Meeting themes and objectives

Experiments in sensory physiology have traditionally relied on recordings in restrained animals to allow precise control over stimulus parameters and animal behaviour. However, in the real world, sensory perception involves continuous interaction between movements of the observer and sensory inputs. The conference will bring together a diverse community of researchers investigating how the brain processes and interprets sensory signals as animals actively explore their environment and guides behavior under naturalistic conditions. Talks will cover a wide range of technical, experimental, and computational approaches across sensory systems and animal species. The goal of this meeting is to encourage exchange of knowledge and ideas, foster collaboration, and enable discussion on current scientific and technological challenges in this emerging field. Broad themes of the meeting include:

• How do sensory signals, self-motion and spatial orientation interact to enable perception and behavior?
• How does sensory feedback guide animals’ movements?
• How do sensory representations in freely moving animals relate to those recorded under head restrained and / or passive conditions?
• How can new technologies enable neural recordings, behavioral quantification, and control over sensory stimulation in freely moving animals?

Confirmed speakers

Alexandr Klioutchnikov     Alipasha Vaziri     Alison Barker     Aman Saleem     Cynthia Moss     Damian Wallace     Drew Robson & Jennifer Li     Florencia Iacaruso     Floris Van Breugel     Guy Bouvier     Jason Kerr     Jennifer Bizley     Jonathan Whitlock     Kate Jeffery     Katherine Nagel     Lisa Fenk     Oleg Tolstenkov     Pascal Malkemper     Petr Znamenskiy     Rasmus Petersen     Ronen Segev     Sandeep Robert Datta     Soohyun Lee     Susanne Hoffmann     Thierry Emonet     Tobias Rose     Valentina Emiliani     Vanessa Stempel     Weijian Zong    

Organisers

Sepiedeh Keshavarzi   Petr Znamenskiy   Jason Kerr

Registration

• To foster scientific discussion, all meeting participants will present a talk or poster. To participate, please apply by January 16, 2024, 17:00 GMT including a title and short abstract of your presentation.
• As the number of participants is limited to 50, selected participants will be notified by January 26, 2024.
• On site accomodation at Harnack House and meals for selected applicants will be provided.

Venue

The meeting will take place at Harnack House in Berlin 11-13 March, 2024. Please see the Harnack House website for directions.

Funding

The conference has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Max Planck Society and the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – caesar.