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UT Dallas Conference to Look at Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Second Annual BBS Event to Gather Brain Scientists from Around the Country

This year’s UT Dallas Neuroscience Conference will focus on the brain’s cortical and subcortical networks and how their interactions are linked to neuropsychiatric disorders.

The conference, which the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences launched in 2011, is expected to attract a large number of leading brain scientists from around the country. The sessions will take place on April 13 on the UT Dallas main campus.

Dr. Peter W. Kalivas, PhD, Medical University of South Carolina

Dr. Peter W. Kalivas, Medical University of South Carolina

The public is invited to attend the keynote address, “Cures for Addiction Hiding in Synaptic Plasticity,” by Dr. Peter Kalivas from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.  Kalivas will discuss how recent findings about neurotransmission may lead to a better understanding of addiction and the development of new treatments for addicts.

Activity in subcortical areas of the brain – below the cerebral cortex – influences regulation of many physiologic functions, such as wake-sleep cycles, emotion, memory, volition, attention and perception. Subcortical areas affect cortical activity by controlling the spatial and temporal patterns of neuromodulators in specific regions of the brain, by promoting short- and long-term synaptic changes and by regulating excitability in certain brain regions.

Among the conditions associated with dysfunction of subcortical-cortical interactions are drug addiction, psychoses, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.

Dr. Marco Atzori

Dr. Marco Atzori

The one-day neuroscience conference brings together world-renowned scholars to present and discuss data from leading-edge electrophysiological, pharmacological, molecular and human-imaging studies related to these neuropsychiatric conditions. 

Dr. Sven Kroener, assistant professor of neuroscience

Dr. Sven Kroener, assistant professor of neuroscience,
UT Dallas

“Dr. Marco Atzori and I are very excited about the opportunity to host a symposium with such a great array of world-class speakers from both within Texas as well as from all over the U.S. and Canada,” said Dr. Sven Kroener, assistant professor of neuroscience, who organized the event with Atzori, as associate professor in BBS. “This conference will give our UT Dallas students and the interested public a chance to learn about what is happening at the forefront of neuroscience research right now.”

The symposium also will feature a roundtable discussion of some of the most important neuroscience-related questions pertaining to neuropsychiatric disorders.

Kroener said it is their goal to demonstrate how this complex scientific research relates to the future development of treatment options for patients who suffer from drug addiction, schizophrenia or other conditions.

Registration is free, but required to reserve a seat. Attendees who register in advance will receive lunch. Pre-registration will close April 9.

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].

Tagged: BBS research