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Each year at SfN, the world’s leading neuroscientists put their brains together to discuss all that is good and new in the world of, well, the brain. As our F1000 Faculty Members mull over which of the many thousands of posters and presentations particularly caught their eye this time round, we thought we would remind ourselves of some of the highlights from last year’s meeting .

Have you ever wondered why you have those days where you just can’t motivate yourself to work? Catharine Winstanley and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, Canada, presented a poster looking at the underlying neural circuitry that determines whether an animal chooses to be a “worker” or a “slacker”, and how basolateral amygdala inactivations alter choice preferences in a rodent model of cognitive effort.

Whilst we hope this year’s SfN attendees didn’t find the meeting too stressful, Paul Vincent Strong and colleagues from University of Colorado, CO, USA, presented a poster last year that investigated the mechanism for negative behaviours induced by uncontrollable stress. The poster was evaluated by F1000 Faculty Member Trevor Robbins, who highlighted this “highly interesting and relevant” study for revealing that behavioural consequences of uncontrollable stress are mediated by 5-HT2C receptors in the dorsal striatum.

Last but not least, excessive alcohol consumption or, more specifically, inhibition of excessive alcohol consumption, a poster presented by Segev Barak and colleagues from the Ernest Gallo Research Center, University of California. Rated a ‘Must Read’ by F1000 Faculty Members Remi Martin-Fardon and Friedbert Weiss, this poster identifies the molecular mechanism underlying the inhibitory effects that glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has on excessive alcohol consumption. As highlighted in their F1000 evaluation, this work helps “identify the GDNF system as a high priority treatment target for alcohol abuse.”

Look out for F1000’s top highlights from SfN 2011. If you presented a poster or slides at this year’s conference, then make the most of all the time and effort you spent in creating them by sending them along to F1000 Posters via the quick and free deposit form, and keep the discussion going until next year!