Melissa attended the “Sleep-Wake and Cognition – A Light in the Dark for Neurological Disorders” Impact Symposia on October 14th and 15th. This event allowed the opportunity to disseminate impactful research findings and highlight meaningful contributions in the field. A collaborator of Dr. Marty Usrey, Dr. Sabine Kaster gave a wonderful talk regarding oscillatory activity in the brain which is heightened during sleep and states of rest. This helped Melissa understand a bit more about the ongoing projects in the Usrey Lab. As well as this, Dr. Sergey Stavisky gave a particularly interesting talk speaking on advances in neuroprosthetics. His team was able to restore an ALS participant’s ability to communicate using implanted microelectrode arrays and machine learning algorithms to reconstruct what the participant is trying to say. Melissa states she had a wonderful time at her first conference-like experience and was thrilled to learn about this important subset of neuroscience.