The First International Brain Mapping Course is scheduled immediately prior to the 2016 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, one of the meeting’s main hotels. This course will bring together the largest cortical mapping programs in the world from 10 countries in North and South America, Europe and Asia, all to share their experiences and protocols in brain mapping.

Whether you are an expert in brain mapping or a neurosurgeon/neuroscientist who is interested in developing or improving your brain mapping program, your participation will provide valuable input to the meeting.

You can view the curriculum online for an outline of the topics that will be covered and a list of the renowned faculty from around the world. We encourage you join us for the meeting and to bring members of your mapping team to participate. There will be interactive sessions, case presentations and open discussions in which we welcome your input and the input from other members. We also encourage you to stay for the 2016 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting immediately following the conclusion of the mapping course.

Some of the highlights of the meeting include:

• A pre-operative mapping evaluation session;
• Expert lectures on the latest updates in understanding the anatomy of the functional cortex;
• A series of 11 discussions given by some of the most prominent cortical stimulation mapping surgeons from nine countries, who will describe the details of their mapping techniques;
• A dinner session with a keynote discussion by our honored guest, George A. Ojemann, MD, FAANS(L);
• A keynote dinner session on the neuroanatomy of speech by David Poeppel, PhD, a renowned expert in speech physiology;
• A two-hour working lunch session with an interactive discussion of standard and invited cases;
• A presentation on the results of our pre-meeting survey regarding the uses and techniques of cortical mapping; and
• A session covering brain mapping research and the future of brain mapping from leading centers.

There will be formal and informal sessions for case presentation and review. If you have unique and interesting cases that you would like to have presented in the formal sessions, you can submit them to faculty upon your registration. This is also an excellent venue for informally sharing unique cases with international experts.

For practitioners who are new to pre- and intra-operative brain mapping, this course is the perfect opportunity to learn the nuts-and-bolts practice of cortical mapping. You will also learn the practical aspects of starting a brain-mapping program. For experts, the meeting will focus on some of the more controversial and innovative practices in brain mapping at the leading centers in the world, including yours.

Because the 2016 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting and the NFL draft are being hosted in Chicago that same weekend, we encourage you to make travel plans and hotel reservations as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to seeing you, as we all learn from the vast experience of our expert international faculty.

Please register for the course here, and be sure to stay for the AANS Annual Scientific Meeting, which starts the following day. Hotel registration is also available on the AANS website. Registration is limited.

Mitchel S. Berger, MD, FAANS

Hugues Duffau, MD

Richard W. Byrne, MD, FAANS