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Second annual meeting of society for neuroscience
N24
Reports (Section Editor: Dietrich Lehmann, Dept. of Neurology, University Hospitals, Zurich, Switzerland) This section is intended to provide a platform for international and national organisations and institutions to present their organisational structure, their programmes, and their goals, and to report their activities. Communications in concise form are invited.
SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE More than 1,200 persons attended the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. from 8 to 11 October 1972. The meetings began on Sunday with 20 demonstrations set up in facilities at the Baylor College of Medicine, thanks to the local arrangements committee chaired by George Ungar. The demonstrations covered a wide range of interests and techniques: from tissue culture and computer-assisted neuroanatomy, plus elegant neurophysiology, to behavioral phenomena in man and goldfish. The first day was also marked by a public lecture delivered by Arthur A. Ward, Jr. of the University of Washington, Seattle, on 'Neuroscience in the Public Interest'. There was subsequently a 'workshop' on social issues, sponsored by the Society's Committee on Social Responsibility, chaired by Fred Plum. The 16-member program committee, under the leadership of Frederic G. Worden, provided a veritable embarras de richesse! There were a total of 63 sessions in 3 days, from 6 to 9 sessions going on simultaneously in various portions of the morning and afternoon. Ten of these programs consisted mostly of invited lectures and 6 of the sessions consisted of 'symposia' in which 3 or 4 papers received extensive presentation. Next in the hierarchy were 'workshops' in which 4-6 papers were presented in a 2-h period. Last, b u t by no means least, were the rather large numbers of 'volunteer' papers which were allotted the standard 10 min for presentation, 5 min for discussion. All of these formats were successful in providing a rich fare of remarkably high scientific quality and interest. As a means of intense information exchange, the meetings were clearly a resounding success. Two special addresses were given, the Presidential address b y Neal E. Miller of the Rockefeller University on 'Psychosomatic Effects of Learning', and the Grass Foundation lecture given by Stephen W. Kuffler of Harvard Medical School on 'Microphysiology of the Synapse'. This was the first Grass Foundation lectureship and is to be an annual event sponsored by the Foundation which is funded b y the Grass Instrument Company. Among the many scientific highlights of the meeting were a pair of papers presented b y Kenneth V. Anderson and W. Keith O'Steen showing
N25 that rats fully lacking both photoreceptors and pigment epithelial cells, consequent to prolonged exposure to constant illumination, are able to discriminate 2 ° horizontal from vertical stripes! This confirms and extends earlier work by Karli and his colleagues (see Progr. Ophthal. Otolaryng., 14 (1963) 51-89), who showed that mutant mice undergoing complete degeneration of the photoreceptors could still discriminate light from dark even though there was a 10,000-fold increase in threshold; and that retinal elements were required for this discrimination since it could not be made following section of the optic nerves. This was also true in the study of Anderson and O'Steen, and in neither study could an ERG be recorded. Anderson and O'Steen were also unable to demonstrate photically evoked potentials in the lateral geniculate body or visual cortex of their animals, although single unit activity could still be obtained from the optic tract. Obviously, these experiments raise many important questions concerning the transduction of photic energy to neural signals, and in the relation of behaviorally significant neural activity to the potentials which can (in this case cannot! ) be grossly recorded in the central nervous system. There were several interesting papers concerned with eye movements. Neal Barmack of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Ore., demonstrated that abducens motoneurons in the cat generate a high frequency burst discharge and maintained increment in steady frequency when subjected to intracellularly applied depolarizing pulses. The pattern of discharge is highly similar to that which occurs naturally in the production of saccadic eye movements. He thus hypothesizes that the presynaptic control system need only deliver to the motoneuron an appropriate level of depolarization, signifying eye position, and properties of the motoneuron would inherently provide the discharge necessary for the saccadic movement and 'fix' to the targeted position. R. Llin~s and J.W. Wolfe of the University of Iowa and the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, have found a highly restricted region (vermal folium VIIa) in the cerebellum of unanesthetized macaques where Purkinje and granule cells discharge about 15-20 msec prior to onset of saccadic eye movement, regardless of whether the saccade is initiated voluntarily, or from optokinetic or labyrinthine nystagmus. Visual input does not influence the response, but, most interestingly, the intensity of the discharge is inversely proportional to the amplitude of the saccadic movement. Bernard Cohen of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City also showed that bilateral labyrinthectomy greatly diminished optokinetic nystagmus in macaques. Finally, Hiroharu Noda and W. Ross Adey of the University of California at Los Angeles found that retinal input generated by saccadic eye movements in a lighted environment reduced transmission through the lateral geniculate nucleus in unanesthetized cats. No effect occurred at the lateral geniculate nucleus when the eyes moved in the dark. On the other hand, excitability of the visual cortex was enhanced for about 200 msec whether the eyes moved in the light or in the dark. Their data thus
N26 suggest that, for the cat, the 'corollary discharge', which must distinguish self-generated retinal input from input arising to movement in the external world, is first applied at cortical levels. The marked cortical facilitation in relation to eye movement might serve not only to signal the fact that an eye movement had occurred and that a new visual sample was about to begin, but could also help to overcome the refractoriness arising in the central system as a consequence of the non-informative (blurred) signal generated by the movement itself. Obviously, the foregoing gives only a brief and personal glimpse of the scientific content of the meeting. From comments of others, it is clear that equally exciting results were forthcoming in neurochemistry, pharmacology, anatomy, psychology, membrane physiology, etc. A more extensive summary should soon be available from the Brain Information Service, School of Medicine and Biomedical Library, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024. For those desiring as much of the original information as possible, a limited number of programs complete with the 392 abstracts of the papers presented are available from the Society for Neuroscience, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md. 20014 for $5.00 plus cost of shipping and handling. The meetings attracted a number of exhibitors, giving the members an opportunity to see a variety of ingenious and highly relevant electronic and surgical instruments, together with many of the most recent books published in the field of neuroscience.
University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. 14627 (U.S.A.)
R O B E R T W. D O T Y
THE EUROPEAN TRAINING PROGRAMME IN BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH
In 1968 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development initiated a study of the status in Europe of three interdisciplinary fields of research, which were thought to pose special problems for scientific policy. One of these fields was that of Brain and Behaviour. A report on the current status of Brain and Behaviour Research in Europe was submitted to the OECD Committee for Science Policy, which is now made public in their publication no. 29.905 1972, called 'Brain and Behaviour'. The report was prepared by O. Wolthuis (The Netherlands) and N.S. Sutherland (United Kingdom) with the advice and assistance of the following panel of scientists: Professors Bertelson (Belgium), Creutzfeldt (Germany), Mandel (France), Ploog (Germany), de Ruiter (The Netherlands), Scherrer (France), de Wied (The Netherlands) and Dr. K. Oatley (United Kingdom). At different stages of the drafting Professors Akert (Switzerland), Fessard (France), Whittaker (United Kingdom), Michael (United Kingdom),
Reports (Section Editor: Dietrich Lehmann, Dept. of Neurology, University Hospitals, Zurich, Switzerland) This section is intended to provide a platform for international and national organisations and institutions to present their organisational structure, their programmes, and their goals, and to report their activities. Communications in concise form are invited.
SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE More than 1,200 persons attended the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. from 8 to 11 October 1972. The meetings began on Sunday with 20 demonstrations set up in facilities at the Baylor College of Medicine, thanks to the local arrangements committee chaired by George Ungar. The demonstrations covered a wide range of interests and techniques: from tissue culture and computer-assisted neuroanatomy, plus elegant neurophysiology, to behavioral phenomena in man and goldfish. The first day was also marked by a public lecture delivered by Arthur A. Ward, Jr. of the University of Washington, Seattle, on 'Neuroscience in the Public Interest'. There was subsequently a 'workshop' on social issues, sponsored by the Society's Committee on Social Responsibility, chaired by Fred Plum. The 16-member program committee, under the leadership of Frederic G. Worden, provided a veritable embarras de richesse! There were a total of 63 sessions in 3 days, from 6 to 9 sessions going on simultaneously in various portions of the morning and afternoon. Ten of these programs consisted mostly of invited lectures and 6 of the sessions consisted of 'symposia' in which 3 or 4 papers received extensive presentation. Next in the hierarchy were 'workshops' in which 4-6 papers were presented in a 2-h period. Last, b u t by no means least, were the rather large numbers of 'volunteer' papers which were allotted the standard 10 min for presentation, 5 min for discussion. All of these formats were successful in providing a rich fare of remarkably high scientific quality and interest. As a means of intense information exchange, the meetings were clearly a resounding success. Two special addresses were given, the Presidential address b y Neal E. Miller of the Rockefeller University on 'Psychosomatic Effects of Learning', and the Grass Foundation lecture given by Stephen W. Kuffler of Harvard Medical School on 'Microphysiology of the Synapse'. This was the first Grass Foundation lectureship and is to be an annual event sponsored by the Foundation which is funded b y the Grass Instrument Company. Among the many scientific highlights of the meeting were a pair of papers presented b y Kenneth V. Anderson and W. Keith O'Steen showing
N25 that rats fully lacking both photoreceptors and pigment epithelial cells, consequent to prolonged exposure to constant illumination, are able to discriminate 2 ° horizontal from vertical stripes! This confirms and extends earlier work by Karli and his colleagues (see Progr. Ophthal. Otolaryng., 14 (1963) 51-89), who showed that mutant mice undergoing complete degeneration of the photoreceptors could still discriminate light from dark even though there was a 10,000-fold increase in threshold; and that retinal elements were required for this discrimination since it could not be made following section of the optic nerves. This was also true in the study of Anderson and O'Steen, and in neither study could an ERG be recorded. Anderson and O'Steen were also unable to demonstrate photically evoked potentials in the lateral geniculate body or visual cortex of their animals, although single unit activity could still be obtained from the optic tract. Obviously, these experiments raise many important questions concerning the transduction of photic energy to neural signals, and in the relation of behaviorally significant neural activity to the potentials which can (in this case cannot! ) be grossly recorded in the central nervous system. There were several interesting papers concerned with eye movements. Neal Barmack of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Ore., demonstrated that abducens motoneurons in the cat generate a high frequency burst discharge and maintained increment in steady frequency when subjected to intracellularly applied depolarizing pulses. The pattern of discharge is highly similar to that which occurs naturally in the production of saccadic eye movements. He thus hypothesizes that the presynaptic control system need only deliver to the motoneuron an appropriate level of depolarization, signifying eye position, and properties of the motoneuron would inherently provide the discharge necessary for the saccadic movement and 'fix' to the targeted position. R. Llin~s and J.W. Wolfe of the University of Iowa and the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, have found a highly restricted region (vermal folium VIIa) in the cerebellum of unanesthetized macaques where Purkinje and granule cells discharge about 15-20 msec prior to onset of saccadic eye movement, regardless of whether the saccade is initiated voluntarily, or from optokinetic or labyrinthine nystagmus. Visual input does not influence the response, but, most interestingly, the intensity of the discharge is inversely proportional to the amplitude of the saccadic movement. Bernard Cohen of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City also showed that bilateral labyrinthectomy greatly diminished optokinetic nystagmus in macaques. Finally, Hiroharu Noda and W. Ross Adey of the University of California at Los Angeles found that retinal input generated by saccadic eye movements in a lighted environment reduced transmission through the lateral geniculate nucleus in unanesthetized cats. No effect occurred at the lateral geniculate nucleus when the eyes moved in the dark. On the other hand, excitability of the visual cortex was enhanced for about 200 msec whether the eyes moved in the light or in the dark. Their data thus
N26 suggest that, for the cat, the 'corollary discharge', which must distinguish self-generated retinal input from input arising to movement in the external world, is first applied at cortical levels. The marked cortical facilitation in relation to eye movement might serve not only to signal the fact that an eye movement had occurred and that a new visual sample was about to begin, but could also help to overcome the refractoriness arising in the central system as a consequence of the non-informative (blurred) signal generated by the movement itself. Obviously, the foregoing gives only a brief and personal glimpse of the scientific content of the meeting. From comments of others, it is clear that equally exciting results were forthcoming in neurochemistry, pharmacology, anatomy, psychology, membrane physiology, etc. A more extensive summary should soon be available from the Brain Information Service, School of Medicine and Biomedical Library, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024. For those desiring as much of the original information as possible, a limited number of programs complete with the 392 abstracts of the papers presented are available from the Society for Neuroscience, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md. 20014 for $5.00 plus cost of shipping and handling. The meetings attracted a number of exhibitors, giving the members an opportunity to see a variety of ingenious and highly relevant electronic and surgical instruments, together with many of the most recent books published in the field of neuroscience.
University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. 14627 (U.S.A.)
R O B E R T W. D O T Y
THE EUROPEAN TRAINING PROGRAMME IN BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH
In 1968 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development initiated a study of the status in Europe of three interdisciplinary fields of research, which were thought to pose special problems for scientific policy. One of these fields was that of Brain and Behaviour. A report on the current status of Brain and Behaviour Research in Europe was submitted to the OECD Committee for Science Policy, which is now made public in their publication no. 29.905 1972, called 'Brain and Behaviour'. The report was prepared by O. Wolthuis (The Netherlands) and N.S. Sutherland (United Kingdom) with the advice and assistance of the following panel of scientists: Professors Bertelson (Belgium), Creutzfeldt (Germany), Mandel (France), Ploog (Germany), de Ruiter (The Netherlands), Scherrer (France), de Wied (The Netherlands) and Dr. K. Oatley (United Kingdom). At different stages of the drafting Professors Akert (Switzerland), Fessard (France), Whittaker (United Kingdom), Michael (United Kingdom),