Scientific meetings, or conferences,
are pretty intense.
The Society for Neuroscience meeting, or SfN,
is enormous, with almost 30,000 attendees.
It’s like Comic Con, but somehow
even more nerdy.
And just like Comic Con,
it’s an opportunity for
members of the community to
showcase their newest work.
I wasn’t able to do any
filming or photography inside the
actual conference because SfN has
a “no media” policy to protect the
unpublished research of attendees.
So what do scientists do at their own con?
We get to learn about a lot of new research.
I wandered through the poster hall,
which is an enormous room filled with
hundreds of poster boards,
where hundreds of scientists show off
their most recent projects.
There are also dozens and dozens
of scientific talks.
From nanosymposia,
which are 10 minute talks,
all the way up to the hour-long
Presidental Keynote Lectures,
highlighting the most exciting
neuroscience of the year.
At this amazing gathering of the minds,
I had the opportunity to meet a scientist
who’s doing some really interesting research
to try and understand how our brains
adapt to sensory information.
This is Clarissa Whitmire from Georgia Tech
in Atlanta, Georgia.
She's a PhD candidate there and
she's here to tell us a little bit about her research.
So thanks for joining us, Clarissa.
Clarissa: Happy to be here.
Can you tell me what got you interested
in neuroscience in the first place?
You know, I think I first got really
excited about neuroscience when
I realized that everything that we perceive
is encoded by our brains.
So I found that to be such a
fascinating topic that then I
started doing this about seven years ago
and haven't quit.
What got you interested in, like,
sensory adaptation in particular.
How did you choose your thesis project?
I think I first got into sensation because
every time we experience something like
the brightness of a room or
the smell of a flower,
that's encoded in our brains.
But what's really cool is that it's
super dynamic.
so this isn't something that something
will smell the same way to you
every single time.
It can change as a function of
what context it's presented in.
So my thesis and all my work is
really focused on this process of adaptation.
You just published this really interesting
perspective in the journal Neuron.
Can you summarize your
perspective for us?
Yeah, of course, so
it's all about sensory adaptation.
And it's about
how information is encoded in
a dynamic way.
A lot of what we've done in
sensory neuroscience is characterize
what certain neurons might be sensitive to.
Do they like a flash of light or a
bar of light or a moving grading.
And we think of that as a static property.
But I think sensory adaptation has really
taught us that the brain is very dynamic.
And that these properties can change in
a moment by moment basis.
So what we're really trying to show with
this paper is that you can have
this differential adaptation as a function of
a ton of different variables that allows
your brain to flexibly encode everything
that you experience.
So if you were going to explain your
recent perspective to a classroom
full of fifth graders, how would you
describe that research to them and
why it's something that a fifth grader
would find interesting?
When you go out on the playground,
and it's super bright out,
you're essentially blind for a few seconds.
You know, you go out there and
your eyes almost hurt a little bit.
But within a few seconds,
you start to adapt
and then you can see again
and you can experience the playground
and you can go out and have fun
with your friends.
Similarly, when you go to the movies,
you go in and it's so dark,
you can't see a thing.
But then, after a few seconds, you adapt.
And so what this paper is really about is
trying to link that process that we have
that allows us to see on a playground
or in the movie theater or in a classroom,
and why a single neuron is capable of
reaching each one of those states,
yeah, handling each one of these things.
That's a really amazing, like, superpower
that our brain has, right?
To be able to just process everything
and figure out how to compartmentalize it
so that we can actually handle
navigating the environment?
Absolutely.
The fact that we can function daily is amazing.
Well thank you so much for joining us today, Clarissa.
It was really great to hear about
your research and all the stuff that
you're working on.
Thanks so much!
Thanks for having me!
The whole week was an incredible
opportunity to learn about new research.
Including Clarissa’s!
But, SfN isn’t only about the science.
There are a lot of professional development
and networking events,
which are great opportunities for
young scientists, like me,
to learn from more experienced faculty.
And to make connections with
future colleagues and mentors.
And of course, when the
conference hall closes for the day,
those 30,000 scientists have to go somewhere.
So like any good con, there are also parties.
Beyond networking, these
give a chance for attendees to relax,
have fun, and catch up with
friends and collaborators.
Many of whom they only
have the chance to see at SfN.
After this year’s meeting,
I’m feeling more excited than ever
about my own research.
And the neuroscientific community as a whole.
Thanks for watching this episode
of Neuro Transmissions.
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Until our next transmission,
I’m Alie Astrocyte.
Over and out.