2017 Excitatory Synapses and Brain Function Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar

总结 该提案要求R13支持长期的，参与人数众多的，广受欢迎的戈登研究 兴奋性突触和脑功能会议（GRC）。突触是我们大脑 了解电路功能和行为。在中枢神经系统中，兴奋性突触代表 通过局部电路和大脑区域之间的通信进行信息处理的主要方式。 突触是许多常用药物的作用部位， 导致了许多神经和精神疾病包括精神分裂症，自闭症，抑郁症， 药物滥用和成瘾、帕金森病、阿尔茨海默病、创伤性脑损伤、中风和 癫痫在某些情况下，突触功能障碍是疾病的原因，而在其他情况下，它代表了疾病的原因。 一个或多个潜在的分子缺陷的下游后遗症。无论哪种情况， 了解突触的形成，结构，分子组织，信号功能和可塑性 对于减轻人类神经系统疾病的负担以及预测和 改善心理健康。这次会议是独一无二的，在其重点兴奋性突触，并在其 多学科小组的参与者，包括结构生物学家，分子和发育生物学家， 细胞生物学家、生物化学家、细胞/分子成像师、生物药理学家和神经生理学家。裁谈会 旨在将兴奋性突触功能的基本见解与突触功能的损伤联系起来 以及药物滥用中的适应不良可塑性。的目标 会议的目的是确定和强调对突触功能，神经回路动力学的基本新见解 和功能障碍。该计划的设计也突出了尖端 在健全的生物学框架内， 基础神经科学会议将汇集世界各地的专家科学家， 这有利于讨论和交流意见。这次会议上的思想交流是一个 驱动力的领域。我们预计2017年兴奋性突触和大脑功能的GRC将形成 未来的科学方向，并为NIH多个研究所的使命提供关键支持，包括 NINDS、NIMH、NIDA和NIA。

Summary This proposal requests R13 support for a longstanding, well-attended, and well-received Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Excitatory Synapses and Brain Function. The synapse is central to our understanding of circuit function and behavior. In the central nervous system, excitatory synapses represent the primary means of information processing by local circuits and communication between brain regions. Synapses serve as the site of action for many commonly prescribed medications and their disruption contributes to many neurological and psychiatric disorders. These include schizophrenia, autism, depression, substance abuse and addiction, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke and epilepsy. In some cases, synaptic dysfunction is causal in disease, whereas in other cases it represents the downstream sequelae of one or more underlying molecular defects. In either case, a fundamental understanding of the formation, structure, molecular organization, signaling function, and plasticity of synapses is essential to progress in lessening the burden of human neurological disease and for predicting and improving mental health. This conference is unique in its focus on the excitatory synapse, and in its multidisciplinary group of participants including structural biologists, molecular and developmental biologists, cell biologists, biochemists, cell/molecular imagers, biophysicists and neurophysiologists. The conference is intended to relate fundamental insights in excitatory synaptic function to the impairments in synaptic function that occur in disease, as well as the maladaptive plasticity that occurs in substance abuse. The goal of the conference is to identify and highlight fundamental new insights into synaptic function, neural circuit dynamics and dysfunction from a thematic approach. The program has been designed to also highlight cutting edge approaches and to stimulate new concepts, methods and technologies within a sound biological framework of fundamental neuroscience. The conference will bring together expert scientists worldwide in an environment that is conducive to discussion and exchange of ideas. The exchange of ideas at this conference has been a driving force for the field. We expect the 2017 GRC on Excitatory Synapses and Brain Function will shape future scientific directions, and provide critical support for the mission of multiple institutes at NIH including NINDS, NIMH, NIDA and NIA.