Symposia
Symposia focus on advances or present conflicting views in rapidly developing areas or neuroscience. Top researchers are typically selected as speakers, and researchers at all career levels are encouraged to attend. Symposia will take place November 14–18 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Symposia taking place during Neuroscience 2026 are listed below.
View other scientific sessions being held this year.
Mechanisms Sculpting Corticolimbic Dopamine Maturation and Neurobehavioral Trajectories From Adolescence to Adulthood
Chair: Ashley Parr, PhDInstitution: University of Pittsburgh
Date & Time: Saturday, November 14, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Ballroom B
Theme: Theme A – Development
Session Number: 168
The dopamine (DA) system in tandem with the corticolimbic network undergo dynamic specialization across development, with adolescence marking a critical window that shapes neurobehavioral trajectories into adulthood. This symposium showcases animal and human neurobiological breakthroughs revealing a cross-species perspective of how experiences sculpt brain maturation across development, relating DA-sensitive circuit development to cognition, reward learning, and health-risk behaviors.
How Survival Circuits Drive Metabolic Diseases: Integrating Metabolism, Reward, and Pain
Chair: Hyung Jin Choi, MD, PhDInstitution: Seoul National University
Co-Chair: Qingchun Tong, PhD
Institution: University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Date & Time: Sunday, November 15, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Location: WCC Rm 146AB
Theme: Theme G – Integrative Physiology and Behavior
Session Number: 122
Survival depends on the brain’s ability to constantly arbitrate between competing drives. While energy homeostasis, pain processing, and reward seeking are often studied in isolation, recent evidence demonstrates that these systems are inextricably linked. This symposium explores "Survival Circuits" integrating metabolic states with valence to regulate feeding, locomotion, and analgesia, and their dysregulation in obesity, diabetes, anorexia, and anhedonia.
Cholesterol Dyshomeostasis as an Upstream Driver of Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease
Chair: Cory Funk, PhDInstitution: Institute for Systems Biology
Date & Time: Sunday, November 15, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Ballroom A
Theme: Theme C – Neural Aging and Degeneration
Session Number: 197
Disruptions in cholesterol homeostasis are consistently observed across genetic, cellular, and human studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This session will explore how cholesterol dyshomeostasis and limited glial lipid handling may act upstream of amyloid and tau pathology to drive disease progression, including the roles of apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) and other AD risk genes in impaired cholesterol efflux, Lands cycle remodeling, and astrocytic cholesterol ester accumulation, and how these processes disrupt astrocyte-neuronal lactate shuttling (ANLS) coupling and promote neurodegeneration.
Maternal Inflammation in Health and Disease: Decoding Mechanisms Across Biological Scales and Developmental Trajectories
Chair: Arghya Mukherjee, PhDInstitution: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania
Co-Chair: Akira Sawa, MD
Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Date & Time: Sunday, November 15, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Ballroom B
Theme: Theme D – Neuroimmunity, Neurovasculature, and Neural Injury
Session Number: 80
Prenatal inflammation is a major risk factor for neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism and schizophrenia. This session will bring together researchers studying how maternal inflammation disrupts brain development across molecular, circuit, and behavioral scales. Speakers will share findings from rodents, non-human primates, and humans on changes in transcriptomic, immune-brain signaling, and circuit-based pathways linking early-life inflammation to cognitive and metabolic deficits.
Spinal Cord Injury: Novel Concepts for Clinical Trials
Chair: Frank Bradke, PhDInstitution: DZNE e.V.
Co-Chair: Armin Curt, MD
Institution: Balgrist
Date & Time: Sunday, November 15, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Rm 146AB
Theme: Theme F – Motor Systems
Session Number: 177
Mechanisms underlying nerve fiber regeneration and circuit plasticity in the injured adult spinal cord and brain have been elucidated over the last 35 years. The symposium shows that the goal of a clinical translation of these findings is finally coming into sight and will present different approaches ranging from antibodies and a receptor blocking peptide electrical stimulation paradigms and gabapentinoids. The novel concepts of the clinical trials will be discussed.
Astrocytes in Learning and Memory: From Astrocytic Engrams to Behavior
Chair: Inbal Goshen, PhDInstitution: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Co-Chair: Marta Navarrete, PhD
Institution: Cajal Institute/Cajal Neuroscience Center (CNC-CSIC)
Date & Time: Monday, November 16, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Location: WCC Ballroom B
Theme: Theme B – Neural Excitability, Synapses, and Glia
Session Number: 85
The role of astrocytes in high brain function has been demonstrated in the last decade. The speakers led this revolution, and now will present novel findings showing the role of astrocytes in learning in health and disease, in the hippocampus, amygdala and striatum, from engrams to spatial memory. Furthermore, this session highlights emerging evidence that astrocytes form sparse, learning-linked ensembles whose reactivation can drive recall, and discusses neuronal–astrocytic engrams in memory.
Mechanisms of Reserve and Resilience in the Aging Brain: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Chair: Thomas Wolbers, PhDInstitution: German Center For Neurodegenerative Diseases
Date & Time: Monday, November 16, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Location: WCC Ballroom A
Theme: Theme C – Neural Aging and Degeneration
Session Number: 175
This symposium will examine the functional mechanisms underlying superior cognitive performance in old age. Integrating animal and human research, the talks span neuromodulatory, circuit, and systems-level approaches to reserve and resilience, including preserved hippocampal-entorhinal function, social and novelty processing, and large-scale connectivity, and introduce STARRRS, a new open-science resource of longitudinal, multimodal rodent data to accelerate mechanistic discovery.
Molecular Mechanisms Governing Cerebral Cortex Formation and Their Disruption in Human Developmental Disorders
Chair: Linda Richards, PhDInstitution: Washington University
Co-Chair: Chiaki Ohtaka-Maruyama, PhD
Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science
Date & Time: Monday, November 16, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Ballroom B
Theme: Theme A – Development
Session Number: 249
The development of the earliest stages of cerebral cortex formation is critical for establishing the correct number and types of neurons, and precise areas and circuits devoted to processing different types of information. Recent advances in the transcriptional pathways regulating these early processes will be addressed, highlighting how these mechanisms allow a deeper understanding of the etiology of congenital malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders of the human cerebral cortex.
Cerebrospinal Fluid: Form, Flow, and Function
Chair: Laura LewisInstitution: MIT
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 17, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Location: WCC Ballroom B
Theme: Theme D – Neuroimmunity, Neurovasculature, and Neural Injury
Session Number: 253
Recent work has ushered in a new era for the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), revealing many opportunities for investigating, diagnosing, and potentially treating brain disorders. However, CSF production, circulation, and functions represent some of the least understood areas in neuroscience. This session will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scientists to share recent discoveries and conceptual advancements in this emerging field.
Learning to Navigate a Changing World: From Neural Systems to Novel Algorithms
Chair: J. Quinn Lee, PhDInstitution: University of Alberta
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 17, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Location: WCC Rm 146AB
Theme: Theme G – Integrative Physiology and Behavior
Session Number: 99
The ability to learn and remember how to achieve goals in a changing world is necessary for survival of natural organisms. Yet, modern algorithms in artificial intelligence (AI) struggle to learn and remember in changing environments. This session will highlight advances in our understanding of neurobiological mechanisms and systems interactions that enable efficient learning and memory in changing environments, and novel brain-inspired algorithm development to achieve adaptive behavior in AI.
Failure of Brain Clearance: A Converging Mechanism in Neurodegeneration and Vascular Dementia
Chair: Wenzhen Duan, MD, PhDInstitution: Johns Hopkins University
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 17, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Ballroom B
Theme: Theme C – Neural Aging and Degeneration
Session Number: 261
This session will highlight how dysfunction of the glymphatic and meningeal lymphatic systems actively drives neurodegeneration and vascular dementia. Integrating recent advances in astrocyte biology, vascular dynamics, neuroimmunology, and translational imaging, it will provide mechanistic insight into how impaired brain clearance accelerates protein aggregation, neuroinflammation, neuronal loss, and discuss emerging therapeutic strategies to restore brain clearance across multiple disorders.
Hormonal Effects During the Reproductive Years on Brain and Behavior: From Molecular Discovery to Promising Therapeutics for Women's Mental Health
Chair: Sarah Wijtenburg, PhDInstitution: National Institute of Mental Health
Co-Chair: Tamara Lewis Johnson, MPH, MBA
Institution: National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 17, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Rm 146AB
Theme: Theme H – Motivation and Emotion
Session Number: 112
Women experience twice the rate of mood disorders than men, and this vulnerability persists throughout life. Changes in brain circuitry that develop in females during the reproductive years are not well understood. Factors such as early adverse life events interact with sex hormones that may underlie the timing of mood disorders. This session will present recent breakthroughs in our understanding of mechanisms that led to promising therapeutics for mood disorders during the reproductive years.
Thermosensation Across Scales: Neural Circuits, Perception, and the Sense of Self
Chair: Solaiman Shokur, PhDInstitution: EPFL
Co-Chair: Michela Bassolino, PhD
Institution: University of Applied Sciences
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 17, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Ballroom A
Theme: Theme F – Motor Systems
Session Number: 220
Restoration of touch and proprioception has been a major focus in neurorehabilitation, neuroprosthetics, and cognitive neuroscience. In contrast, thermosensation has received less attention, despite its key role in interoception and bodily self-awareness. Altered thermal perception occurs in neurological disorders, including multiple sclerosis and amputation. This session will examine thermosensation across neural, perceptual, and clinical scales.
Cross-Species Approaches to Understanding Human Cognition
Chair: Elizabeth Buffalo, PhDInstitution: University of Washington
Co-Chair: Merav Sabri, PhD
Institution: National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Date & Time: Wednesday, November 18, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Location: WCC Rm 151
Theme: Theme I – Cognition
Session Number: 167
Recent advances in optogenetics and large-scale neural recording in model organisms, combined with intracranial recording in neurosurgical patients, have yielded unprecedented insights into cognitive processes. Yet translating findings from model systems to human understanding remains challenging. This symposium will highlight integrated approaches bridging this gap through matched behavioral paradigms and shared analytical frameworks to reveal principles governing human cognition.
Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: Biophysical Mechanisms, Neural Effects, and Clinical Translation
Chair: Li Chen, MD, PhDInstitution: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Co-Chair: Bin He, PhD
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Date & Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2–4:30 p.m.
Location: WCC Rm 146AB
Theme: Theme J – Techniques
Session Number: 157
Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (TUS) has gained traction as a noninvasive neuromodulation tool capable of modulating neuronal activity in both cortical and deep brain regions. This capability enables the dissection of brain circuits, interrogation of causal relationships between distributed brain networks, and the development of novel therapeutic approaches. This session will highlight recent advances in underlying mechanisms of action and progress toward clinical translation.
