About CSCA
Summer School
Programme - Emotional memory: From patient to synapse
Summer School - Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam
Date: June 18 - 29, 2012
Location: University of Amsterdam, Plantage Muidergracht 12, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Tuesday, June 19
09:00 -12:30 | Rick Richardson - University of New South Wales, Australia
Extinction of learned fear
The process of extinction is widely accepted as the foundation for exposure-based therapies used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. This lecture on extinction of learned fear will be divided into three parts. In the first part a basic overview of the behavioural characteristics and the neural circuitry underlying fear extinction will be described. An important finding here has been that extinction in both humans and non-human animals exhibit many of the same basic phenomena as well as share a similar neural circuitry. The second part of the lecture will focus on various drug treatments that affect extinction. The consequences of that work for developing effective pharmacological adjuncts for exposure-based therapies will be emphasised. In the third part, recent research documenting developmental differences in the extinction of learned fear (at a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural level) will be described. Given that the majority of anxiety disorders first emerge in childhood or early adolescence the finding of fundamental differences in extinction across the lifespan has a number of important potential implications.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Thursday, June 21
09:00 -12:30 | Oliver Wolf - Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
Stress influences learning and memory in humans
Stress is known to influence learning memory. Research over the last decades has revealed that glucocorticoids released from the adrenal cortex are important mediators in this respect. Stress can have enhancing as well as impairing effects on long-term episodic memory. For example we may forget an appointment, because we are stressed at work. In contrast we may remember a certain embarrassing moment for our entire life. The former is an example of a stress induced retrieval impairment, while the latter is an example of enhanced memory consolidation caused by stress. Stress does, however, not only influence the quantity of what we remember but also the quality of the memory. Recent experiments have shown that during an instrumental learning task stress induces rigid habitual behavior at the expenses of flexible goal directed behavior. A better understanding of the modulatory effects of stress on human memory will enhance our understanding of stress associated mental disorders and could provide the fundament for enhanced behavioral as well as pharmacological treatment approaches.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Monday, June 25
09:00 -12:30 | Matthew Walker - University of California, Berkeley, USA
The role of sleep in emotional brain regulation
Cognitive neuroscience continues to build meaningful connections between affective behavior and human brain function. Within the biological sciences, a similar renaissance has taken place, describing a causal role for sleep in various neurocognitive processes, most recently the interaction between sleep and emotional regulation. Focusing on the latter, I will discuss a collection of findings demonstrating the detrimental affective brain consequences of a lack of sleep, and conversely, the beneficial homeostatic regulation of emotions following the presence of sleep. These findings will culminate in a REM-sleep hypothesis of emotional-memory processing, offering brain-based insights into the association between sleep abnormalities and the initiation and maintenance of affective disorders, most notably PTSD.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Tuesday, June 26
09:00 -12:30 | Glenn Schafe - Yale University, New Haven, USA
Epigenetic alterations underlying amygdala-dependent memory consolidation, reconsolidation & synaptic plasticity
Traditional views of memory formation have emphasized the importance of NMDA receptor-driven alterations in protein kinase signaling cascades, the activation of transcription factors, and associated changes in gene expression that are thought to be critical for long-term memory and synaptic plasticity. Recent evidence indicates that additional levels of transcriptional regulation, including modifications of chromatin structure and DNA methylation, may also be critical for memory formation. These so-called ‘epigenetic’ mechanisms have long been studied in the context of cellular development, where they are thought to promote static, enduring alterations in gene expression that are independent of alterations in the underlying DNA sequence itself. In the adult brain, these same epigenetic processes have been suggested to play a more dynamic role in functions ranging from memory to addiction to psychopathology. Histone acetylation and DNA methylation have been widely implicated in hippocampal-dependent learning paradigms, but little is known about the role of these processes in amygdala-dependent learning and memory. In this talk, I will present findings from a series of studies examining the role of epigenetic alterations in the consolidation and reconsolidation of auditory Pavlovian fear conditioning and associated synaptic plasticity in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Wednesday, June 27
09:00 -12:30 | Kevin LaBar -Duke University, Durham, USA
Neurobehavioral mechanisms of human fear learning
Fear conditioning paradigms have provided key insights into how organisms learn to predict the occurrence of threats in the environment. In humans, fear can take many forms, and multiple processes contribute to forming and modifying fearful associations to cues and contexts. This lecture will review the neural systems, physiological indices, and cognitive processes that mediate components of human fear learning, with a focus on Pavlovian conditioning paradigms and cognitive neuroscience approaches. Methodological issues in measurement and challenges inherent in brain imaging and patient-based research will be raised. Topics will include the neural systems that regulate the acquisition, extinction, and context-specificity of fear learning, as well as the role of higher-order cognitive processes, such as those that promote fear generalization. New approaches will be introduced, including the use of virtual reality platforms to bridge laboratory studies and real-world experiences of environmental threats. Advances in knowledge regarding fear learning circuits in the human brain will ultimately inform biological models of anxiety disorders marked by dysregulation of pathways to fear.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Thursday, June 28
09:30 – 17:00 | CSCA Symposium Emotional memory
The Symposium can be attended separately from the rest of the Summer School; registration is necessary.
16:00– 17:00 | Frijda lecture by Kevin LaBar -Duke University, Durham, USA
The Frijda lecture can be attended separately from the Summer School or Symposium. Attendance is free of charge.