Welcome

The aim of this meeting is to bring together researchers from developmental neurobiology, human and mouse genetics, molecular and cellular neuroscience and systems neuroscience to foster communication between these usually separate areas. We hope to promote a deeper understanding of the fundamental processes underlying brain wiring and how variation in genes controlling neurodevelopment affects human brain function. We think this meeting will be very timely, given exciting recent developments in several areas.

These include, for example, the growing understanding of the neurodevelopmental basis of many psychiatric disorders, a major paradigm shift in models of the genetic architecture of disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, the identification of specific risk genes and establishment of validated animal models for these disorders, the development of physiological and neuroimaging endophenotypes, and an empirical framework that can explain how alterations at the molecular and cellular levels in neuronal microcircuits affect the function of larger networks in ways that have predictable effects on cognition, perception and behaviour.

Organising committee
Kevin Mitchell, Trinity College Dublin (Chair)
Isabella Graef, Stanford University
Ed Hubbard, INSERM Unité 562
Aiden Corvin, Trinity College Dublin
Franck Polleux, University of North Carolina