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More than 32,000 scientists from different fields came together last week to discuss one topic: the brain.

Approximately hundreds of UCLA students and professors participated in the annual Society for Neuroscience conference at Washington, D.C., joining the parade of poster presentations, slide shows, lectures, interactive demos and social events to showcase both the pioneering research and educational activities that distinguish UCLA.

Hope Johnson, a UCLA neurobiology graduate student, presented her work on the pattern of activity of slices of brain tissue in a four-hour poster session. She hopes that her work sheds insights into how memories are formed in the brain.

“When you bring your poster to the conference, it’s like a preliminary peer review,” Johnson said. “If you hear the same critique over and over again, it’s likely to be the comments you get back when you’re trying to publish.”

While presenting your own research is important for disseminating ideas, the conference also serves as a gateway to learn about the innovative results from other laboratories around the world.

“I’m always surprised at how things (in the brain) actually work,” Johnson said. “It’s not like a computer and not necessarily the way you’d engineer something to work.”

Johnson was one of many students who obtained travel awards provided by the neuroscience society to attend this annual conference.

Michelle Crespo, a third-year neuroscience student, also went to Washington D.C. on a diversity scholarship provided by the society.

The conference also provides a platform for new scientists to network with established investigators from around the world.

Crespo attended the Synapse Social, open to anyone at the conference who wanted to get to know different researchers. The Social was mostly attended by scientists whose research involves understanding the mechanisms behind how brain cells are connected.

These connections, called synapses, can be modified when learning occurs, Crespo said.

All the cutting-edge work being presented is what Crespo said gave her the motivation to learn more about the relatively young field of neuroscience.

“It (neuroscience) can be explored at the cellular level and at a more physiological level, or you can look at genetics,” Crespo said. “It provides different ways to look at a single (problem).”

Attending the conference for the first time, Crespo sees the conference as a network of neuroscientists through which she might be able to communicate and pave her way into the scientific community.

Communication is also important for the society’s educational outreach initiative.

UCLA was well-represented at the conference by Project Brainstorm, an on-campus group that gives students the opportunity to teach high school students about brain and behavior.

Project Brainstorm is also responsible for the annual Brain Awareness Week, which brings over 400 high school students from all around southern California to UCLA to participate in hands-on activities, lab tours and demonstrations using a real preserved brain.

Nanthia Suthana, a neuroscience graduate student at UCLA, presented her work with Brain Awareness Week at the conference’s campaigning event and at the Outreach Social.

Suthana gave audience members the opportunity to participate in an activity demonstrating how different parts of the brain control different functions.

It was developed by undergraduates enrolled in the UCLA course Neuroscience 195.

The task involved teams of three attempting to build tall, stable structures using only marshmallows and toothpicks.

The twist was that one team member could only use his or her left hand – controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain. The other member could only use his or her right hand – controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. The final member could only speak – an ability controlled by the language area of the left hemisphere of the brain.

To succeed against other teams, the language, left-hand, and right-hand representatives must coordinate among each other and imitate what the actual human brain does all the time.

Suthana pointed out that the UCLA teaching course is the only one of its type in the country.

Available next quarter as Neuroscience 192B, it gives graduate students a chance to teach undergraduates who enroll in the course how to teach science to high school students.

Educators from around the country were so impressed with the idea that other universities like Washington University of St. Louis are about to follow UCLA’s lead and implement the course.

“There needs to be communication between scientists and the public, especially future scientists,” Suthana said. “It has more of an impact at the K to 12 level if scientists are the ones doing the communicating.”

The conference is not the only vehicle for neuroscience discussion.

Paula Wu, a second-year neuroscience student and one of the authors of a poster presented at this year’s conference, is also part of the UCLA Student Research Program.

The program helps undergraduates find entry-level research positions on campus.

Wu said the program is especially important for college students who are trying to decide on their future paths,

“The knowledge we’re creating are never made in a vacuum,” Wu said. “Every poster that is presented at the conference is one slice of work, and every little step moves us closer.”