Neurons in the Windy City: A Journey to SfN Chicago

The Society for Neuroscience is the world’s largest neuroscience conference, and this year, I would like to extend my gratitude to the UBRP Travel Fund for making my first presentation endeavor into the scientific world possible. This year, the conference was held in the beautiful city of Chicago, Illinois, with around 22,000 registered attendees dedicated to advance scientific exchange with various session types ranging from lectures, symposiums, mini-symposiums, poster presentations, and more. I had the opportunity to present research I was involved with throughout my years at Dr.Cowen’s lab titled, In a hemi-lesioned model of L-DOPA induced dyskinesia, coupling between primary motor cortex local-field and single-unit activity to movement is suppressed, and this coupling is not restored by ketamine.

The goal of this project was to understand how subanesthetic levels of ketamine alter neural oscillations during the levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) state as well as probing the relationship between the primary motor cortex neural activity and dyskinetic movements. Our main findings revealed that sub-anesthetic levels of ketamine indeed did lower the neural signature of 80 Hz within LID models to a lower gamma frequency and decreased the dyskinetic movements within the animal. In the LID model, we also found a decoupling between the primary motor cortical activity at both the spectral and single unit activity to movement speed during dyskinesia. My presentation started at 8 am and remained resilient until 12:30 as we garnered lots of attention among other lab groups and committee members of SfN! I truly enjoyed presenting as each time, I relearned aspects of my project through answering questions presented by the ongoers and, in turn, became more self-assured and confident in my ability to convey complex research to those learning about this field for the first time.

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Aside from presenting, I fully immersed myself into the lectures, symposiums, and understanding other poster presentations! Although the vast variety of events was overwhelming at first as I wanted to attend everything possible, I made a clear schedule for each day of the conference to attend the events that I gravitated towards the most. It was truly amazing to see people all around the world come together to share knowledge as many of the sessions I attended were presented by people from different countries. The joy of learning from others and engaging in insightful discussions about our shared career goals and experiences was truly enriching. I was able to speak with other researchers with similar career goals and discuss their involvement in the scientific world and their lives in general.

After a long day at the conference, I spent my evening exploring the city with my friends! We walked around in business casual attire without posters slung around our shoulders, like those who made it out of battle in search, with one goal: food. The truth is, I have had some of the most delicious food while in Chicago and might have to visit once again just to eat some more! We explored dishes from various cuisines throughout the conference, walked along the river, and even made some time to visit the Fine Arts Museum, making the most of our time in this vibrant city!

I will hold these everlasting memories of neurons in the windy city close to my heart, as it was truly such an inspiring conference and trip! None of this would have been possible without the UBRP Travel Award, so thank you again, UBRP, for giving me the opportunity to present my research at SfN 2024!