Mental health: What presents has neuroscience left under the Christmas tree?
12th December – KCL, London

The burden of mental health disorders continues to grow with a huge impact on individuals, families, and healthcare provision. This year’s British Neuroscience Association (BNA) Christmas Symposium, held at London’s KCL, will bring together leading researchers to describe what neuroscience has contributed to the diagnosis, management and treatment of mental health disorders.

For more information, visit the British Neuroscience Association.

Neurodegeneration & The 3Rs: Models, Mechanisms & Resources.

Edinburgh, 6th December, 2016 

The Scottish TSE Network (STN) will host their annual one-day international symposium at the Roslin Institute (Edinburgh, UK) on state of the art approaches to studying neurodegenerative diseases that are consistent with the 3R principles (replacement, refinement, reduction) of animals in research.

Topics will include cell-free protein misfolding assays, human stem cell-based approaches and transgenic C. elegans and Drosophila models, in addition to the opportunities offered by tissue banking and in silico analysis.

For more information visit the British Neuroscience Association.

BNA2017 Festival of Neuroscience

“Attending and contributing to meetings such as BNA2017 Festival of Neuroscience is core to a career in science. They provide the opportunity to discuss findings, discover fresh insights on your work, meet researchers from around the world and learn the latest developments in the field.”

“BNA2017 is one of the largest international neuroscience meetings in Europe in 2017, and presents the ideal opportunity for neuroscientists around the world to discuss their science and their ideas, across both discipline boundaries and national borders.”

John Isaac, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The Wellcome Trust.

Visit the British Neuroscience Association website for more details.

Neuroscience of Happiness

Is happiness a skill? Modern neuroscientific research and the wisdom of ancient contemplative traditions converge in suggesting that happiness is the product of skills that can be enhanced through training and such training exemplifies how transforming the mind can change the brain. Kent Berridge, Richie Davidson, and Daniel Gilbert speak at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

We welcome Dr Nollaig Heffernan who joins the Centre for Neuroscience faculty. She is a Sport and Exercise Psychologist (BPS) and a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland. She is an independent Management Consultant and works with businesses from sole traders to multinationals specialising in Leadership and Management, Organisational Psychology, Workplace Performance and Stress Management. In her role as a Sport Psychologist she works with all abilities from beginner to elite in a wide range of sports. She is a successful rowing coach with wins at national and international level. She regularly speaks at conferences and universities as a specialist lecturer or guest speaker and is a contributing author to a number of business books including the Association for Coaching’s Psychometrics in Coaching and Leadership Coaching.

Her interests include the neuroscientific make-up of high performing individuals, the cross-discipline transfer of effective coping strategies, resilient leadership and enhancing wellbeing in the workplace. She has co-authored (with Stephen Palmer) a paper, Moving forward neuroscience research in the fields of coaching psychology and sport psychology: Would Imagery Based Coaching be a useful area to research?  which will be published in Coaching Psychology International this summer.

We are pleased to announce that Dr Gisele Dias PhD has joined the Centre for Neuroscience faculty. Dr Dias is a neuroscientist, psychologist and coaching psychologist. She is Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit and member of the Translational Neurobiology Unit at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.

She has published several original articles and review papers in both psychology and neuroscience journals. This includes articles on coaching psychology and also the problems involved in undertaking neuroscience research applied to the field of coaching psychology.

Her main research areas of interest are the neurobiological correlates of coaching outcomes and the interface between coaching, positive psychology and mental health/wellbeing. She is first author of “Cognitive-behavioural coaching: evidence-based and solution-focused human development”, published in Brazil in 2015 by Editora Cognitiva.

Professor Stephen Palmer,  said, “We are really pleased that Dr Gisele Dias has joined the team. Her experience in both coaching psychology and neuroscience brings together two fields that are of great interest to our students at our affiliated centres which are attached to the International Academy for Professional Development.”

The Neuroscience and Wellbeing News Daily was launched by the Centre for Neuroscience and National Wellbeing Service to keep readers up-to-date in the field. It is a free daily newsletter which links to articles, research, news and announcements about neuroscience and related areas.