Global Brain

SfN's 48th annual meeting, Neuroscience 2018, is the world's largest neuroscience conference for scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system.

The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of experimental and theoretical/computational approaches to problems in systems neuroscience.

Main meeting: 28 February-03 March 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal

Workshops: 04 March-05 March 2019 in Cascais, Portugal

This conference will explore experimental and theoretical approaches to understand the underpinnings of neural dynamics and their relevance for computation in the brain.

Sculpted Light in the Brain is a recurring conference (founded in 2017) aimed at fostering collaborations between neuroscientists, computer scientists, optics researchers, and other scientists who share the common interest of using and developing novel technologies to observe and control neural activity in the awake, behaving brain. “Sculpted Light” refers to a broad class of methods where light is shaped to probe neural function.

This course will provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the principles behind the design and application of these tools, and enable hands-on experience with optogenetic and chemogenetic actuators and with genetically encoded reporters of calcium, voltage and metabolism. Experimental work will span a wide range of systems and experimental preparations, utilizing standard microscopy methods as well as advanced hardware for parallel excitation and imaging of neuronal circuits. In addition to the practical aspects of utilizing these powerful tools, the course will cover the conceptual issues of data analysis and interpretation.

This is a 3-week course in which we aim to 1) teach students the theoretical foundation of the techniques (weeks 1 and 2), 2) provide them with sufficient practical experience to design an experimental miniproject (week1) which will be carried out (weeks 2 and 3) so that they will be able to establish these approaches when they return to their laboratories.

This course is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology, a solid foundation in mathematics, as well as some computing experience. A four-day pre-school in mathematics and programming is offered for students that want to catch up on their math and programming skills.