International symposium on emotion slated for April 23-24

The fifth annual Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion, an international forum on the latest basic and clinical research dealing with emotion, will be held April 23-24 at Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison. The theme of this year’s symposium is “Affect and Plasticity: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Change.”

Steven Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, will launch the event with a public talk, Thursday, April 22, at 4 p.m. at the Wisconsin State Historical Society. He will speak on “The Worrisome Question of Whether There’s a Worry Gene, and Other Investigations of Genes and Behavior.”

“A variety of influences — stress, prolonged emotional states and some medications — can produce fundamental changes in brain chemicals and circuits over time. These are potentially very important phenomena that can result in long-term changes in brain function that may affect an individual’s mental and physical health,” said Ned Kalin, director of the HealthEmotions Research Institute, which is sponsoring the symposium. “Understanding how this neuroplasticity occurs can provide important insights into potential ways to prevent and treat some of the negative effects of emotions.”

Seven leading scientists will describe the most current research on emotional change. Topics include:

• the impact of anxiety and depression on neural pathways
• the effect of emotions on brain structures involved in cognition
• new imaging techniques to understand brain regions involved in emotions
• the role of touch in early control of stress hormones
• the influence of maternal care on animal behavior and hormone responses to stress
• brain effects of unpleasant experiences early in life
• brain changes induced by drug use

Symposium presenters include Mary Carlson, Harvard University School of Public Health; Dennis Charney, Yale University School of Medicine; Jonathan Cohen, Princeton University; Mark George, Medical University of South Carolina; Michael Meaney, McGill University; Charles Nemeroff, Emory University School of Medicine; and Terry Robinson, University of Michigan.

A special feature of the symposium has been to encourage broad student participation from aross the U.S. and Canada, said Kalin, who is also chair of the UW Medical School psychiatry department. The Institute is providing travel awards to underwrite the cost of attendance for 87 of the most highly qualified undergraduate, graduate, medical and post-graduate students interested in studying emotions.

UW–Madison graduate students enrolled in psychology seminar 711 are also eagerly anticipating the symposium. All semester they’ve been immersed in journal articles by scientists who will be presenting at the meeting. The students will lead discussion sessions following each talk and will be ready to ask their own well-prepared questions.

The Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion was first conceptualized five years ago as a means to highlight research of well-funded UW psychology and psychiatry faculty studying various aspects of emotion. With the support of the UW HealthEmotions Research Institute, the symposium has grown to become one of the most important scientific gatherings concentrating on the study of emotion.