格达伦学院举行，为来自世界各地的研究人员提供了一个独特的机会，讨论与神经回路的进化和功能相关的新兴概念。将有一个特别的会前研究生研究研讨会，以提升研究生的培训经验。明确地研究神经回路的进化和比较方面，将为许多人类神经和行为疾病的起源和原因提供洞察力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests partial support for an international meeting on Neuroethology as part of the Gordon Research Conference series to be held in Magdalen College Oxford August 10-15, 2008, and the preceding Graduate Research Seminar. The broad and long term goal of the conference is to increase our understanding of the evolution of neural circuits. The specific aim of this meeting is to convene 42 speakers that represent critical areas of neuroethology, evolution and development with a total of 135 participants for a five day conference in an isolated academic setting. Since the Gordon Conferences are an excellent forum for bringing together students and leaders in the field to discuss cutting edge problems, the intention of this meeting is to pose provocative questions on subjects that will generate real discussion. Prior to the official Gordon Research Conference, there will be a GRC program called "Graduate Research Seminar: Neuroethology 2050", where graduate students and post-docs will meet to discuss in an informal atmosphere what they think the future of neuroethology holds. The main program will have a keynote address and seven sessions. It will start with two sessions on the fundamentals: First, a session on current views of the origin of nervous systems and second one on homology, homoplasy, and divergence in neural circuits to discuss whether evolution always yields a common solution to similar problems of neural coding. The conference will also concentrate on three other areas with broad interdisciplinary impact. There will be a discussion about the evolution and development (evo-devo) of neural circuits in order to ask how much can be learned about the function of neural circuits from developmental and genetics rules. A session will be devoted to neural circuit properties underlying decision- making in different systems and one to discuss variability and homeostasis. The last two sessions concern future directions for the field. One session will discuss animal models of human characteristics where the questions will be raise about whether researchers are anthropomorphizing or whether there are fundamental common substrates for human traits such as love, dreaming, and social interactions? Our final session is a round table discussion on uncovering general principles in neuroethology. In addition, there will be poster session each evening to permit all participants to contribute. The significance of this application is that the Gordon Research Conference on Neuroethology is a critical component of the yearly series of conferences that propel research in the international community of neurobiologists working on how nervous systems integrate sensory signals within specific environmental contexts to provide behaviors, and how such behaviors, and thus the circuits underlying them, adapt to the natural environment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The health relatedness of this application is that the discussions will define the questions that require experimental resolution in the studies of neural plasticity, motor control, neural genetics, and modeling. The Gordon Conference on Neuroethology: Behavior, Evolution, and Neurobiology, which will be held August 10-15th at Magdalen College in Oxford England, provides a unique opportunity for researchers from around the world to discuss emerging concepts related to the evolution and function of neural circuits. There will be a special pre-meeting Graduate Research Seminar to enhance the training experience for graduate students. Explicitly examining the evolutionary and comparative aspects of neural circuits will provide insights on the origin and cause of many human neurological and behavioral conditions.