Mental health: What presents has neuroscience left under the Christmas tree?
12th December – KCL, London

The burden of mental health disorders continues to grow with a huge impact on individuals, families, and healthcare provision. This year’s British Neuroscience Association (BNA) Christmas Symposium, held at London’s KCL, will bring together leading researchers to describe what neuroscience has contributed to the diagnosis, management and treatment of mental health disorders.

For more information, visit the British Neuroscience Association.

Neurodegeneration & The 3Rs: Models, Mechanisms & Resources.

Edinburgh, 6th December, 2016 

The Scottish TSE Network (STN) will host their annual one-day international symposium at the Roslin Institute (Edinburgh, UK) on state of the art approaches to studying neurodegenerative diseases that are consistent with the 3R principles (replacement, refinement, reduction) of animals in research.

Topics will include cell-free protein misfolding assays, human stem cell-based approaches and transgenic C. elegans and Drosophila models, in addition to the opportunities offered by tissue banking and in silico analysis.

For more information visit the British Neuroscience Association.

BNA2017 Festival of Neuroscience

“Attending and contributing to meetings such as BNA2017 Festival of Neuroscience is core to a career in science. They provide the opportunity to discuss findings, discover fresh insights on your work, meet researchers from around the world and learn the latest developments in the field.”

“BNA2017 is one of the largest international neuroscience meetings in Europe in 2017, and presents the ideal opportunity for neuroscientists around the world to discuss their science and their ideas, across both discipline boundaries and national borders.”

John Isaac, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The Wellcome Trust.

Visit the British Neuroscience Association website for more details.

Neuroscience of Happiness

Is happiness a skill? Modern neuroscientific research and the wisdom of ancient contemplative traditions converge in suggesting that happiness is the product of skills that can be enhanced through training and such training exemplifies how transforming the mind can change the brain. Kent Berridge, Richie Davidson, and Daniel Gilbert speak at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Another article by the team at the Coaching Psychology Unit, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil and the Centre for Neuroscience, International Academy for Professional Development. The group undertook a systematic review of electroencephalographic findings in patients with major depressive disorder during cognitive or emotional tasks. The studies identified reveal the frontal cortex as an important brain structure involved in the
complex neural processes associated with MDD. Findings point to disorganization of right-hemisphere
activity and deficient cognitive processing in MDD. Depressed individuals tend to ruminate on negative
information and respond with a pattern of relatively higher right frontal activity to emotional stimuli
associated with withdrawal and isolation.

Take a look at the article, in press.

de Freitas, S.B., Marques, A.A., Bevilaqua, M. C., de Carvalho, M. R., Ribeiro, P., Palmer, S., Nardi, A. E. & Dias, G. P. (in press). Electroencephalographic findings in patients with major depressive disorder during cognitive or emotional tasks: a systematic review. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria. DOI: 10.1590/1516-4446-2015-1834.

Moving forward neuroscience research

Research Fellows at the Centre for Neuroscience, Dr Nollaig Heffernan and Prof Stephen Palmer have just had an article published titled: Moving forward neuroscience research in the fields of coaching psychology and sport psychology: Would Imagery Based Coaching be a useful area to research? 

In this discussion paper they briefly consider the problems that both coaching psychology and sport psychology researchers can encounter when undertaking neuroscience research. They propose that Imagery Based Coaching is an easier area to undertake neuroscience research, in contrast to conversational coaching.

The article can be read on the Centre website or downloaded from ResearchGate.

FENS Forum 2016: Copenhagen. 2-6 July.

The FENS Forum is fast approaching and this year it will take place in the lively city of Copenhagen.
The Forum scientific programme is designed to bring you engaging science from some of the world’s top neuroscientists, plus an impressive list of high-profile satellite meetings along with special interest and networking events. These offer opportunities for both young and established neuroscientists to expand their networks. We warmly invite you to have a look at the programme, which includes:

Featured Lectures
• The Presidential Lecture with Nobel Prize winners John O’Keefe (UK), Edvard Moser (Norway) and May-Britt Moser (Norway) (4 July)
• The Brain Cavalcade, with five winners of the Brain Prize from 2011-2015 (2 July)
• The FENS-EJN Awards winners Antonello Bonci (USA) Jerry Chen (Switzerland) Lars Schwabe (Germany) (6 July)
Satellite Events
• Cells, Circuits and Computation: Expanding the Horizons of Big Data Analysis – Allen Institute for Brain Science and HBP
• Mechanisms of neurodegeneration and progression: From mechanisms to therapies in Parkinson’s disease – Neurotoxicity Society
• Nutrition for the Ageing Brain – ILSI Europe Nutrition and Mental Performance Task Force
Special Interest Events
• Why do we need to use animals in research?
• Bridging Knowledge Session: Alpha-synuclein prion like forms as target for therapy in Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies
• Code of Conduct and Ethics in Science
Come and join over 6,000 researchers sharing your passion for neuroscience, in the capital of Northern Europe – Copenhagen.
Deadline for online registration: 20 June. Register here.
www.forum2016.fens.org/

We welcome Dr Nollaig Heffernan who joins the Centre for Neuroscience faculty. She is a Sport and Exercise Psychologist (BPS) and a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland. She is an independent Management Consultant and works with businesses from sole traders to multinationals specialising in Leadership and Management, Organisational Psychology, Workplace Performance and Stress Management. In her role as a Sport Psychologist she works with all abilities from beginner to elite in a wide range of sports. She is a successful rowing coach with wins at national and international level. She regularly speaks at conferences and universities as a specialist lecturer or guest speaker and is a contributing author to a number of business books including the Association for Coaching’s Psychometrics in Coaching and Leadership Coaching.

Her interests include the neuroscientific make-up of high performing individuals, the cross-discipline transfer of effective coping strategies, resilient leadership and enhancing wellbeing in the workplace. She has co-authored (with Stephen Palmer) a paper, Moving forward neuroscience research in the fields of coaching psychology and sport psychology: Would Imagery Based Coaching be a useful area to research?  which will be published in Coaching Psychology International this summer.

We are pleased to announce that Dr Gisele Dias PhD has joined the Centre for Neuroscience faculty. Dr Dias is a neuroscientist, psychologist and coaching psychologist. She is Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit and member of the Translational Neurobiology Unit at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.

She has published several original articles and review papers in both psychology and neuroscience journals. This includes articles on coaching psychology and also the problems involved in undertaking neuroscience research applied to the field of coaching psychology.

Her main research areas of interest are the neurobiological correlates of coaching outcomes and the interface between coaching, positive psychology and mental health/wellbeing. She is first author of “Cognitive-behavioural coaching: evidence-based and solution-focused human development”, published in Brazil in 2015 by Editora Cognitiva.

Professor Stephen Palmer,  said, “We are really pleased that Dr Gisele Dias has joined the team. Her experience in both coaching psychology and neuroscience brings together two fields that are of great interest to our students at our affiliated centres which are attached to the International Academy for Professional Development.”

Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world’s largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 38,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.