Programme 2019

Location:  SickKids Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning Auditorium

Speaker : Geoffrey Hinton | University of Toronto

Host: Blake Richards | University of Toronto

Does the brain do backpropagation?

More information and free tickets

5:00 – 5:15 PM  

Welcome and Opening Remarks by

Jaideep Bains, President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience

5:15 – 5:30 PM  

News from CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction

Sam Weiss, Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction

5:30 – 5:40 PM  

Working together: Neurological Health Charities Canada and Canadian Brain Health Strategy

Deanna Groetzinger, Manager, Public Affairs & Partnerships, Neurological Health Charities Canada

Michelle Monje | Stanford University

Myelin plasticity in health and disease

Sponsored by the the SickKids Centre for Brain & Mental Health
and
the SickKids Neurosciences & Mental Health program 

Plenary symposium 1: Pain: More than a feeling

Chair: Tuan Trang | University of Calgary

Speakers:

Catherine Cahill | UCLA
Intersection between pain and addiction: implications for kappa receptors

Laura Stone | McGill University
Pain Epigenetics: What is it and why should anyone care?

Loren Martin | University of Toronto
Learning mechanisms of pain and pain relief

Posters/exhibits

Jeffrey Mogil | McGill University

Pain in Mice and Man: Ironic Adventures in Translation

Advocacy Award winner 1 presentation

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion luncheon

Sponsored by BrainsCAN at Western University

1:30 – 3:00

Parallel symposium 1: Peripheral and central mechanisms of sensory information processing.

Chair: Michael Gordon | University of British Columbia

Sponsored by the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health

Presenters:

• Gautam Awatramani | University of Victoria
  Precise subcellular coordination of excitation and inhibition supports micron-scale dendritic computations
• Molly Stanley | University of British Columbia
  Unique properties of salt taste coding and state-dependent behavioral output in Drosophila
• Stuart Trenholm | McGill University
  Flexible feature encoding in visual cortex
• Maurice Chacron | McGill University
  Mechanisms underlying adaptive optimized coding of natural stimuli

Parallel symposium 2: The neural basis for social decision-making

Chairs:  Toni-Lee Sterley | University of Calgary &  John P. Christianson | Boston College

Presenters:

• Brian Trainor | UC Davis
  Oxytocin in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis facilitates social anxiety
• Toni-Lee Sterley | University of Calgary
  The role of corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in social transmission of stress
• Morgan Rogers-Carter | Boston College
  Insular cortex projections to nucleus accumbens core mediate social approach
• Zoe Donaldson | University of Colorado Boulder
  Neuronal signature of monogamous reunion in prairie voles

Parallel symposium 3: Neural stem cells in neural development and repair

Sponsored by the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience

Chair:  Soheila Karimi | University of Manitoba

Presenters:

• Carol Schuurmans | University of Toronto
  Elucidating the molecular control of neural stem cell maintenance in the embryonic neocortex
• Jeff Biernaskie | University of Calgary
  Clarifying the identity of adult neural stem cells
• Anastassia Voronova | University of Alberta
  Role of interneuron-secreted signals in neural stem cell-mediated oligodendrocyte genesis in the developing and adult brain
• Soheila Karimi | University of Manitoba
  Novel mechanisms of neural stem cell regulation in spinal cord injury

Parallel symposium 4: Circuit and synaptic approaches to study stress | depression and antidepressants

Sponsored by the CERVO Brain Research Centre

Chair:  Argel Aguilar Valles | Carleton University

Presenters:

• Wataru Inoue | University of Western Ontario
  Intrinsic plasticity as a neural correlates for stress habituation
• Mary Kay Lobo | University of Maryland
  Molecular mediators of dendritic atrophy regulate stress susceptibility
• Anita Autry | Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  Impact of stress on parental behavior: potential insights for Post-partum mental illness
• Argel Aguilar Valles | Carleton University
  Translational control of the antidepressant effect of ketamine and its metabolite hydroxynorketamine

Sponsored by the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience

The Molecular basis of Hebb synapses

Speaker: Graham Collingridge | University of Toronto | Winner of the 2016 Brain Prize

Introduction by Kim Krogsgaard, Director of The Brain Prize at Lundbeck Foundation

Sponsored by the Lundbeck Foundation

Sponsored by Neurolabware

Plenary symposium 2: Underlying Principles of Animal Behaviors

Sponsored by the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute

Chair: Mei Zhen | University of Toronto

Speakers:

Marla Sokolowski | University of Toronto
Unravelling Gene-Environment Interplay on Behaviour

Simon Chen | University of Ottawa
Dissecting Neural Circuits Underlying Delayed Motor Learning in the 16p11.2 Deletion Mouse Model of Autism

Sarah Woolley | McGill University
Plasticity of acoustic preferences in female songbirds

Posters/exhibits

Sponsored by the University of Ottawa

Florian Engert | Harvard University

Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making in larval zebrafish

Advocacy Award winner 2 presentation

 1:30 – 3:00

Parallel symposium 5: Emotions and behavioural responses in normal and pathological states

Sponsored by Tucker-Davis Technologies

Chair:  Christophe Proulx | Université Laval

Presenters:

• Christophe Proulx | Université Laval
  Role of lateral hypothalamus neural outputs in behavioural responses
• Erin Calipari | Friedman Brain Institute
  Neural circuit control of sex-differences in valence-based decision making
• Bo Li | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
  Ventral pallidal neurons in reward seeking and punishment avoidance
• Stephan Lammel | UC Berkeley
  Anatomical, molecular and functional heterogeneity of the lateral habenula defines a distinctive depression subtype

Parallel symposium 6: Novel approaches to understanding genetic underpinnings of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Sponsored by the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience

Chair:  Catharine Rankin | University of British Columbia

Presenters:

• Melanie Woodin | University of Toronto
  Regulation of KCC2 as a target for treatment of Autism
• Karun Singh | McMaster University
  Using integrative proteomics to identify Autism spectrum disorder signaling networks in mammalian models
• Catharine Rankin | University of British Columbia
  Systematic phenomics analysis of ASD-associated genes defines novel shared and unique functions and identifies parallel genetic networks underlying hypersensitivity and impaired habituation
• Kurt Haas | University of British Columbia
  A multi-model system approach to functional variomics of ASD-associated missense mutations of PTEN

Parallel symposium 7: Atypical roles for NMDA receptors in physiology and disease

Sponsored by the CERVO Brain Research Centre

Chair:  Roger Thompson | University of Calgary

Presenters:

• Per Jesper Sjöström | McGill University
  Unorthodox NMDA receptor signalling in neocortical plasticity
• Kim Dore | UC San Diego
  Metabotropic NMDA receptor signaling underlies synaptic depression and dysfunction
• Robert Bonin | University of Toronto
  Non-canonical NMDA signaling in pain plasticity and reconsolidation
• Laura Palmer | University of Calgary
  A surprising neuroprotective role for amyloid beta during ischemia

Parallel symposium 8: Multi-species approaches to the mammalian social brain

Chair:  Nathan Insel | University of Montana

Presenters:

• Annaliese Beery | Smith College
  Life in groups: selectivity and reward in vole relationships
• Melissa Holmes | University of Toronto
  Social influences on development in naked mole-rats
• Nathan Insel | University of Montana
  Investigating social learning in degus
• Michael Yartsev | UC Berkeley
  Neurobiological investigation of vocal production in the social mammalian brain

Sponsored by the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute

Sponsored by The Neuro

Sponsored by the Hotchkiss Brain Institute

Robert Malenka | Stanford University

Neural mechanisms of social reward

Plenary symposium 3: Stem cells and Organoids: developmental mechanisms, aging and disease modeling

Sponsored by the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience

Chair: Armen Saghatelyan | Université Laval

Speakers :

• Armen Saghatelyan | Université Laval
  Division of stem cells in freely behaving mice: dynamic and regulatory mechanisms
• David Kaplan | SickKids Hospital
  Growth factor regulation of neural stem cells in normal and pathological conditions
• Yun Li | SickKids Hospital
  Modeling neural development and disorders in human neurons and brain organoids

Coffee break

Guo-Li Ming | University of Pennsylvania

Modeling human brain development and developmental diseases using hiPSCs

Parallel symposium 9: Heterogeneous mechanisms underlying hippocampal synaptic plasticity

Sponsored by the CERVO Brain Research Centre

Chair:  Timothy Kennedy | The Neuro | McGill University

Presenters:

• Anne McKinney | McGill University
  Lysosomal inhibition rescues hippocampal neuronal plasticity impaired by a Christianson Syndrome mutation in SLC9A6
• Elizabeth Chan | Brain Research Centre | University of British Columbia
  The role of netrin 1-DCC signaling in regulating GABAAR homeostatic plasticity
• Stephen Glasgow | The Neuro | McGill University
  Guiding synaptic plasticity: a novel role for netrin-1 in the adult hippocampus
• Jean-Claude Beique | University of Ottawa
  Homeostatic control of plasticity rules at CA1 synapses

Parallel symposium 10: Growing Up High: Neurobiological Consequences of Adolescent Cannabis Use

Sponsored by the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience

Chair:  Jibran Khokhar | University of Guelph

Presenters:

• Patricia Conrod | Université de Montréal
  Longitudinal relationship between adolescent cannabis use and cognitive development
• Steven Laviolette | University of Western Ontario
  Adolescent THC Exposure Induces Molecular and Neuronal Neuropsychiatric Endophenotypes in the Mesocorticolimbic Circuitry
• Iris Balodis | McMaster University
  The neurobiology of effort-based decision-making in cannabis use disorder
• Jibran Khokhar | University of Guelph
  Long-Term Consequences of Adolescent Cannabinoid Exposure: A Closer Look at Learning and Circuitry

Parallel symposium 11: Novel ventral hippocampus circuits in the control of affective behavior

Chair:  Maithe Arruda Carvalho | University of Toronto Scarborough

Presenters:

• Christoph Anacker | Columbia University
  Hippocampal neurogenesis and stress resilience
• Rutsuko Ito | University of Toronto Scarborough
  Ventral hippocampal contributions to learned approach-avoidance conflict processing
• Mazen Kheirbek | University of California San Francisco
  Encoding of emotionally relevant stimuli in ventral hippocampal circuits
• Maithe Arruda-Carvalho | University of Toronto Scarborough
  Maturation of brain circuits involved in emotional learning

Parallel symposium 12: Single-cell transcriptomic approaches for dissecting neurological disease and complex behaviours

Chair:  Shreejoy Tripathy | University of Toronto

Sponsored by the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health

Presenters:

• Vilas Menon | Allen Institute for Brain Science
  Single-cell RNA-seq identifies putative human brain cell types associated with neurodegenerative disease
• Shreejoy Tripathy | University of Toronto
  Using single-cell transcriptomics to infer multi-modal cellular phenotypes
• Megan Crow | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
  Mapping transcriptomically-similar cell types across datasets, species, and conditions using MetaNeighbor
• Mark Cembrowski | University of British Columbia
  Subtype-specific predisposition of granule cell participation in hippocampal processing