How do we learn language or learn to walk? And do young people and the elderly have the same capacity for learning?
Centuries ago, Descartes described the brain as a passive, unchanging receptacle that received impulses from the environment and translated them into sensory experiences like hearing and touch. Today, we know that the brain is plastic - constantly changing and adapting as a result of experience. The concept of brain neuroplasticity makes it possible for us to gain a better understanding of what happens when the brain is disordered or damaged by disease or trauma. In this track, you will explore how the brain learns language and motor functions, and how the brain reacts to pain and placebo.
Time: Thursday May 5 at 13.15-14.45
Auditorium: Jeppe Vontillius
Over the last decade, the magnitude of the placebo response has increased in pharmacological trials, and great advances have been made in understanding the nature of the placebo phenomenon and how psychological factors, such as expectations, influence the magnitude of this phenomenon. However, are we all placebo responders? This session focuses on the contextual, psychological, and neurobiological factors contributing to placebo and nocebo effects including what is known – and why we need to know more – about these effects across different patient populations and interventions.
Chair:
Marina Romero-Ramos, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
Speakers:
Ulrike Bingel, Professor, University of Duisburg-Essen
Imaging Placebo and Nocebo
Lene Vase, Professor, Aarhus University
Are We All Placebo Responders Under the Right Circumstances?
Flash talks by:
Sigrid Juhl Lunde, Postdoc, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University
Sophie Rosenkjær, PhD Student, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University
Susan Tomczak Matthiesen, Research Assistant, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University
Andrea Søndergaard Poulsen, PhD Student, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University
Time: Thursday May 5 at 15.20-16.50
Auditorium: Jeppe Vontillius
Imagine a wireless technology that interfaces with the human brain for various applications on your smartphone, your personal computer, and devices in your environment, simply by your willing it to do so, transforming your thoughts into both virtual and physical interactions. Current state-of-the-art in brain computer interfacing taps into the computing power of the brain by decoding biomarkers for analysis and feedback stimulation to control a computer or a robotic limb. In this session, you will be introduced to some of the new advanced recording techniques and neural interface electronics used to treat patients with brain diseases, among other applications.
Chair:
Jens Christian Sørensen, Professor, Aarhus University
Speakers:
Hatice Tankisi, Professor, Aarhus University
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Disorders
Farshad Moradi, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
Can Artificial Intelligence Regenerate a Damaged Brain?
Preben Kidmose, Professor, Aarhus University
Brain Decoding in Real Life
Flash talks by:
Anna Sergeeva, PhD student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University
Simon Kappel, Postdoc, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University
Time: Friday May 6 at 10.30-12.00
Auditorium: Jeppe Vontillius
Pain is a normal signal warning us about threats from the world around us that provokes an immediate response to escape from the danger. The memory trace created in the nervous system by a painful stimulus is responsible for how we react to pain the next time. These immediate neuroplastic changes have implications for measuring pain, for how pain is processed in the brain and ultimately also for how we can treat chronic pain. In this session, we will take you on a journey from the measurement of pain through imaging pain to new medicines for pain.
Chair:
Lene Baad-Hansen, Professor, Aarhus University
Speakers:
Tamar Makin, Professor and Plasticity Group Leader, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL
Phantom Limb Pain: Thinking Outside the (Mirror) Box
Thomas Graven-Nielsen, Professor, Aalborg University
Objective Measure of Pain – Does it Exist ? And is Proxies of Pain Neuroplasticity a Relevant Component?
Nanna B. Finnerup, Professor, Aarhus University
New Ways to Treat Pain
Flash talks by:
Julie Schjødtz Hansen, PhD student, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
Ellen Lund Schaldemose, PhD student, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
Time: Friday May 6 at 13.15-14.45
Auditorium: Jeppe Vontillius
One of the most fascinating aspects of our brain is its plasticity. This plasticity can be exemplified as changes in the properties of synapses and networks as a result of what we learn and experiences. This session will present novel and inspiring aspects of neuroplasticity in relation to facial perception and human motor learning, as well as language and cognition.
Chair:
Mai Marie Holm, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
Speakers:
Peter Svensson, Professor, Aarhus University
Facial Perception and How it Can Be Modulated
Mikkel Wallentin, Professor, Aarhus University
How Language Shapes the Brain and Cognition
Flash talks by:
Oscar Quispe, PhD student, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
Kirstine Agnethe Hansen, Research Assistent, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
