Media Advisory

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Neuroscience and the National Eye Institute

Vision Research Presentations at Neuroscience 2008

What: Researchers supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as researchers working on-site at NEI will present recent advances in vision science at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting. Topics will include stem cells, visual processing and vision's role in decision making.

Why: Vision scientists will demonstrate the interdisciplinary impact of their work by presenting the latest NEI-funded neuroscience research findings.

When: November 15-19, 2008

Where: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting
Washington Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place NW
Washington, DC 20001

Contact: To arrange an interview with NEI scientists, please contact the NEI at 301.496.5248 or e-mail your request to neinews@nei.nih.gov. For more information on the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, visit www.sfn.org.

Event Highlights:

Saturday, November 15

  • 2:30 p.m. / Room 201 — Objects and Faces: Human Perception and Expertise — Golijeh Golarai, Ph.D., Stanford University

Sunday, November 16

  • 11:30 a.m. / Room 204C — NIH Neuroscience Experts Panel — Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., NEI director

Monday, November 17

  • 4:00 p.m. / Room 147B — Stem Cells: Properties and Applications — Michael E. Zuber, Ph.D., SUNY Upstate Medical University

Tuesday, November 18

  • 9:00 a.m. / Room 204C — "Decisions, Decisions": How Do We Make Thousands of Daily Choices? — Okihide Hikosaka, M.D., Ph.D., NEI
  • 2:15 p.m. / Room 145B — Attention: Search — Marius V. Peelen, Ph.D., Princeton University
  • 3:30 p.m. / Room 204C — What's Next for Stem Cell Therapies? — Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., NEI

Wednesday, November 19

  • 9:00 a.m. / Room 209A — Decision and Response Selection — Christopher J. Peck, Columbia University
  • 9:15 a.m. / Room 209A — Decision and Response Selection — Jamie K. Fitzgerald, Harvard Medical School
  • 3:45 p.m. / Room 152B — Progenitors and Stem Cells — Xiumei Li, University of Alabama at Birmingham

The National Eye Institute (NEI), a component of the National Institutes of Health, is the federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness. For more information, visit the NEI Web site at www.nei.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

###