ACTIVITIES

6th European Conference on Comparative Neurobiology, ECCN6. April 2010

From 22/04/2010 to 24/04/2010

Program

Schedule

This international conference will convene some 150-200 specialists from Europe, USA and other countries to discuss about the design of the central nervous systems of vertebrates and invertebrates, the evolution of the brain and the need of understanding different brains to use animals as models of human brain function and dysfunction. The program will include:
• Five keynote lectures, given by authorities in the field of comparative neuroscience
• Five symposia on hot-spot topics
• Sessions of oral communications
• Poster sessions      

WEDNESDAY 21st

16.30 – 20.30 Registration

THURSDAY, 22nd

08.30 – 09.00 Registration

09.00 – 09.30 Welcome

09.30 – 10.30 Keynote lecture
  Luis Puelles. University of Murcia. Murcia, Spain.
  On the genoarchitectonic approach to comparative neurobiology

10.30 – 11.00 Coffee break

11.00 – 12.30 Oral session 1

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 16.00 Symposium 1. Origin of cortical interneurons in vertebrates
Chair: Salvador Guirado
Oscar Marín. Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante; CSIC-Universidad Miguel Hernández. Alicante, Spain.
The origin of cortical interneuron diversity in rodents

Manuel A. Pombal. University of Vigo. Vigo, Spain.
Development of the telencephalon: the lamprey condition

Zoltan Molnár. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Origin of cortical neurons in Sauropsids

Monique Esclapez. Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale. Marseille, France.
Origins of cortical GABAergic Neurons In primates

16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break

16.30 – 18.00 Poster session 1
A) Compartive Develpmental Neurobiology

18.00 – 19.00 Keynote lecture 2 
Georg Striedter. University of California Irvine. California, USA. 
Developmental mechanisms for evolutionarychanges in brain size and proportions

20.30   Welcome Dinner

FRIDAY 23rd

09.00 – 10.30 Symposium 2. Cognition and high mental functions in primates, rodents   and nonmammals
Chair: Ann Butler
Angela Roberts. University of Cambridge. Cambridge, UK.
Reversal learning as a behavioural model of flexible responding in rodents, monkeys and man and its relevance to our understanding of  neuropsychiatric disorders

Onur Güntürkün. Ruhr-University Bochum. Bochum, Germany.
The evolution of associative forebrain areas in birds and mammals: convergent solutions to common cognitive problems

Geoffrey Schoenbaum. University of Maryland. Baltimore, MD, USA.
Learning from our mistakes – critical contributions of orbitofrontal signaling

10.30 – 11.00 Coffee break

11.00 – 12.30 Oral session 2

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 16.00 Symposium 3. Comparing vertebrate and invertebrate chemosensory   systems or how nature has solved the same challenge twice
Chair: Alino Martínez-Marcos

Iván Rodríguez. University of Geneva. Geneva, Switzerland.
Species-specific vomeronasal chemosensors: from genes to behavior

Gordon M. Shepherd. Yale Medical School. New Haven, CT, USA.
A central role for olfaction in human evolution

Alberto Ferrus. Instituto Cajal-CSIC. Madrid, Spain.
Morphological and functional dynamics of the insect olfactory system

Bill Hansson. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Jena, Germany.
Evolution of insect olfaction

16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break

16.30 -18.00 Poster session 2
B) Sensory and motor systems
C) Neurotransmitters, Hormones and Homeostatic Mechanisms

18.00 – 19.00 Keynote lecture 3 
Rudolf Nieuwenhuys. Abcoude, The Netherlands.
The structural, functional and molecular organization of the brainstem

20.30   Concert at the University old


SATURDAY 24TH

08.30 – 11.00 Symposium 4. Diversity of brains in anamniotes
  Chair: Agustín González & Ramón Anadón

R. Glenn Northcutt. University of California. San Diego, CA, USA.
A new interpretation of the telencephalon of the Coelacanth Latimeria

Nerea Moreno. University Complutense of Madrid. Madrid, Spain.
Organization of the non-evaginated secondary prosencephalon: insights from amphibians

Mario F. Wullimann. Ludwig-Maximilians-University. Munich, Germany.
The long adventurous journey of rhombic lip cells in the zebrafish brain

Isabel Rodríguez-Moldes. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Recent observations on the embryonic brain of the dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula: unique features of elasmobranchs?

Sylvie Rétaux. Institut Alfred Fessard. Gif sur Yvette, France.
Midline signaling and forebrain evolution in gnathostomes: insights from lampreys

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee break

11.30 – 12.30 EBBS Lecture 4
J. Martin Wild. University of Auckland. Auckland, New Zealand. 
Comparative neuroanatomy and neuroethology of birds: a personal account

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 16.00 Symposium 5. Evolution of the “socio-sexual” brain
Chair: Loreta Medina
James L. Goodson. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN, USA.
Nonapeptides and the evolution of social group sizes in finches: touchstones for all vertebrates?

Jacques Balthazart. University of Liège. Liège, Belgium.
The neural circuit mediating appetitive and consummatory male sexual behavior in quail

Constance Scharff. Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and Freie Universität Berlin. Berlin, Germany.
FOXP2 in songbirds: an evo-devo approach to human language evolution

Enrique Lanuza. Universitat de València. Valencia, Spain. 
More than fear: the amygdala and sexual attraction through pheromones

16.00 - 16.30 Coffee break

16.30 – 18.00 Poster session 3
D) Cognition and behaviour
E) Disorders of the Nervous System & Animal Models
F) Anatomical and Molecular Evolution

18.00 - 19.00 Key Lecture 5
Andras Csillag. Semmelweis University. Budapest, Hungary. 
The avian nucleus accumbens: a reappraisal based upon hodology and chemical neuroanatomy

19.00 – 20.00 Final discussion and future meetings