Abstract

Our basic external sensory systems – touch, taste, vision, hearing, and smell – enable us to perceive the world around us, and other internal sensory systems enable us to perceive the secret world within us. Recent advances have revealed the molecular logic of how some sensory systems work, while other sensory systems remain uncharted. Fields of sensory biology often maintain separate cultures, and are at varying levels of maturity, with different frontiers, unknowns, and perspectives. The goal of this conference is to bring leading experts from different sensory fields together, and to broadcast conceptual and technical advances achieved in one sensory system that may enable new findings in others. It will highlight recent advances in each external sense: vision, olfaction, taste, hearing and touch/pain/temperature sensation, as well as new developments in the emerging field of internal organ sensation. Speakers will be included to discuss a range of topics including: 1) Receptors and sensory mechanisms; 2) Neural circuits; 3) Behavioral and physiological responses; and 4) The genetic basis of sensory deficits.