Neuroscience 2026 brings the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience to Washington, D.C., with a lecture program that reaches directly into spinal cord injury questions: neural injury signaling, motor learning after neurological damage, and chronic pain treatment past opioids.
Research that eventually reaches spinal cord injury (SCI) clinics usually shows up years earlier as a poster or a lecture at a neuroscience research meeting. Neuroscience 2026, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), is one of the places that early work gets presented. It takes place November 14 to 18, 2026 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
Several 2026 lectures sit close to SCI questions. Marc R. Freeman, PhD of the Vollum Institute is presenting on SARM1 signaling in the injured nervous system, the auto-destruction program that neuronal injury sets off in axons. Amy J. Bastian, PhD of the Kennedy Krieger Institute is speaking on how neurological injury disrupts motor learning, and how rehabilitation might use the mechanisms that remain intact. Allan I. Basbaum, PhD of the University of California, San Francisco is covering chronic pain treatment beyond morphine, including neuromodulation, gene therapy, and peripheral nervous system targets.
SfN organizes the program under eleven scientific themes. Two of them sit in SCI territory: Theme D, Neuroimmunity, Neurovasculature, and Neural Injury, and Theme F, Motor Systems. SfN also offers a virtual component with virtual posters and livestreams of up to 24 featured and special lectures, with on-demand access through December 20, 2026, for people who cannot travel to Washington.
All Neuroscience 2026 lectures are held in Hall D of the convention center, November 14 to 18. SfN provides Real Time Captioning Services for every lecture in that hall, and select lectures are livestreamed with on-demand recordings afterward.
Abstract presenters share findings in poster sessions and nanosymposia across the five days. Presenters choose in-person, virtual, or both, so a portion of the poster floor is readable from home through the virtual platform.
Panel sessions on current research across the field. Symposia typically feature senior investigators as speakers, while minisymposia typically feature junior investigators working on the same kinds of questions.
Meet-the-Expert and Meet-the-Clinician-Expert sessions put researchers and clinicians in a smaller room to describe their techniques, their results, and the decisions behind the work in a personal context.
Dual Perspectives sessions, Storytelling sessions, and Basic-Translational-Clinical Roundtables, which put bench researchers and clinicians on the same question in front of the same audience.
The exhibit hall carries research equipment, reagents, software, and services from commercial and nonprofit exhibitors, alongside the Graduate School Fair and the Art of Neuroscience display.
Marc R. Freeman, PhD, of the Vollum Institute presents Special Lecture LEC02, SARM1 Signaling in the Injured Nervous System. The talk covers the SARM1-dependent auto-destruction program that follows neuronal injury, the pro-degenerative pathways that converge with it, and the regulators that can change what the pathway does.
Amy J. Bastian, PhD, of the Kennedy Krieger Institute presents Special Lecture LEC05, Learning to Move: What Development and Neurological Injury Reveal. Motor learning draws on several brain mechanisms with different vulnerabilities to damage, which points toward rehabilitation that uses the mechanisms a person still has.
Allan I. Basbaum, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco presents Special Lecture LEC11, Towards a New Pharmacotherapy of Pain: Beyond Morphine. The lecture covers preclinical approaches to chronic pain, including in silico drug screening, neuromodulation, gene therapy, and peripheral nervous system targets.
Neuroscience 2026 is supported by sponsors across several tiers. The Platinum, Gold, and Bronze sponsors are listed below for attendees planning their time in the exhibit and sponsor areas.
Dana Foundation 
Amazon Web Services 
Johnson & Johnson 
10x Genomics
Abbott 
Chen Institute 
Novartis 
The MIND Prize Sponsor names, logos, and links are as published by the Society for Neuroscience. SfN also names Lecture and Event sponsors and Award sponsors on its Neuroscience 2026 sponsors page.
Registration and housing are open. Advance registration closes October 5, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Regular registration opens October 6 at midnight EDT and continues through the meeting.
801 Allen Y. Lew Place NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Sessions, posters, and exhibits are all housed at the convention center. Lectures are in Hall D, where SfN provides Real Time Captioning Services.
SfN contracts room blocks through its official housing company, Convention Management Resources. Reservations are made online or by phone, fax, or email through the SfN Housing office. Online requests are given priority, are drawn from live inventory, and generate an emailed confirmation immediately.
Note: Reservations can be changed or canceled online through October 16, after which changes are subject to availability and cancelations may carry a penalty of one night's room and tax. November 3 is the last day to make, change, or cancel through SfN Housing. From November 6, contact the hotel directly.
International attendees can request an official invitation letter through SfN's visa letter form and are encouraged to act early on visa applications. SfN publishes air and ground transportation details, a shuttle schedule, a hotel list, and an interactive city map on its Neuroscience 2026 housing and travel pages.
Allan I. Basbaum's Neuroscience 2026 lecture takes up chronic pain treatment beyond morphine, one of the questions people with SCI raise most often. The North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium (NASCIC) knowledgebase article on SCI pain sets out the types of pain that follow injury, why they respond differently to treatment, and what current management involves. It is useful background before the session, and useful on its own.
Read the SCI Pain ArticleNeuroscience 2026 is held November 14 to 18 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Advance registration closes October 5, and a virtual option is available for those who cannot attend in person.
Accessibility: The Society for Neuroscience provides Real Time Captioning Services for all lectures in Hall D. Attendees who need an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant hotel room can check the ADA box when reserving online through SfN Housing, and a housing representative will follow up on specific requirements. For other accommodation questions, contact SfN at meetings@sfn.org or (202) 962-4000.
