Conference 2002

Workshop I
Workshop II
Workshop III
Workshop IV
Final Group Discussion and Summary
Schedule

Photos of the June 2002 Meeting

Introduction and Overview of the Meeting.
In June, 2002 the Motivational Neuronal Network group held a meeting on "The Ventral Striatal Network in Emotional Processing'. Similar to the previous MNN meeting in 2000, it consisted of a series of workshops focusing on "The role of the ventral striatal network in emotional processing: regulation of positive and negative states". The conference took place at the Congres Hotel Leeuwenhorst, Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands. The Principal organizers were: Suzanne N. Haber, University of Rochester; Barry Everitt, University of Cambridge, Anthony Grace, University of Pittsburgh, Henk Groenewegen, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Ann Kelley, University of Wisconsin, Jacqueline McGinty, Medical University of South Carolina, Bita Moghaddam, Yale University, Celeste Napier, Loyola University, Cyriel Pennartz, Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Linda Porrino, Wake Forest University, and Daniel Weinberger, NIH/NIMH.

As in the past, it was an informal meeting centered around workshops and discussion groups. In preparation for the meeting we formed four general workshop topics to be addressed at the meeting (topics listed below). The entire attendance was divided into three subgroups to discuss each topic. Thus, each workshop topic (other than workshop II,) was discussed by three small subgroups of scientists. For each workshop there was a chair, scribe and spokesperson selected. The workshop began with a brief summary by the chair of the question(s) to be addressed by the group. The topic was than opened to discussion, drawing on the expertise of those the group. Thus the outcome for each workshop within each topic was different. Following these workshop sessions, the entire group gathered to listen to the summaries of each workshop. These were given by the spokesperson. The summaries which were received from the scribes are presented below.

In addition to the workshops, there were two invited speakers who delivered 'plenary' addresses: Ray Dolan, Institute of Neurology, London, "Neuronal Systems Mediating Emotion and Motivational Behaviors"; and Derek van der Kooy, University of Toronto, "Do Adult Neural Stem Cells Produce New Substrates for Emotion?". Finally, there was an evening poster session for junior scientists which was very well received (see schedule).

Workshop I: Emotional Concepts: are we on the same page?
Workshop II: What is the contribution of particular brain regions in the regulation of emotions?
Workshop III: Chemical signaling and emotion
Workshop IV: Translational and cross-disciplinary integration
Final Group Discussion and Summary
Schedule