Conferences for Advances and Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience (APAN)

PROJECT SUMMMARY The annual meeting of Advances and Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience (APAN) is a one-day satellite meeting of the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; the first APAN symposium was in 2003. The typical attendance of APAN is ~225 people; mostly, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and other trainees. The primary Aim of APAN is to bring together the cohort of neuroscientists who are engaged in identifying the neural correlates (both cortical and sub-cortical) of auditory behavior —including the perceptual, cognitive, and sensorimotor factors— that underlie communication, multisensory processing, and neural plasticity. Bringing together this group of scientists in this forum is critical because many of the theoretical approaches, techniques, and methodologies of this research field are relatively unique. Consequently, a focused symposium spurs the scientific enterprise in this important research area. Our second Aim is to facilitate meaningful training and educational interactions between junior and senior neuroscientists throughout the program and to promote women and those in underrepresented groups in communicative and auditory neuroscience. In our selection criteria for oral presentations, we have consistently, since our inception, highlighted the contributions of junior scientists as well as women and those from under-resourced groups. We use “poster teasers” as a platform to give a cadre of junior scientists' opportunities to draw attention to their posters as a short oral presentation. In this grant cycle, we expand our “Young Investigator Spotlight” (renamed as “Junior Faculty Award”) talk to feature both a junior faculty member and a post-doctoral fellow. We are also increasing the number of travel awards trainees to offset the cost of travel to APAN. Both changes facilitate a more inclusive APAN community. Finally, APAN is extremely relevant to the scientific mission of the NIDCD for a variety of reasons and is aligned with the 2023-2027 NIDCD Strategic Plan and its Theme Areas. Indeed, the translational and clinical impact of many of the presentations is high due to their focus on fundamental mechanisms underlying auditory perception, whose dysfunction can lead to various hearing-related problems. We seek funding to continue this flagship conference.