Neural Circuit Dynamics

September 18-25, 2027

Director: György Buzsáki

New York University, Langone Medical Center, USA

Co-Director: Michael Hausser

University College London, UK & University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Faculty:

Massimo Scanziani, UCSF, San Francisco, USA

Maiken Nedergaard, University of Rochester, USA & University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Itzhak Fried, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA

Gyorgy Buzsaki, New York University, Langone Medical Center, USA

Michael Hausser, University College London, UK & University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The Decade of the Brain, and later the BRAIN Initiative, transformed neuroscience by equipping the field with unprecedented tools and revealing brain function and disease with extraordinary clarity. These efforts sparked remarkable progress across neurotechnology and drew together a new generation of scientists from diverse disciplines, from chemistry and physics to mathematics, engineering, and AI.

Yet as neuroscience advances, it is becoming increasingly clear that progress depends on more than ever more powerful methods. Science is not only the art of measuring the world; it is also the art of making sense of it. Techniques can reveal new phenomena, but understanding requires ideas—conceptual frameworks that bring observations into focus, connect seemingly disparate findings, and inspire new questions. To move the field forward, neuroscience needs spaces where bold thinking is encouraged, overarching views are debated, and new theoretical directions can emerge.

This Advanced Course is designed to be such a space. It will explore new frontiers in systems neuroscience, not simply by presenting the latest results, but by asking what they mean and where they point next. The course will emphasize big questions, unifying hypotheses, and the dynamic interplay between experiment and theory. It will also examine how advances in basic neuroscience can illuminate the path toward new approaches to brain disorders and their treatment.

Bringing together an exceptional faculty from across systems neuroscience, the course will span action and perception, development and adult plasticity, innate and experience-dependent circuit dynamics, experimental design and mathematical theory, as well as animal models and clinical investigation. By crossing levels of analysis and bridging disciplines, it aims to foster a richer and more integrated vision of the brain.

Ultimately, the Advanced Course will offer students and scholars an opportunity not only to learn about emerging directions in neuroscience, but also to help shape them. Its goal is to cultivate the ideas, perspectives, and intellectual courage needed to guide future experiments, deepen interpretation, and open new avenues for discovery.