International conference – REWARD

Essential feature of the human as well as the animal brain is its ability to process information on-line in order to efficiently adapt behavior to a changing environment. The brain constantly integrates new sensory information and adjusts its behavioral responses to maximize reward and / or minimize unpleasant and even dangerous consequences for the organism. The question here is to highlight brain regions that share the ability to “reward” the performance of vital functions such as feeding, exploration of new environments, initiation of new social interactions, reproduction and appropriate reaction to threat? The mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system was the first neural circuit to be described in this context and is closely related to the whole reward system. Are there other brain reward systems? What happens in the brains of patients with autism spectrum disorders, addiction to drugs or sports, anxiety or depressive symptoms, Parkinson’s disease, whose reward system is altered? Answers to these questions do not reach consensus and will be debated during the three days of this conference.

Scientific committee :

• Stéphanie CAILLÉ-GARNIER, INCIA
• François GEORGES, IMN
• Pierre TRIFILIEFF, Nutrineuro

Keynote lecture

• Ivan E. DE ARAUJO, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, US

Invited speakers

• Serge AHMED, Bordeaux Neurocampus, FR
• Frédéric ALEXANDRE, Bordeaux Neurocampus, FR
• Jaideep BAINS, University of Calgary, CA
• Christelle BAUNEZ, University of Aix-Marseille, FR
• Camilla BELLONE, University of Geneva, CH
• Martine CADOR, Bordeaux Neurocampus, FR
• Francis CHAOULOFF, Bordeaux Neurocampus, FR
• Elena CHARTOFF, Harvard Medical School, US   
• Joshua T. DUDMAN, Janelia Research Campus, US
• Philippe FAURE, Institut de Biologie Paris Seine, FR
• Pierre-Olivier FERNAGUT, University of Poitiers, FR
• Cecilia FLORES, Mac Gill University, CA
• Ebrahim HAROON, Emory University, US
• Thomas KASH, University of North Carolina, US
• Mehdi KHAMASSI, Sorbonne Université, FR
• Christoph KELLENDONK, University of Columbia, US
• Stephan LAMMEL, Berkeley – University of California, US
• Angela LANGDON, Princeton University, US
• Diana MARTINEZ, Columbia University, US
• Marisela MORALES, Biomedical Research Center, Baltimore, US
• Ignacio OBESO, Centro Integral en Neurociencias , Madrid, ES
• Emmanuel VALJENT, Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Montepllier, FR
• Peter VANHOUTTE, Institut de Biologie Paris Seine, FR
• Kate WASSUM, University of California, Los Angeles, US

Program