Neuroscience@Nottingham Day 2020

The annual Neuroscience@Nottingham Research and Poster Day took place on 15^th January, attended by University of Nottingham neuroscientists across various departments and several other neuroscientists across the UK.

This year the event kicked-off with a workshop on ‘Multi-disciplinary approaches to treating anxiety disorders’ organised by Carl Stevenson and bringing together research in rat models of fear and anxiety (Carl Stevenson) with clinical research in this area (Naomi Fineberg, University of Hertfordshire; Catherine Harmer, University of Oxford), as well as with experience of clinical treatment practice (Naomi Fineberg; Stephen Regel, University of Nottingham).

This was followed by the poster session where around 30 posters were presented on research ranging from molecular and cellular to cognitive, computational and clinical neuroscience. Two postgraduate poster prizes were awarded to Samantha Harrison (Medicine) for her poster on “Using fNIRS to assess cortical responses to auditory and visual speech in a paediatric population” and to Sara Goncalves (Life Sciences) for her poster on “MIA-induced osteoarthritis-like knee pain impacts on cognitive function in Lister hooded rats”. Commendations went to Anthony Beh (Psychology), Gerald Hall and Luke O’Hara (both Life Sciences)

The guest speaker Catherine Harmer (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford) gave a lecture on “How do antidepressant drugs work?”. Catherine presented the idea that a negative affective bias is a key feature of depression, which brings about the disorder’s symptoms by biasing patients’ attention and memory, and that antidepressants work by ameliorating the neural changes underlying this negative bias. Catherine also presented some fascinating research, highlighting how this insight can be applied to improve treatment of depression. The guest lecture was preceded by brief presentations highlighting key neuroscience-related initiatives at Nottingham University, including the Research Beacon for Precision Imaging and the Interdisciplinary Research Clusters on Technological Innovations in Health and Wellbeing, and on Improving Health and Wellbeing in Contemporary Society. The event was supported by the BBSRC and the British Neuroscience Association.

Further information:

Neuroscience@Nottingham - http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/neuroscience/index.aspx

henry.bowler@nottingham.ac.uk