CAN2024 Final Program

Saturday, May 18, 2024

11AM – 4:00 PM	Satellite event: Hands-on, Neural, Behavioural and Histological Data Analysis Workshop
2:30 – 4:30 PM	2024 CAN Public lectures: Cannabis and Psychedelics: Hype or hope for addictions, brain diseases, and mental health Speakers: Catharine Winstanley, Matt Hill and Leah Mayo Host: Mark Cembrowski Location: Science Theatre at Science World Registration required – View details

Day 1: Sunday, May 19, 2024

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM	CAN Satellite symposia 9th Canadian Neurometabolic Meeting Neurophotonics: New translational optogenetics and computational approaches Careers in neuroscience: life after the PhD (1PM – 3:30PM) Neural Circuits and Behaviour CAN 2024 Satellite Meeting Neural Stem Cells: from model organisms to brain disorders
5:00 – 5:15 PM	Welcome and Opening Remarks by Adriana Di Polo, President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience
5:15 – 6:15	Presidential Lecture Detecting covert decision dynamics from neural population recordings in primate motor cortex William Newsome, Stanford University
6:15 – 8:00	Opening Reception

Day 2: Monday, May 20

8:30 – 10:15 AM	Plenary symposium 1 Psychedelics as novel therapeutics: What do we know and where do we go from here? Chair: Leah Mayo, University of Calgary Speakers Melissa A. Herman, U of North Carolina Multi-Region Effects of Psychedelic drugs on Neuronal Activity and Threat Responding Behavior Boris Dov Heifets, Stanford U Deconstructing the psychedelic experience: insights across species Rosemary C. Bagot, McGill U In search of mechanism: exploring the therapeutic potential of psilocybin in preclinical models
10:15 – 10:30	Update on Brain Canada initiatives Viviane Poupon, President and CEO, Brain Canada
10:30 – 10:45	Coffee break Posters/exhibits
10:45 – 11:00	Brain Star Award winner talk Hovy Ho-Wai Wong \| McGill University Local translation in axons sustains synapse-specific neurotransmission
11:00 – 12:00	Featured Plenary speaker Bita Moghaddam – Oregon Health and Science University Challenges of designing animal models to test the therapeutic effects of psychedelics
12:00 – 1:30	Advocacy lunch: Taking advocacy to new heights using the power of storytelling
1:30 – 3:00	Parallel Symposium 01 Bridging the Gap: Animal and Human Models in Neurodevelopmental Disorder Research Chairs: Guang Yang \| University of Calgary & Yang Zhou \| McGill University Speakers: Deborah Kurrasch \| University of Calgary Zebrafish recapitulate human phenotypes and enable the study of developmental epileptic encephalopathies Yun Li \| Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto Investigating mTOR hyperactivation related neurodevelopmental disorders in human brain cells and organoids Guang Yang \| University of Calgary Deciphering rare neurodevelopmental disorders: insights from human cell and mouse models Yang Zhou \| McGill University A Role of ASD-associated Gene CHD8 in Reactive Gliosis in the Adult Mouse and Marmoset Brains Parallel Symposium 02 New insights into immediate early genes (IEGs) in neural circuit plasticity during development and learning Chair: Simon Chen \| University of Ottawa Speakers: Yingxi Lin \| University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Early Cellular Memories Reveal the Sequence and Mechanisms of Circuit Maturation During Early Development Jason Shephard \| University of Utah Virus-like intercellular synaptic plasticity Simon Chen \| University of Ottawa Distinct NPAS4-expressing SST-IN Inhibitory Engrams Critical for Different Movement Acquisition Jun Ding \| Standford University Motor learning induced transcriptomic changes in motor engram neurons Parallel Symposium 03 Sculpting Brain and Behaviour: The Profound Impact of Early Life Adversities Chair: Derya Sargin \| University of Calgary Speakers: Samuel Richer \| McGill University Benefits and Costs: Resilience to Social Stress in Adolescence Maya Opendak \| John Hopkins University Neurobehavioral signature of early adversity models in infant rats Christoph Anacker \| Columbia University Early Life Adversity and Fear Generalization – A Role for Serotonin in the Dentate Gyrus Derya Sargin \| University of Calgary Unraveling the impact of early life stress on neural circuits Parallel Symposium 04 Brain circuits controlling the formation, modification, and prevention of memory Chair: Jesse Jackson \| University of Alberta Speakers: Bénédicte Amilhon \| Université de Montréal – Centre de recherche Azrieli du CHU Sainte-Justine Subcortical modulation of memory-related hippocampus rhythms Erik Bloss \| The Jackson Lab Divergent forms of synaptic plasticity in cortical extinction circuits Jiannis Taxidis \| Hospital for Sick Children / University of Toronto The role of inhibition in shaping memory-encoding hippocampal spiking sequences Arjun Bharioke \| Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel, Basel, Switzerland The cortical circuits underlying unconsciousness.
3:00 – 3:30PM	Trainee Power Pitch Session Organisers: J Quinn Lee & Gilberto Rojas Vite
3:30 – 3:45PM	Update on BrightFocus initiatives Diane Bovenkamp, PhD – Vice President, Scientific Affairs, BrightFocus Foundation
3:45 – 5:15PM	Coffee break Poster session 1 / exhibits
5:15 – 5:45	New investigator award lecture Caroline Ménard – 2024 winner Neurovascular adaptations underlying mood disorders vs stress resilience
5:45 – 6:45	Brain Prize lecture Michael Greenberg 2023 winner How Nature and Nurture Conspire to Regulate Brain Development and Plasticity
7:30 – 9:30	CAN Student Social

Day 3: Tuesday, May 21

8:30 – 10:15 AM	Plenary symposium 2 Glia -Neuron interactions Chair: Marie-Eve Tremblay, University of Victoria Speakers Marie-Eve Tremblay, University of Victoria Microglial remodelling of the extracellular matrix: outcomes on synaptic plasticity and behaviour Ed Ruthazer, McGill University Glia regulate network states to modulate processing of sensory information Masha Prager-Khoutorsky, McGill University Microglia as modulators of neuro-glial interactions
10:15 – 10:25	CIHR-INMHA update Dr. Nina Cluny, Assistant Director
10:30 – 10:45	Coffee break Posters/exhibits
10:45 – 11:00	Brain Star Award winner Masayuki Hata \| Kyoto University Innate immune memory and age-related macular degeneration
11:00 – 12:00	Featured Plenary speaker 2 Baljit Khakh– UCLA Astrocyte-neuron interactions: critical for physiology and disease
12:00 – 1:00	CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee Showdown Learn more about the Brain Bee here Lunch on own
1:00 – 2:30	Parallel Symposium 05 Regenerating the injured nervous system: emerging cellular and molecular mechanisms Chair: Brett Hilton \| The University of British Columbia Speakers: Soheila Karimi \| University of Manitoba New targets to optimize neural stem cell-mediated repair in spinal cord injury Faith Brennan \| Queens University Microglia coordinate cellular interactions during spinal cord repair Alyson Fournier \| McGill University Promoting CNS axon regeneration through regulation of neuron intrinsic gene expression networks Brett Hilton \| The University of British Columbia Targeting neuronal maturation to promote axon regeneration following spinal cord injury Parallel Symposium 06 Lipids and the Nervous System Chair: Shernaz Bamji \| University of British Columbia Speakers: Jeffrey Dason \| University of Windsor Activity-dependent changes in lipid content of presynaptic terminals regulates synaptic plasticity. Shaun Sanders \| University of Guelph Regulation of Axonal Transport in Neurons by S-acylation. Elizabeth Rideout \| The University of British Columbia Regulation of neuronal lipid droplets influences sex differences in energy homeostasis. Thierry Alquier \| University of Montreal Neuronal lipid droplets in the control of energy homeostasis. Parallel Symposium 07 Dopaminergic involvement in appetitive and aversive memories Chair: Mihaela Iordanova \| Concordia University Speakers: Mihaela Iordanova \| Concordia University A role for VTA DA in valence prediction error Erin Calipari \| Vanderbilt University The role of dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens in the ability to predict aversive outcomes Vincent Breton Provencher \| Université Laval Dopamine encoding of reinforcement signals in time and space Johannes Felsenberg \| Friedrich Miescher Institute Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila Parallel Symposium 08 Mechanisms of Sensory Processing Disruptions Associated with Autism Chair: Susanne Schmid \| University of Western Ontario Speakers: Susanne Schmid \| University of Western Ontario Auditory Processing and Sensorimotor Gating disruptions in Cntnap2 knockout rats are malleable during early postnatal development Andreas Frick \| INSERM Neural alterations in the neocortex underlie tactile perception changes in a mouse model of autism Gonzalo Otazu \| New York Institute of Technology The effect of odor novelty in odor identification in mouse models of autism Ganna Palagina \| Harvard University Bistable visual perception in autism: mouse models
2:30 – 3:00PM	Trainee Power Pitch Session Organisers: J Quinn Lee & Gilberto Rojas Vite
3:00 – 4:30	Coffee break in Poster Hall Poster session 2 & Exhibits
4:45– 5:45	Keynote lecture Singing in the brain Isabelle Peretz – Université de Montréal
5:45 – 6:45	Sex & Gender in the Neurosciences Event organized by the CAN Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee Panelists: Caroline Ménard, Bita Moghaddam, Liisa Galea, Justin Matheson

Day 4: Wednesday, May 22

8:30 – 10:15 A.M.	Plenary symposium 3 Social Neuroscience Chair: Jaideep Bains, Krembil Research Institute Speakers Giovanni Marsicano, INSERM – U Bordeaux Olfactory bulb astrocytes determine the cognitive impact of social transmission of stress Ibukun Akinrinade. U Toronto Neuropeptide nexus: Decoding oxytocin’s evolutionarily conserved role on social contagion in zebrafish Marie Eikmo – University of Oslo Effects of Stress on Opioid Self-Administration and Subjective Experience in the Laboratory and the Operating Room
10:15 – 10:25	Update on the Canadian Brain Research Strategy Jennie Young, CBRS Executive Director
10:30 – 10:45	Posters/exhibits Coffee break
10:45 – 11:00 PM	Brain Star Award winner Adam Ramsaran \| The Hospital for Sick Children – Winner of the Marlene Reimer Brain Star of the Year Award A shift in the mechanisms controlling hippocampal engram formation during brain maturation
11:00 – 12:00	Featured Plenary speaker Alon Chen – Weizmann – Max Planck Laboratory A paradigm shift in mouse phenotyping: The role of social context
12:00 – 1:30 PM	CAN-ACN Annual General Meeting of members Career Networking event Lunch on own
1:30 – 2:00PM	Trainee Power Pitch Session Organisers: J Quinn Lee & Gilberto Rojas Vite
2:00 – 3:30	Poster session 3 & Exhibits
3:30 – 5:00	Parallel Symposium 09 Myelin in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration Chairs: Anastassia Voronova \| University of Alberta & Nobuhiko Ohno \| Jichi Medical University Speakers: Norihisa Bizen \| Niigata University DEAD box protein Ddx20-mediated regulation of oligodendrocyte development, differentiation, and homeostasis Nobuhiko Ohno \| Jicji Medical University Novel imaging approaches untangling axonal selectivity of myelination by single oligodendrocytes Shernaz Bamji\| University of British Columbia Posttranslational palmitoylation in oligodendrocyte development, myelination and disease Anastassia Voronova\| University of Alberta Mechanisms of myelin formation in the developing and regenerating brain: lessons from CX3CR1 signalling Parallel Symposium 10 Reframing astrocytes in brain circuits and behaviour, a quest for new questions Chair: Ciaran Murphy-Royal \| Université de Montréal Speakers: Giannina Descalzi \| University of Guelph Astrocyte-neuronal metabolic coupling in the cingulate cortex promotes chronic pain development in a sex-specific manner Thomas Papouin \| Washington University School of Medicine Mapping the Contribution of Astrocytes to Brain Computation Xinzhu Yu \| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Astrocytic modulation of prefrontal neural circuits and anxiety-like behavior Jun Nagai \| RIKEN Center for Brain Science Probing behaviourally consequential astrocyte ensembles Parallel Symposium 11 Vision Unveiled: Navigating the Intricacies from Eye to Brain to Behavior Chairs: Stuart Trenholm \| McGill University & Gautam Awatramani \| University of Victoria Speakers: Gautam Awatramani \| University of Victoria Neural circuits underlying hierarchical computations in the retina Stuart Trenholm \| McGill University The feature landscape of mouse visual cortex Arbora Resulaj \| University of Toronto The role of visual cortex in perceptual decisions Manu Madhav \| University of British Columbia The dynamic role of visual inputs in generating spatial representations Parallel Symposium 12 Network alterations in psychiatric disorders and novel treatment strategies Chairs: Austen Milnerwood \| McGill University & Graham Collingridge \| University of Toronto & Mount Sinai Hospital Speakers: Austen Milnerwood \| McGill University Hyperexcitability & lithium response signatures provide novel phenotype rescue of bipolar disorder patient neurons via AKT & AMPK Evelyn Lambe \| University of Toronto Multi-scale perspective to decipher and treat NMDA receptor dysfunction in GRIN disorder Jasmin Lalonde \| University of Guelph Bipolar disorder-iPSC derived neural progenitor cells exhibit dysregulation of store-operated calcium entry and accelerated differentiation James Ellis \| SickKids Research Institute, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Toronto Calcium-dependent hyperexcitability in Rett syndrome neuronal networks