Summer School on Affective Neuroscience / Master in Affective Neuroscience

May 2018

IN THIS ISSUE

Extended application deadline Summer Course 2018

Abstracts special Lectures

EACIC Accreditation

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Extended application deadline Summer Course on Fear, Anxiety, Obsessions & Trauma

From 1 July - 6 July 2018 the International Master in Affective Neuroscience organises the

Summer Course on Mood, Aggression and Attraction in Florence, Italy.

Please click click here for the programme

Extended application deadline: 15 June 2018

The Summer Course on Mood aims at an in-depth analysis of the latest developments in the field of anxious pathology, including phenomena that are related to anxiety and fear such as tramau, obsessions and compulsions. In addition to the introductory lectures the course includes guest lectures to broaden the horizon of our students beyond our regular teaching programme. You will find more info about the guest lecturer this year below.

The morning sessions are dedicated to the PBL-sessions: workshops during which the students work in small groups on assignments and discussion topics related to the theme of the day. The assignments contain elements of fundamental neuroscience as well as clinical applications. Each group will summarize their results in a presentation at the plenary session on Friday.

Special lectures during the Summer Course on Anxiety, Fear, Obsessions & Trauma 1 - 6 July 2018

Each Summer Course, we present lectures and workshops by our own faculty but also a series of guest lectures by esteemed scientists from all over the world.

This year we would like to welcome Thérèse van Amelsvoort, Raffael kalisch and Miquel Fullana. Below you can find the abstracts of the lectures.

Genetic Syndromes to study affective pathology

Thérèse van Amelsvoort (Maastricht University)

Rare genetic syndromes are characterized by specific somatic and behavorial profiles, including psychopathology. They may serve as a unique human bottom-up in-vivo model to study psychopathology. Some of the most important syndromes such as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS), the most common recurrent CNV disorder, will be discussed. 22q11DS is associated with a high risk of psychopathology, including anxiety and mood disorders across the life span. Haplo-insufficiency of genes at chromosome 22q11.2 may contribute for this increased risk.

Results of studies looking at reward processing, stress sensitivity and neurotransmitter systems will be presented. The potential biological mechanisms underlying susceptibility for psychopathology in genetic syndromes will be discussed. In addition, clinical implications and therapeutic options will be discussed. Finally, the importance of, and the potential for future research in genetic disorders will be emphasized.

Resilience, it's not what you think

Raffael Kalisch (Johannes Gutenburg University)

Consistent failure over the past decades to reduce the high prevalence of stress-related disorders has motivated a search for alternative research strategies. Resilience refers to the phenomenon that many people maintain mental health despite exposure to psychological or physical adversity, such as trauma, chronic stressors, challenging life transitions, or physical illness. Instead of aiming to understand the pathophysiology of stress-related disorders, resilience research focuses on protective mechanisms that shield people against the development of such disorders and tries to exploit its insights to improve treatment and, in particular, disease prevention.

The lecture provides a critical appraisal of the current state of the art – in terms of basic concepts and key methods - and makes concrete conceptual and methodological proposals to improve resilience research. These are aimed at fully harnessing the potential of resilience research. Examples from the current literature will be illustrated and a link to the flourishing field of resilience research in animal models will be made.

Fear extinction and exposure therapy: friends for life?

Miquel Angel Fullana (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Anxiety-related disorders (ARD; namely panic disorder, specific/social phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders) are very frequent and are associated with very high individual and social costs. Learning processes may help us understand better “what are” ARD and “how to deal” with them.
This lecture will focus on how research on one learning process (fear extinction) has advanced our understanding of ARD and one of the most effective treatments for ARD (exposure therapy). Behavioral, genetic, and neuroimaging studies looking at the link between fear extinction, ARD, and exposure therapy from our research group as well as from other groups will be presented.
This research is beginning to show that neuroscience-based fear extinction measures may help understand better the origins of ARD and potential new ways to treat ARD.

The European Accreditation Committee in CNS (EACIC) has accredited the Summer Course on Fear, Anxiety, Obsessions & Trauma with 36.5 CME credits.

Those interested in obtaining the credits need to fill out an online evaluation form on the eacic website after the course. For more information, visit the website of EACIC: www.eacic.eu/..

http://affect-neuroscience.org