Neural Interactions & Affect

Basic and Clinical Perspectives

The last decade has seen an unprecedented expansion in research on the neural basis of human emotions and affective disorders. Distinct brain regions have been linked to reward, motivation, threat and aversion, largely through neuroimaging studies building on knowledge gained from studies of other animals. Changes in the functioning of these regions have been linked to a number of mood and affective disorders. Recently, scientists have become interested in how the dynamic interactions between multiple neural systems give rise to our emotions, and motivate and modulate our behaviours and decisions. Such time-dependent processes occur on scales ranging from milliseconds in the case of neuronal interactions, through seconds in learning, conditioning and habituation, through to years in the case of the lifetime development and decline.

The meeting will provide a richly interactive environment for scientific interchange between biological, medical, psychological and physical scientists interested in new perspectives and techniques to push forward research on the neural interactions that underlie affect.

Over the two days, a mix of keynote lectures, workshops and poster sessions will encourage interaction between senior and junior researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds. A large amount of time dedicated to discussion will be a feature of all the symposium sessions.

Speakers:

S o n i a B i s h o p

UC Berkeley, US / University of Oxford, UK

B h i s m a C h a k r a b a r t i

University of Reading, UK

A n a s t a s i a C h r i s t a k o u

University of Reading, UK

R u d i d e R a e d t

Ghent University, Belgium

G i l l e s P o u r t o i s

Ghent University, Belgium

H e n r i k W a l t e r

Medical University Charité, Berlin, Germany

M a r t i n W a l t e r

Medical University Magdeburg, Germany

P a u l W h a l e n

Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA

C a r i e n v a n R e e k u m

University of Reading, UK

Organisers:

T o m J o h n s t o n e & C a r i e n v a n R e e k u m

University of Reading

Supported by: