WFN Junior Traveling Fellowship recipient reports on her time at the AAN Annual Meeting.
By Dr. Dulari Gupta
Six representatives of Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College in Pune, India, attended the AAN Annual Meeting in San Diego. (Left to right): Dr. Sreehari Dinesh, Dr. Pranav Mehta, Dr. Dulari Gupta, medical student Ananya Talukdar, medical student Siddhartha Kakani, and Dr. Advait Teli.
I was fortunate to have my abstract selected for a poster presentation at the 77th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, held April 5-9, 2025, in San Diego. In addition to myself, five other students from our college presented their work (two neurology senior residents, one intern, and two medical students).
This was my first AAN meeting. It was the largest meeting I have attended, with 14,500 participants and 24 halls where sessions were being held. Initially, the scale of the meeting was overwhelming, but I was advised to attend sessions I was particularly interested in and view any sessions I missed online. Since I am doing my PhD on artificial intelligence (AI) in stroke prediction, I attended all the sessions related to AI.
Dr. Dulari Gupta shares a poster presentation at the AAN Annual Meeting.
Many participants viewed my posters, and each one had something new to suggest. It was useful to interact with other researchers in the same field and learn about their work. I gained many insights that I will incorporate into my studies going forward. The other posters were informative. Many systematic reviews and original studies were presented together with a few unusual case reports.
I attended two interesting sessions that combined art and neurology. In the first, there were neurologists who had crocheted woolen hats to represent the different sulci and gyri of the brain. They also made woolen hats based on classic neurological patients like Phineas Gage. Another neurologist did exquisite embroidery of neurons, as well as the cerebral cortex and its connections. The pieces were artistically beautiful and neurologically accurate. We were encouraged to embroider a neuron pattern on a green cape provided in the workshop. In a different session, an intensive care neurologist shared his oil paintings depicting various neurological syndromes affecting his patients.
An attendee shows off a knit cap in the shape of a brain during a creative session.
I was invited to a dinner hosted by the Association of Indian Neurologists in America, where I met many neurologists of Indian origin who are practicing in the U.S. I also met visiting neurologists from India like myself. It was a great opportunity to connect with people from around the globe. We had the privilege of listening to the esteemed neurologist Dr. V.S. Ramachandran speak about his phenomenal work on phantom limb syndrome and Capgras syndrome.
Attending my first AAN meeting was a wonderful learning experience. It also gave me an opportunity to meet neurologists from around the world and connect with people working in similar spheres of interest. I am grateful to the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) for selecting me for this year’s Junior Traveling Fellowship Award. •
Dr. Dulari Gupta is a young neurologist from Pune, India. She is an associate professor at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College.
