The neurosciences have traditionally considered the nervous system as an isolated entity. However, recent research has amply demonstrated the considerable impact of social structures (e.g., mother-infant attachments, pair-bonds, stable versus unstable families) on brain development and function. These factors operate on the individual through a continuous interplay of neural, neuroendocrine, metabolic, immunologic, and genetic factors, in which the brain is the central regulatory organ and a malleable target of social factors. It is critical that the next generation of scientists be prepared to bring animal models and human studies together to bear on how precisely social factors are impacting human brain and biology. The current proposal contributes to this critical need through support for the forthcoming meeting of the Society for Social Neuroscience a meeting that emphasizes students and young scientists and that promotes a dialog across diverse disciplines, model systems, and methodologies. A major goal of the meeting is to provide graduate student trainees with interdisciplinary and international perspectives on social neuroscience. The program has been designed to ensure balance across gender, topics and career stage and to provide time and opportunities for discussions and interactions among student and faculty participants. In addition, the grant funds small but prestigious awards that subsidizes the travel of junior PIs and promising graduate students. The keynote speaker, the internationally renowned neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti who discovered the mirror neuron system, is the recipient of many honors including the Golgi Prize for Physiology and the Grawemeyer Prize. As the keynote speaker in this year's meeting, Rizzolatti will illustrate the value of comparative research and will stimulate discussions among our members and our students regarding the importance of opening new dialogues between researchers who study animal models and those who study humans. The dissemination plan ensures these messages reach an audience beyond the attendees.
???Accomplishments It is critical that the next generation of scientists be prepared to bring animal models and human studies together to bear on how precisely social factors are impacting human brain and biology. A major goal of the annual meeting of the Society is to provide graduate student trainees with interdisciplinary and international perspectives on social neuroscience. A second goal was to support the integration of animal models and human research in social neuroscience. The current grant contributed to this critical need through support for the 3rd annual meeting of the Society for Social Neuroscience (2012) – a meeting that emphasizes students and young scientists and that promotes a dialog across diverse disciplines, model systems, and methodologies. The program was designed to ensure balance across gender, topics and career stage and to provide time and opportunities for discussions and interactions among student and faculty participants. In addition, the grant funded small but prestigious awards that subsidizes the travel of junior PIs and promising graduate students. The keynote speaker, the internationally renown neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti who discovered the mirror neuron system, served as the keynote speaker in this year’s meeting. Rizzolatti illustrated the value of comparative research and stimulated discussions among our members and our students regarding the importance of opening new dialogues between researchers who study animal models and those who study humans. He participated in the entire meeting and was popular with students. Products 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Neuroscience (11-12 October 2012, New Orleans, LA; see http://s4sn.org/past-meetings-and-conferences/) featured Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti as the keynote speaker and a rich Program (Program, including the abstracts of the presentations, is available at http://s4sn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/S4SN_2012_Printed_Program.pdf) Websites: http://s4sn.org/past-meetings-and-conferences/ Impact A major goal of the annual meeting of the Society is to provide graduate student trainees with interdisciplinary and international perspectives on social neuroscience. The program was designed to ensure balance across gender, topics and career stage and to provide time and opportunities for discussions and interactions among student and faculty participants. In addition, the grant funds small but prestigious awards that subsidizes the travel of junior PIs and promising graduate students. The keynote speaker, the internationally renown neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti who discovered the mirror neuron system, is the recipient of many honors including the Golgi Prize for Physiology and the Grawemeyer Prize. As the keynote speaker in the 2012 meeting, Rizzolatti illustrated the value of comparative research and stimulated discussions among our members and our students regarding the importance of opening new dialogues between researchers who study animal models and those who study humans. Surveys completed at the close of the meeting indicated that the presentations were well received, and that the opportunities for discussion were improved over prior meetings. Particularly gratifying to see is the increase in discussions among animal researchers and human researchers, especially among the young scientists at the meeting. The S4SN meeting was a satellite to the Society for Neuroscience meeting. Nearly all of the participants in this meeting also attended the SfN meeting. We have no data to validate this, but it is likely given the nature of the S4SN meeting and talks that the participants’ perspective on social processes and behavior and on human and animal research were broadened by the meeting. At a minimum, two rising stars (Jay Van Bavel & Zoe Donaldson) were awarded Early Career Awards and two graduate students (Elisabetta Mofardini & Joana Vieira) were awarded Best Student Abstract Awards – awards that provide a boost to the careers of these budding scientists at a time when such support is most important. Changes and Problems We encountered no significant problems. A new program committee and president made some changes to this year’s program. For instance, the 2012 program was unique in that – except for the keynote address, the program was based entirely on submissions by members, students, and scientists who sought to present their work at the meeting. In 2013, the program was largely generated by the program committee. The stats for the 2013 program show that the 2012 meeting was the best attended to date, had the highest level of participation we have seen to date (which now includes the 2013 program stats), and was the most vibrant program. Our interpretation of these data may seem obvious: scientific meetings are particularly successful when the program reflects primarily what scientists in a field are interested in discussing.
