The International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN) serves as the scientific meeting of the International Society for Neuroethology (ISN), and has been held every three years since 1986. The focus of these meetings is to bring together diverse neuroscientists who are investigating the neural basis of naturally-occurring behaviors across a broad spectrum of taxa (both vertebrate and invertebrate). This meeting provides an outstanding venue to bring international scientists together who have a broad range of perspectives, but a common focus on basic-science questions with important implications for neural function and disease. The major focus of the meeting regards basic questions pertaining to relationships between neural mechanisms and complex processes of behavior. Themes of the meeting include sensory and motor systems, integrative processing in the brain, neural development, learning and memory, basic processes of neural communication at the cellular level, and neural-systems approaches to understanding behavior. A major goal is to promote consideration of how the promise of modern techniques of molecular biology can influence the study of behavior, and to define ways in which neuroethology can enhance genetic and molecular biological studies of behavior. Likewise, rapid developments in neural imaging and cognitive neuropsychology, and in behavioral neuroscience in general, make for timely opportunities to promote cross-fertilization between different disciplines. The program for the meeting represents different levels of analysis (from biophysics to behavior), as well as different techniques and approaches (neurophysiology, molecular biology, imaging). Thus, benefits to American scientists in general, and to young investigators in particular, will be an opportunity for exposure to cutting-edge research and techniques from around the world.
