Welcome

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the first BrainConnects Meeting held in Singapore from 1-2 August, 2014. BrainConnects emerged initially from collaborations between the NeuruoImaging & Informatics Lab at National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Ohbu, Japan and the Clinical Brain Lab at Nanyang Technological University(NTU), Singapore. The most recent project funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and NTU has extended collaborations to the Cognitive Engineering Lab at the Singapore Institute for Neurotechonology(SINAPSE) at the National University of Singapore and neuroscientists from Nagoya University. They have become integral partners in this research endeavour. It is therefore timely to have the opportunity to convene and discuss about research ideas during the BrainConnects Meeting.

This collaborative research proposes to investigate functional and structural neural networks that are sensitive to age-related changes to address the issues in global aging from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. The research aims to provide direction in targeting the relevant networks as plausible neuroimaging markers for cognitive training and hopefully prevent or modulate normal cognitive decline. We have started to establish a sensitive protocol to measure cognitive changes of clinical significance in aging in Japan and Singapore. This collaboration will continue to develop and implement a standard neuroimaging protocol applicable to both Singapore and Japan, as well as conduct possible cross-cultural aging studies.

For our inaugural BrainConnects2014 Meeting, we are honoured to have Professor Nitish Thakor, Director of SINAPSE and Provost Professor of NUS to provide us an opening address. The program while mainly focussed on neuroimaging of healthy aging and neurodegenerative disorders also includes interesting topics in pain, obsessive-compulsive disorders, moral reasoning and trustworthiness. We would like to thank our program committee: Professor Tassos Bezerianos from NUS, Dr Ho Moon-Ho Ringo from NTU, Dr Hirohisa Watanabe from Nagoya University and Dr Junichi Ushiba from Keio University for helping us review the abstracts and providing their insightful comments. We are appreciative of the efforts of the organizing committee in putting together the meeting program and arranging the logistics required for our gathering. We would also like to thank each one of you for contributing and presenting your ideas to make this a meaningful research exchange.

Lastly, we wish you to have an enjoyable two days at BrainConnects2014. We hope that we will continue our conversations and discussions beyond this joint research collaborative workshop into future BrainConnects meetings.

Sincerely,

SH Annabel Chen, PhD, Chair

Toshiharu Nakai, PhD, Co-Chai r