The 2014 ION Annual Meeting was held at the SIBS Lecture Hall from December 29th to 31th, 2014. Differentiating from students’ presentations of recent years, twenty-nine ION Principal Investigators introduced their research interests, recent progresses and the future plans during the meeting. Drs. Qiang Sun and Neng Gong gave overviews of recent progress in their respective core facilities. Before the end of this meeting, Prof. Mu-Ming Poo gave his annual director’s speech. He reminded our researchers to pay more attention to the difference between “mediator” and “modulator” in neural circuit research. Quoting the “Celebrating 25 Years of Groundbreaking Neuroscience” Special Issue (Neuron, 2013), he introduced major progresses and achievements in neuroscience worldwide during the recent 25 years, especially the recent 15 years, since the founding of ION. He also discussed the  focuses of brain projects in the United States, Europe and Japan.