The brain is more than the sum of its parts and this meeting will explore the concept of the networked brain. Over the last number of years, new techniques in brain imaging, new molecular and genomic techniques, and new sophisticated approaches for reconstructing and manipulating circuits have profoundly changed our picture of how the brain works.

Where the brain was once viewed as being an organ composed of discrete systems and isolated regions controlling specific functions, we now see the brain as being a more complex, dynamic and interwoven network of connections and interactions. Indeed the brain is really composed of a network of networks, operating at many levels and scales from the subcellular genomic, protein and signaling networks and synaptic connections between cells, to local and regional circuits, to higher level large scale networks connecting different regions of the brain.

This meeting will bring together top researchers working at these different levels to discuss their recent work on neural networks, from form to function.

Topics that will be covered will include:

•Circuit development and function
•Connectomics
•Genomic and molecular signaling networks
•Brain activity oscillations
•Computational properties of neural networks
•Networks in the human brain
•How disruptions in network function contribute to disorders of the brain and nervous system

This year’s symposia will mark Neuron’s 25th anniversary. Launched in 1988, Neuron has grown from a journal founded as a forum for the best in molecular and cellular neuroscience research to become a leading neuroscience journal in the field, covering the full span of topics in the neurosciences from molecular and cellular advances to systems neuroscience, human brain imaging, theoretical neuroscience, translational neuroscience and everything in between. Since its inception Neuron has published the most exciting and technically innovative studies in neuroscience, with an emphasis on work that integrates across disciplines and approaches. This meeting will similarly feature an integrative and interdisciplinary approach, with discussion and a high level of interaction between speakers and attendees encouraged.