Phylogenetic Principles of Brain Structure and Function: A Workshop at Janelia Farm, October 23-25, 2013

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

Understanding how brains function to specify behavior, thoughts and memories of an organism is a major challenge of the twenty first century. Brain initiatives in the US and other countries tend to focus on the human brain, but understanding how neural circuitry and activity control behavior in non-human species may also yield important insights into brain function. Of course, exploring the neural circuitry, activity patterns responsible for behavior in many different animal species requires large amounts of work. Therefore, careful planning for these efforts is required to maximize their impact on the field. To facilitate this planning process, this workshop will convene a group of 40 experts in comparative neurobiology, brain research and allied disciplines to debate critical questions, such as whether one should functionally map entire brains or subsystems, whether to focus on closely related animal species or distant relatives, how to integrate developmental with adult data, how to identify equivalent brain components in seemingly very different brains across species, and how to integrate information about brain structure with data on brain function and behavior. Workshop participants will discuss these questions in small groups and then report their answers to the entire group, which will synthesize those answers into a coherent research agenda with short- and long-term goals. An important outcome of this workshop will be a written report or published journal article that will offer guidance to both researchers and funding agencies. To maximize the workshop's impact, video recordings of key sessions will be disseminated through a publicly accessible web site, which will also host the report and some related documents. One quarter of all workshop participants will be postdoctoral researchers. They are expected to make important contributions and, simultaneously, gain valuable experience. A strong effort will be made to include women and members of underrepresented groups to broaden participation in this important area of neuroscience.