IN THIS ISSUE
Special Lectures Summer Course 2019
CME Credits
Apply for Summer Course 2019
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AGENDA
30 JUNE - 05 JULY 2019:
Summer Course, Florence
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This is the newsletter of the International Master of Affective Neuroscience and the Summer School on Anxiety and Depression.
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The information in the newsletter is provided as a service, no rights can be derived from the content of this newsletter.
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Special lectures during the Summer Course 2019
In this newsletter we present the abstracts of our Special Lectures Series during the upcoming Summer Course on Mood, Aggression & Attraction.
Each Summer Course, we present this series of guest lectures by esteemed scientists from all over the world. They broaden the participant's horizon, highlight important developments and put current concepts in a new perspective.
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The Dynamic Nature of Food Reward Processing in the Brain
(Prof. Anne Roefs)
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Abstract:
Our society is considered ‘obesifying’ because high-caloric foods are omnipresent. Yet, not everyone is overweight. Over the years, a lot of research has been devoted to testing the hypothesis that high-caloric foods are more attractive for overweight than for healthy-weight people, causing overconsumption and therefore weight gain. A dominant view in the literature is that this increased attractiveness of high-caloric foods is reflected in the cognitive processing of food stimuli. That is, high-caloric foods, which are abundantly present in our obesogenic society, are thought to attract and keep overweight’s people attention and cause the reward-circuitry in their brains to be very responsive. Though some research indeed found evidence for increased reactivity of the neural reward circuit in overweight people upon viewing high-caloric food stimuli, a recent review concludes that “the pattern emerging from studies comparing obese individuals and binge-eaters with controls is most remarkable for its variability and inconsistency” (Ziauddeen et al., 2012, p. 283).
This lack of consistency in the literature may stem from the double-sided nature of high-caloric food perception: High-caloric foods often have a high hedonic value and at the same time these foods have a low health value because their overconsumption contributes to weight gain. In the cognitive processing of food stimuli,hedonic value does not necessarily take precedence. In this talk, I propose it is a matter of attentional focus for any person. People’s attentional focus may alternate between focusing on hedonic versus health value, depending on for example their emotional or physiological state and the current situation or context. Importantly, attentional focus may vary, unbeknownst to the researcher, within and across participants as well as within and across studies, complicating the interpretation of findings from brain-imaging and attention bias studies. Prof. Anne Roefs will present recent studies from her laboratory, which support the importance of considering attentional focus when investigating neural representations of food.
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Professor Anne Roefs leads the ‘Psychology of Eating'-Lab, a group of driven researchers (~20 members) who study the psychology of eating disorders and obesity (www.eetonderzoek.nl). She is an expert in (neuro)cognitive processes (attention, implicit cognition, reward and control processes in the brain), and her research aims at understanding cognitive and neural processes in (ab)normal eating behavior. She received an NWO VIDI grant (2016) for her project “Mindset matters: how mindset, body weight, and dietary restraint influence neural representations of food.”
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Neurofeedback for Self-Regulation of Emotion and Motivation Networks - Applications in Addiction and Depression
(Prof. David Linden)
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Abstract:
Since its invention over 25 years ago, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become one of the most widely used and publicly visible non-invasive techniques to measure brain activation. FMRI-based neurofeedback (fMRI-NF) has the potential to open up new paths to translation. During fMRI-NF training, participants receive feedback on their brain activity in real-time and are instructed to change this activation, for example by engaging in specific mental imagery. One attractive feature of neurofeedback is that it enables patients to control their own brain activity and thus contributes to their experience of self-efficacy, which is an important therapeutic factor in many neuropsychiatric disorders. In the first interventional application of fMRI-NF to a mental disorder, feasibility of upregulation of areas responsive to positive affective cues was demonstrated in patients with depression. prof. Linden will update the audience on the level of current evidence for fMRI-NF in depression and addiction. Central challenges for future clinical studies are identifying the symptoms and disorders that will respond to fMRI-NF; adapting fMRI-NF treatment protocols to the neural networks involved in each disorder; evaluating underlying neurophysiological mechanisms and lastly devising training strategies that enable sustainable long-term effects of fMRI-NF. Furthermore, an update on the results of BRAINTRAIN, a European consortium involving several academic and industrial partners, which is developing and evaluating fMRI-NF procedures for a range of mental and behavioural disorders will be provided. fMRI-NF could become an attractive add-on therapy for some psychiatric and neurological diseases but only if appropriately combined with other (psychological, pharmacological and/or physiological) approaches, for example through an integration in neuro-psychotherapy or neurorehabilitation programmes.
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Professor David Linden is the scientific director of the School for Mental Health and Neuroscience at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Science, Maastricht University. In his research he applies structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), neurophysiological techniques and genetics in order to understand the function of the brain in health and disease. Current research interests include functional imaging of psychopathology, neural substrates of social cognition and decision making, genetic imaging, treatment and training effects on the brain, and neurofeedback.
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Repetitive TMS in Addiction
(Prof. Chris Baeken)
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Abstract:
Noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an effective treatment option in patients diagnosed with mood disorders. Currently, it is investigated as well whether such techniques could be used in patients with addiction. Although the level of evidence is less clear compared to major depression, recent research supports a potential beneficial effect on substance craving and relapse. The purpose of this talk is to critically evaluate the clinical efficacy of rTMS in the treatment of substance disorders and to discuss possible neurobiological working mechanisms.
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Professor Chris Baeken, one of our Alumni students, is a full time associate professor at the University hospital of the Ghent University and a part-time associate professor affiliated with the University hospital of the Free University of Brussels, both in Belgium. As a psychiatrist, his main interests are within the neurobiological field of Affective Disorders. To gain more insight in the underlying mechanisms of emotional brain processes in the ‘healthy’ as well as in the ‘mentally affected’ human brain, brain-imaging paradigms (MRI, fMRI, (S)PET,….) are used with or without the combination of neuromodulation techniques, such as rTMS and tDCS.
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CME credits for the Summer Course 2019
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The European Accreditation Committee in CNS has designated this scientific event with 34 CME credits.
Those interested in obtaining these CME credits will be required to fill in a special online feedback rating from on the EACIC website: www.eacic.eu. |
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Apply for the Summer Course 2019
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From 30 June - 5 July 2019 the International Master in Affective Neuroscience organises the
Summer Course on Mood, Aggression & Attraction in Florence, Italy.
The Summer Course on Mood aims at an in-depth analysis of the latest developments in the field of depressive and bipolar pathology, including phenomena that are related to Mood such as aggression and addictions.
It is aimed at young scientists and clinicians with a background in psychology, medicine, neuroscience, behavioural sciences, or a related discipline, who want to enhance their expertise in affective disorders.
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.
Early applications: 15 April 2019
Final applications deadline: 15 May 2019
Applications welcome via our website! |
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http://affect-neuroscience.org
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