2024 Neural Mechanisms of Acoustic Communication Gordon Research Conference and Seminar - Project Summary In its second installment, the Neural Mechanisms of Acoustic Communication (NMAC) Gordon Research Conference, which this year will also include an associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), will convene on May 18-24, 2024, at the Jordan River hotel in Sunday River, Maine to discuss and debate new findings in communication research and related fields. The NMAC GRC will enable investigators of all ranks with wide-ranging expertise and from a variety of sub-fields and backgrounds to interact, leveraging the intimate size and extended discussion time of the traditional GRC format to enable fertile scientific discourse. This meeting fulfills a unique niche within the landscape of existing conferences through its focus on comparative and mechanistic approaches to the study of neural circuits that mediate interactive acoustic behavior across taxa that represent 800 million years of evolution. The interactive ability to exchange information is a central and defining feature of all communication systems and helps organize social behavior. As such, a comparative approach to the study of the neural mechanisms underlying acoustic communication lends insight into general mechanisms of neural function, leads to the development of novel analytical and experimental techniques and paves the way to novel treatments of dysfunction in human communication systems. The 2024 NMAC has three specific aims: 1) To advance acoustic communication research by offering an environment that encourages questions and discussion, challenges current thinking, and provides opportunities for new collaborations; 2) to create a unique forum for interaction for researchers from a diversity of communication systems and break down boundaries between communities focused on different model systems, brain regions, research approaches; and 3) to educate new and early career investigators. To provide greater opportunities for impactful junior scientists, we are introducing the “next generation talks” series where the chairs will pick 4 graduate students or postdocs from the GRS to present at one of the sessions of the GRC meeting. In addition, one talk per session will be selected from submitted abstracts with the aim to include speakers from less represented backgrounds. Mentorship opportunities will include themed lunches where 1-3 scientists informally discuss topics of interest with graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, such as securing a postdoctoral or faculty job, starting a laboratory, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Taken together, NMAC aims to create conversations that will achieve a mechanistic and unifying understanding of the neural underpinnings of acoustic communication by uncovering broadly relevant algorithms. These exchanges will advance acoustic communication research by encouraging new ideas and collaborations, highlighting diversity in the field, and inspiring the next generation of scientists to accelerate the pace of discovery and translation to the clinic, consistent with the mission of NIH.
