About NCM

The Society for the Neural Control of Movement (NCM) is an international community of scientists, clinician-investigators and students all engaged in research whose common goal is to understand how the brain controls movement.

About NCM

The Society for the Neural Control of Movement (NCM) was conceived in 1990 by Barry Peterson. With an initial leadership team that also included Peter Strick and Marjorie Anderson, NCM was formally established to bring together scientists seeking to understand the neural mechanisms that allow the meaningful activities of daily life, through the brain’s control of the eyes, head, trunk, and limbs. The inaugural meeting of NCM took place in April, 1991 on Marco Island, Florida, with roughly 140 attendees. Early members consisted largely of faculty-level systems neurophysiologists, behavioral, computational and theoretical neurobiologists, and clinician-investigators interested in disorders of motor function.

From its outset, the goal of NCM has been to offer investigators in the field of motor control an opportunity to present their work and to discuss its implications in an open, informal setting. The meeting was conceived to be unique in style, with sessions formulated and proposed by small groups of society members. As a result, sessions change in content with each yearly meeting, taking up themes reflecting timely topics and the diversity of the membership. Each year, the meeting successfully brings together a diverse community of neurophysiologists, engineers, and clinicians, to talk about opportunities and challenges for the field, and to determine how NCM might best promote a common agenda to advance our field.

The success of the initial years led to an expansion of NCM and its annual meeting, both in attendance and the breadth of scientific content. Recently, the meeting in Dublin, Ireland in 2017, included 450 participants, nearly two-thirds of whom were student or post-doctoral trainees. Sessions now cover many levels of inquiry – ranging experimentally from perception to genetic expression, and from the whole organism to intracellular function, while also including computational and theoretical approaches. Sessions have expanded to include a variety of formats and durations, while poster sessions have been augmented to yield popular, vibrant and flexible forums of scientific interchange. With the success in increasing the representation of students and post-doctoral fellows at the meeting, the board is currently working to further increase our diversity in terms of gender, race and ethnicity, and country of origin. Consider joining this highly regarded and robust meeting, which finds itself in desirable locations, typically in April or May, with hundreds of scientists, clinician-investigators and trainees gathered to discuss how the brain controls movement.

NCM Statement of Diversity

The Society for the Neural Control of Movement (NCM) is committed to ensuring that the diversity of the scientific field is well represented in society governance and in the programming of both the annual meeting and official satellite meeting. Adequate representation of women is required of all proposed workshops. In addition, NCM strives to achieve greater diversity among international scientists, and underrepresented minorities.

NCM Onsite Code of Conduct

As a representative of your institution or organization, the standards and code of conduct of your institution are in effect while at the NCM Annual Meeting, Satellite Meeting and all social events.

The Society for the Neural Control of Movement (NCM) encourages open and honest intellectual debate within a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere at the Annual Meeting and through official NCM social media channels.  To help maintain an open and respectful community of scientists, NCM does not tolerate illegal or inappropriate behavior at any annual meeting, including violations of applicable laws of the country in which the meeting is taking place.  NCM condemns inappropriate or suggestive acts or comments that demean or harass another person by reason of gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, physical appearance, ethnicity/race, religion (or lack thereof), or that are generally unwelcome or offensive to other members of the community.  Sexual language and imagery, unless related to specific scientific discussions, is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Twitter and other online media. As the NCM Annual Meeting is attended by a wide spectrum of delegates, please be aware of the power dynamic between PIs, post doctoral fellows and students and how that dynamic may affect interactions amongst delegates.

NCM Online Code of Conduct

As a representative of your institution or organization, the standards and code of conduct of your institution are in effect when participating in the online programs delivered by the Society for the Neural Control of Movement (NCM).

NCM encourages open and honest intellectual debate within a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere during online sessions and through official NCM social media channels. To help maintain an open and respectful community of scientists, NCM does not tolerate illegal or inappropriate behavior and condemns inappropriate or suggestive acts or comments that demean or harass another person by reason of gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, physical appearance, ethnicity/race, religion (or lack thereof), or that are generally unwelcome or offensive to other members of the community.  Sexual language and imagery, unless related to specific scientific discussions, is not appropriate for a society proceeding. As NCM events are attended by a wide spectrum of delegates, please be aware of the power dynamic between PIs, post doctoral fellows and students and how that dynamic may affect interactions amongst delegates.

As participants in online sessions hosted by NCM, attendees are expected to follow the specific online code of conduct listed below.

Unauthorized Recording
With permission from presenters, NCM will record presentations and Q&A sessions for rebroadcast, including on-demand options for a period of time; however, unauthorized recordings may not be performed by attendees. The audio or video recording of presentations by any means, the photography/screen-shots of presentations, and printed or electronic quotes from papers, presentations and discussion during the Meeting, including question and answer periods, poster sessions and networking events without written consent of presenter or speaker is prohibited. These restrictions apply to all attendees and are intended to cover social networks, blogs, or any other publication, distribution, communication or sharing of information presented or discussed during the Meeting.

Unregistered attendees
Registration for the virtual meeting is complimentary for members of the society, and all participants are required to register. Registration ensures understanding and compliance with the Code of Conduct and provides accurate registration numbers for software demands. If you encounter difficulty registering, please contact the Secretariat for support via email at

By registering for the Meeting, attendees acknowledge and agree to the Code of Conduct.

Breaches of this Code of Conduct can result in elimination from the virtual meeting and disqualification from participating in future meetings and events. Please address any concerns about the behavior of another attendee during the meeting to the Society Secretariat ().

Please contact the Society Secretariat for further clarification.

NCM Presidents

Image of Kathy Cullen

Kathleen Cullen

2023 – Present
Johns Hopkins University

Lee Miller

2016 – 2023
Northwestern University

Gary Paige

2011-2016
University of Rochester

Peter Strick

2007-2011
University of Pittsburgh

Barry Peterson

1990-2007
Northwestern University