Neural interactions and affect: basic & clinical perspectives
Conference at the University of Reading, United Kingdom
16-17th April, 2012

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.

This symposium brings together basic and clinical scientists from a
variety of fields who approach the topic from different perspectives.
The objective is to 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 in the field.

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.

Confirmed Invited Speakers
Sonia Bishop, UC Berkeley/ University of Oxford
Gilles Pourtois, Ghent University, Belgium
Rudi de Raedt, Ghent University, Belgium
Henrik Walter, Medical University Charité, Berlin, Germany
Martin Walter, Medical University Magdeburg, Germany
Paul Whalen, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA

News of further speakers will be forthcoming.

Registration
Registration is free for research staff and postgraduate students of
non-profit/academic research institutions
To register, please send an email with the subject line "April Neural
Interactions Conference" to [log in to unmask] with the following
information:

Name
Affiliation
Position (PhD, Postdoc, Ass. Prof. etc)
Topic of Research

In addition, there will be a poster session and a limited number of
places for spoken presentations. If you wish to present either a
poster or a talk, please include a title, authors, preference for
poster or talk, and 250 word abstract. Those who request a talk who
can't be accommodated will be allocated to a poster session.

Travel and accommodation will need to be arranged by attendees.
Reading is well served by train (25 minutes from central London, 35
minutes from Oxford) and is a 35 minute bus ride from Heathrow
Airport. Reading has a variety of hotel accommodation available - more
information will be circulated in the coming days. The University
campus is a short taxi ride from the centre of town. Regular buses
also serve the university, or for those who enjoy some exercise, it is
a pleasant 40 minute walk.

This conference is made possible with the support of the EPSRC, BBSRC & CINN.