Genes 2 Brains 2 Mind 2 Me

In 13th century India,  the story was originally told of a group of blind men (or men in the dark) who touch an elephant to learn what it is like.  Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk.  They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement.

With this ancient story in mind,  I’d like to introduce you to the annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience, or SfN, where brain enthusiasts across the globe gather for 5 days to compare notes – not on an elephant – but on something more massive – the brain and mind.  The vast complexities of neural development and communication will be shared amongst some 31,000+ participants in an effort to integrate findings from molecular to neural physiology to systems dynamics to behavior and find some  agreement on one of the all-time great biological mysteries.

As but a single humble molecular/cognitive/neuro/blogger, I will do my best to focus specifically on stories and highlights that address the dilemma of the bind men and the elephant and look for stories that  interlink different levels of analysis and help integrate data and models across different levels of analysis. I am fascinated by the way in which data from molecular levels of analysis can be interlinked with synaptic and systems levels of analysis and so hope to relate some of these interconnections with my readers.

You can readily follow the action at this years gathering using the fantastic organizational, informatic tools on the SfN meeting planner.  There are a number of resources to support neuro-bloggers and theme-specific neuro-tweeters.  Also, DrugMonkey has a growing list of other SfN tweeters/bloggers.  The real-time flow on Twitter #sfn09 as well as #sfnthemea & (b,c,d,e, and the notorious h) is already amazing !!

Please join the fray and share your thoughts with the SfN community! See you in Chicago.