2012 Auditory System Gordon Research Conference & Gordon Research Seminar

描述（由申请人提供）：2012戈登研究会议（GRC）“听觉系统”将为来自许多学科的初级和高级科学家提供一个论坛，分享关于听觉交流及其相关疾病的未发表的创新研究。这个两年一次的会议于2008年在GRC的主持下成立，GRC是一个以高质量和前沿性质的会议而闻名于世的组织。具体目标是促进跨学科的互动，促进听觉研究人员之间的社区意识，为其他领域的科学家提供听觉研究的跳板，并在一个支持性的科学环境中指导学生。受邀的演讲者包括著名学者和有前途的年轻科学家，他们正在将新方法应用于听力科学和其他交叉领域。除了35位受邀演讲者外，所有参与者都可以在高度互动的海报会议上展示他们的研究成果；从这些演讲中，我们选择了11个简短的演讲，在每个会议中穿插进行。这次会议的一个显著特点是与学生组织的戈登研究研讨会（GRS）有关。GRS召集约45名研究生和博士后学员，在GRC开始之前立即展示和讨论他们的研究。一些资深研究人员被邀请到GRS提供建议和反馈，从而培养我们未来的主要研究人员的职业生涯。前两次GRC/GRS会议因侧重于最近的调查结果和促进一种非正式的、高度互动的形式而获得了非常积极的评价。关于“听觉系统”的2012年GRC将于2012年7月8日至13日在缅因州刘易斯顿的贝茨学院举行，这是一个理想的学术环境，可以在大学氛围中鼓励激烈和活跃的讨论。GRS将于2012年7月7日至8日举行。使这次会议保持新鲜感和相关性的一个指导原则是，我们承诺为每一次会议探索新的主题，并召集全新的演讲者。本申请中描述的具体程序具有代表听力科学广度的总体目标，同时也建立了一套主题焦点。因此，2012年的会议将强调超越听觉系统的研究领域，努力引入新的概念进行讨论。我们将考虑前庭处理的相关领域，多感觉整合领域，以及

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The 2012 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on "The Auditory System" will provide a forum for junior and senior scientists from many disciplines to share unpublished, innovative research about aural communication and its associated disorders. This biennial meeting was established in 2008 under the auspices of the GRC, an organization internationally known for the high quality, cutting edge nature of its meetings. The specific objectives are to foster interactions across disciplines, promote a sense of community among auditory researchers, provide a springboard into auditory research for scientists from other fields, and mentor students in a supportive scientific setting. The invited speakers include both prominent scholars and promising young scientists who are applying new approaches to the hearing sciences and other intersecting fields. In addition to the 35 invited speakers, all participants can present their research at highly interactive poster sessions; from these, we select 11 short talks that are interleaved in each session. A distinct feature of this meeting is is association with a student-organized Gordon Research Seminar (GRS). The GRS assembles ~45 graduate and postdoctoral trainees to present and discuss their research immediately before the GRC begins. A few senior investigators are invited to the GRS to provide advice and feedback, thereby nurturing the careers of our future principal investigators. The first two GRC/GRS meetings garnered exceedingly positive reviews for focusing on the most recent findings, and promoting an informal, highly interactive format. The 2012 GRC on "The Auditory System" will be held July 8-13, 2012 at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, an ideal academic setting for encouraging intense and invigorating discussions in a collegial atmosphere. The GRS will be held July 7-8, 2012. A guiding principle that will serve to keep this conference fresh and relevant is our commitment to explore novel themes, and to gather a completely new cast of speakers, for each successive meeting. The specific program described in this application has the overarching goals of representing the breadth of the hearing sciences, while also establishing a set of thematic foci. Thus, the 2012 meeting will emphasize research areas that extend beyond the auditory system in an effort to introduce new concepts for discussion. We will consider the related field of vestibular processing, the field of multisensory integration, and the influence of cognitive factors such as attention. Finally, the meeting will integrate clinically relevant research in the area of hearing loss and restoration, including the vulnerability of both cochlea and CNS to injury, and novel strategies to rescue normal function. Here, basic research findings will dovetail with the latest information on vestibular and cochlear prostheses, regeneration, and central plasticity mechanisms. The 2012 GRC/GRS meetings will provide participants with an ideal setting to explore how research approaches at very different levels relate to one another, thereby facilitating new ideas and collaborations. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Aural communication is a defining human characteristic, and its impairment can jeopardize key developmental milestones or impose significant medical hardships in adulthood. Although our great strength as a research community can be found in the sophisticated approaches to cochlear and CNS processing, this technical specialization introduces a challenge: how do we connect with one another such that we discover how the system operates? "The Auditory System" Gordon Research Conference and Seminar addresses this concern by convening a forum of top investigators from diverse areas of hearing, vestibular, and multisensory research to discuss their most recent discoveries with one another, and to share these insights with a new generation of student scientists.