I had the great fortune of attending the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC this past November.  Every morning for one week I donned a cozy pea coat, walked along streets strewn with yellow Ginkgo leaves, and hopped on the metro to the Mt. Vernon Convention Center.  As I strolled up and down innumerable aisles of posters at the convention center, I learned about intriguing research being performed by over 30,000 neuroscientists from around the world.  I engaged other scientists in conversations ranging from the neuroscience of vision to the quantification of emotion, from the formation of memories to novel techniques in data analysis.  When my feet became too tired from standing in front of posters for hours on end, I found a comfortable seat in a lecture hall and listened to slideshow presentations about topics ranging from sleep research to the neural control of feeding in aplysia, a squirmy sea-slug organism that looks like a lumpy gooey rabbit.

On the last day of the conference I presented a poster about research I've been conducting in Dr. Katalin Gothard's lab at the UA.  Our findings indicate that neural activity in the amygdala (a brain structure involved in emotion and arousal) changes during sleep.   One of the changes we observed is a correlation between neural activity in the amygdala and brain waves known to be associated with the strengthening of memories.  While these results are still quite preliminary, presenting them at an international conference allowed me share my work with others while getting valuable feedback about future research directions.  I was excited to discover how encouraging everyone was about my research!  A poster presentation is truly an ideal forum for gaining scientific insight and meeting new researchers, sometimes with the potential of forming new collaborations! 

In addition to discussing science at the convention center every day, I also attended social events sponsored by various neuroscience organizations.  At these socials, I met other neuroscientists from around the world and became closer friends with scientists from back home.  Given the wide variety of cultural backgrounds and opinions, I found myself going to dinner at unique restaurants and tasting new flavors like spiced lamb shank and Indian butter chicken.

Having never been to Washington DC before, I was lucky to stay an extra day after the convention and visit the various landmarks with my friends from the lab.  We stopped by the White House, saw the Washington Monument, spotted the Capitol building in the distance, and even spent an hour at the Museum of Natural History!

The charming character of the locals, the refreshing change of scenery, the delicious food, and the stimulating scientific conversation all made for a remarkable trip to DC.  Though I intend to pursue my PhD at the University of Arizona, a post-doc position at the National Institute of Health on the outskirts of DC is beginning to sound very appealing.

I am so grateful to UBRP for supporting my research and providing travel funds to present at the Society for Neuroscience 2008 international conference!

Clayton Mosher, UBRPer in Dr. Katalin Gothard's lab, Physiology