SfN 2026 | Neuroscience Without Borders - Latin American Brains, Shared Discoveries

Washington, D.C. | November 14–18, 2026

EEG · fNIRS · NIRS · TMS · Hyperscanning · Neuroplasticity · Decolonial Neuroscience

What if the next neuroscience discovery emerges between our brains?

Feel your breathing while reading. Observe how your body adjusts its posture, how attention moves between words, and how your brain integrates visual information with memory, expectations, and physiological signals.

Your brain is never functioning independently of your body.

Pero ningún cerebro existe separado de su metabolismo, sus relaciones y su territorio.

Every scientific question emerges from a context. Researchers bring their languages, methods, histories, instruments, and assumptions into laboratories. Essas diferenças podem ampliar as perguntas que a ciência consegue formular.

From November 14 to 18, 2026, the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will bring the global neuroscience community together at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

For BrainLatam, SfN 2026 is an opportunity to connect Latin American neuroscience with global scientific discoveries, emerging neurotechnologies, and collaborative experimental research.

This independent scientific hub connects our previous publications, technical resources, and new research hypotheses.

We do not simply want to follow discoveries.

Queremos participar das perguntas que tornam possíveis novas descobertas.

1. Society for Neuroscience — From individual discoveries to scientific networks

The Society for Neuroscience is an international scientific organization dedicated to advancing the understanding of the brain and nervous system.

Its annual meeting brings together researchers working across molecular neuroscience, neural circuits, cognitive processes, development, behavior, neuroengineering, and clinical investigation.

Scientific progress requires more than collecting observations. It involves reproducible methods, competing hypotheses, critical interpretation, and collaboration.

BrainLatam has been documenting these developments through successive SfN-related publications.

Our SfN 2023 EEG and NIRS research collection connects electrophysiological and hemodynamic approaches.

The SfN 2023 MEG, EEG and Source Analysis collection explores neural source reconstruction and analytical methodologies.

These scientific archives allow researchers to revisit earlier questions as instruments and methods evolve.

La ciencia no empieza nuevamente en cada congreso. Evoluciona mediante conexiones entre conocimientos.

2. Latin American Neuroscience — Beyond geographical representation

Latin America contributes to neuroscience through universities, researchers, scientific societies, clinical institutions, and experimental laboratories.

Yet geographical participation alone does not guarantee diversity in scientific questions.

Who defines the experimental models? Which populations are represented? What biological, environmental, and social variables remain unexplored?

BrainLatam approaches Decolonial Neuroscience as an invitation to examine these limitations without abandoning experimental rigor.

Our SfN 2024 Latin America in Neuroscience collection presents regional contributions across neural circuits, behavior, and experimental neuroscience.

A second collection of Latin American research extends this scientific dialogue.

Decolonial approaches should not replace evidence with cultural assumptions.

Instead, they can help identify unexplored variables, improve experimental designs, and examine whether findings generalize across populations.

Neurociencia latinoamericana no significa una ciencia separada del mundo. Significa contribuir con preguntas propias a una investigación compartida.

3. EEG — Electrical dynamics, cognition and human behavior

Electroencephalography (EEG) records electrical potential differences at the scalp, reflecting activity associated with neuronal populations.

Its millisecond-scale temporal resolution supports investigations of sensory processing, event-related potentials, neural oscillations, attention, learning, and cognitive control.

Mobile EEG systems expand the possibilities for studying human behavior beyond conventional laboratory conditions.

However, ecological recording introduces challenges involving movement artifacts, muscle activity, signal quality, and experimental control.

Contemporary neuroscience increasingly combines EEG with complementary measurements to investigate brain-body relationships.

Our EEG, NIRS, TMS, Eye Tracking and Multimodal Neuroimaging overview introduces several methodological combinations.

O desafio não é simplesmente registrar mais sinais. É compreender melhor os fenômenos investigados.

How can electrical brain dynamics inform our understanding of interaction, adaptation, and behavior?

4. fNIRS and NIRS — Exploring cerebral hemodynamics in natural environments

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) uses near-infrared light to estimate changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin.

It provides hemodynamic information related to cortical activity, although measurements remain sensitive to superficial physiology, movement, and other confounding variables.

EEG and fNIRS investigate different physiological processes.

Their integration can provide complementary temporal and hemodynamic information when supported by appropriate experimental protocols.

BrainLatam explores these possibilities in What's New in EEG, NIRS, fNIRS and Hyperscanning at SfN 2026?.

Wearable neuroimaging creates opportunities to study learning, cooperation, and social interaction in more natural settings.

El laboratorio puede acercarse a la vida cotidiana, pero la precisión científica debe acompañar cada movimiento.

The question becomes: which aspects of human cognition remain difficult to investigate because our experimental environments restrict natural behavior?

5. Hyperscanning — Studying interaction between multiple brains

Hyperscanning enables simultaneous neural recordings from two or more participants engaged in shared activities.

EEG and fNIRS hyperscanning studies can investigate interpersonal coordination, cooperation, communication, and social learning.

Researchers may quantify inter-brain coupling through temporal, spectral, or statistical relationships between recorded signals.

However, inter-brain synchrony alone does not demonstrate shared consciousness, cooperation, or collective decision-making.

Common stimuli, synchronized behavior, and shared task demands may produce similar patterns.

Experimental interpretation requires behavioral measures, appropriate controls, and alternative hypotheses.

BrainLatam proposes investigating Jiwasa, understood as a conceptual framework for shared agency, through testable experimental designs.

¿Cuándo una interacción produce transformación recíproca y cuándo representa solamente imitación u obediencia?

One possibility is to compare individual decisions, instructed coordination, reciprocal collaboration, disagreement, and adaptation to unexpected information.

Such comparisons may help distinguish different forms of social interaction without assuming that neural synchrony establishes a particular subjective experience.

6. TMS–EEG — Cortical excitability, connectivity and neuroplasticity

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) generates changing magnetic fields capable of inducing electrical currents in neural tissue.

Combined with EEG, TMS can support investigations of stimulation-evoked responses, cortical excitability, and aspects of effective connectivity.

BrainLatam discusses these research possibilities in What's New in EEG TMS at SfN 2026?.

Neuroplasticity involves changes in neural function and organization associated with learning, development, experience, and other processes.

Yet physiological responses observed during stimulation should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of lasting behavioral improvement.

Scientific validity requires carefully designed protocols, appropriate control conditions, and reproducible findings.

Comprender un circuito neural también significa reconocer los límites de nuestras inferencias.

Combining neural stimulation with multimodal recording may help researchers investigate relationships between perturbation, network activity, and behavioral responses.

7. NeuroDesafio LATAM — Building the next generation of neuroscientists

BrainLatam proudly sponsors NeuroDesafio LATAM - A Latin American Neuroscience Challenge, an international educational initiative connecting young neuroscience students across Latin America.

Its scientific organization encompasses four educational areas:

NeuroBases: Neurophysiology, neurochemistry, development, cognition, and behavior.

NeuroMorfologia: Neuroanatomy, histology, structural organization, and neural imaging.

NeuroClínica: Neurological disorders, clinical reasoning, neurodevelopment, and diagnostic interpretation.

NeuroQuiz: Scientific knowledge, collaborative learning, and competitive problem-solving.

These areas establish connections between foundational understanding and contemporary experimental neuroscience.

For young participants, scientific development involves more than remembering anatomical structures or physiological mechanisms.

It requires learning how to formulate hypotheses, interpret uncertainty, and distinguish evidence from speculation.

Desde Brasil, México, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Perú y otros territorios latinoamericanos, la próxima generación científica puede construir nuevas redes de cooperación.

Science belongs to those willing to investigate, question, and share knowledge.

8. BrainLatam — Neurotechnology and the Body-Territory perspective

BrainLatam connects Latin American researchers with scientific technologies and collaborative research opportunities, including solutions from Artinis & NIRx and Brain Products.

Our interests include portable EEG, fNIRS, multimodal hyperscanning, peripheral physiological monitoring, and experimental designs capable of studying behavior in context.

We also explore Corpo-Território, or Body-Territory, as an authorial conceptual perspective.

This framework proposes considering the organism within its metabolic, sensory, environmental, and relational conditions.

It is not presented as an experimentally established neuroscientific theory.

Rather, it encourages questions that could be examined through defined measurements and falsifiable hypotheses.

O cérebro participa da vida que acontece no corpo, nas relações e nos territórios.

Scientific collaboration offers an opportunity to investigate these relationships without reducing individuals to isolated measurements.

9. SfN 2026 — A scientific invitation from Latin America

As Neuroscience 2026 approaches, BrainLatam invites students, researchers, educators, and laboratories to explore our connected scientific publications.

Our purpose is to strengthen dialogue between international neuroscience and the questions emerging from Latin American territories.

The SfN 2026 Hub will continue incorporating relevant publications, methodological discussions, and research connections.

We believe that scientific knowledge becomes more powerful when different communities can examine the same evidence while contributing new questions.

What have we not discovered because we keep asking the same questions?

¿Qué nuevas preguntas pueden surgir cuando nuestras diferencias dejan de ser obstáculos y se convierten en oportunidades de investigación?

The future of neuroscience is not located inside one brain, one laboratory, or one country.

O futuro da Neurociência também acontece entre Nós.

BrainLatam — Connecting Latin American Neuroscience to the World.

Independent scientific editorial hub. BrainLatam sponsors NeuroDesafio LATAM. This page is not an official publication of the Society for Neuroscience.

Neurociência Decolonial_ LATAM NeuroDesafio 

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