Nearly 12 years after investigators funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative® first convened, more than 800 researchers, trainees, clinicians, advocates, and partners gathered in Rockville, Maryland, to “Invent the Future” of neuroscience. Over three days, the meeting showed how groundbreaking new tools are revealing the brain’s inner workings and complexity in ways that were impossible not long ago.
Two plenary lectures exemplified the value of studying a variety of model organisms in their natural environments to uncover general principles underlying complex behaviors. Michael Yartsev’s team at the University of California, Berkeley, studies freely flying bats to understand how the brain represents space. Although natural movement may seem “unstudiable” because it is so random, bats follow remarkably consistent flight paths. Yartsev’s work shows that bats’ brains do not map three-dimensional space as a uniform grid. Instead, their flying pattern follows the planes along which the bats naturally fly. This suggests that a bat brain’s map of space is shaped by how it actually moves through the air.
Tracking human behavior is also revealing how the brain supports everyday experiences, and how that knowledge might lead to new treatments. Combining sophisticated, brain-implanted recording devices with wearable technologies, Nanthia Suthana of Duke University has discovered brain activity linked to both navigation and memory, as well as how the brain creates emotional experiences in people with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a small pilot study, she and her team tested deep brain stimulation in participants including an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran living with debilitating PTSD. After the experimental DBS treatment, he was able watch fireworks with his family without being pulled back into memories of combat.
In keeping with past conferences, the meeting shone a light on next-generation talent. Three poster sessions featuring 372 presentations sparked lively discussion and exchange throughout the conference. In addition, 10 Scholar Spotlight awardees selected from trainee poster abstracts gave one-minute presentations on projects ranging from decoding speech-related brain signals and studying natural behavior in marmosets to improving support for participants after neural device trials. An early career event brought about 200 participants together with panelists from academia, government, industry, and philanthropy to discuss mentorship and career paths.
The meeting’s scientific symposia made it clear that new tools and an array of research models are enabling advances in neuroscience discovery. We learned about a new and highly detailed atlas of the basal ganglia: the brain region essential for movement, learning, and decision-making that is affected in many neurological and behavioral disorders, including addiction. Other sessions highlighted new voltage indicators and microscopes that capture electrical activity with increasing speed and precision, and BRAIN CONNECTS techniques for mapping neural circuits across scales and species. We also heard about studies of deer mice, poison frogs, and parrots, showing how nontraditional research models can uncover broader principles of brain function, social behavior, and communication – and inform what we know about the human brain. Understanding the complexity of the human brain will require many different strategies – using animal models when they are the best way to answer a research question and also recognizing the value of human-based systems and computational models.
Taken together, the 2026 conference showed how much BRAIN’s first decade has made possible. Extraordinary progress invites a new challenge: How can we connect discoveries made with different tools, in different species, and at different scales – and turn huge amounts of data into treatments for human brain disorders?
Four sessions and a closing fireside chat promoted visibility and discussion about the recently published Neuroscience Research Roadmap. The Roadmap’s four proposed Innovation Domains aim to connect and interpret BRAIN data through the BRAIN Knowledgebase, develop more targeted interventions through Precision Molecular Circuit Therapies, compare and integrate data from humans and other species through Accelerating Human Neuroscience, and advance a two-way exchange between neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) through NeuroAI.
Throughout the entire conference, discussion emphasized that as brain data become more detailed and AI systems become more capable, questions of consent, privacy, data stewardship, transparency, and human oversight cannot wait until a technology is ready for widespread use. Researchers need to consider these issues as tools and studies are designed, with meaningful input from research participants and people affected by brain disorders. Scientific progress depends on earning and sustaining public trust.
This year’s conference was a joyful and highly collaborative gathering of an amazing group of people who are working feverishly toward a day in which treatments and cures for brain disorders are effective and available for the millions of people who need them. We look forward to continuing these conversations at Neuroscience 2026, November 14–18 in Washington, D.C., including at the BRAIN Initiative Alliance Social on November 15; registration for Neuroscience 2026 is open, with a virtual option for those unable to attend in person.
This path – from gaining fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system to reducing the burden of neurological disease – is central to the NINDS mission and exemplifies why the Institute’s partnership in BRAIN is so important.
Amy Bany Adams, Ph.D., Acting Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and John Ngai, Ph.D., Director, NIH BRAIN Initiative