Scientific Programme

Plenary Speakers

 

Jane Stewart:
The neurobiology of drug use and relapse: thoughts on using what we know to develop treatments

Ferdinando Nicoletti:
Metabotropic glutamate receptors: beyond the regulation of synaptic transmission


Symposia Organizers and Speakers

Symposium 1


Impaired behavioural inhibition in schizophrenia: Implications for antipsychotic drug development
Organizers: Anton Bespalov, Richard Beninger

Mark Geyer (CA, USA):
Acoustic startle habituation deficits: Phenotypic markers for information-processing impairment in schizophrenia and efficacy of antipsychotic drug treatment?

Anton Bespalov (Ludwigshafen, Germany):
Habituation deficits induced by metabotropic glutamate type II receptor blockade: Reversal by antipsychotic drugs

Richard Beninger (Ontario, Canada):
Molecular mechanisms of incentive learning: possible targets for antipsychotic drugs

 

Symposium 2


Forward and reverse genetic approaches to reward and addiction, combined with: genetics in drug addiction
Organizer: Rainer Spanagel (Germany)

Mary Jeanne Kreek (USA):
Microarray studies on drug-induced changes in gene expression

Judith Homberg (The Netherlands):
Cocaine’s mechanisms scrutinized using knockout and mutant rats derived from ENU-driven target-selected mutagenesis

Carles Sanchis-Segura (Spain):
Genetic dissection of glutamate signalling in cocaine sensitization and reward using conditional mouse models

Karen K. Szumlinski (USA):
The use of virus-mediated gene transfer in drug abuse research


Symposium 3


Novel and emerging therapeutic approaches for the treatment of psychosis
Organizer: Will Spooren

R. Depoortere (France):
Marrying the DA D2 and 5-HT1A receptors: ideal partners for a new generation of antipsychotics with improved benefit for cognition?

K. Drescher (Germany):
A new twist to novel atypical antipsychotics: dopamine D3 receptor antagonism

R Nordquist (Schweiz):
The behavioural profile of NK3 receptor antagonists: a new generation of anti-psychotics?

N. Waters (Sweden):
Dopaminergic Stabilizers for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders


Symposium 4


Commonalities and differences in the neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying drug addiction and obesity
Organizer: Louk J.M.J. Vanderschuren

Gaetano. Di Chiara (Italy):
Drug and food addiction: a case of homology?

Gary Aston-Jones (South Carolina, USA):
The insidious hypothalamus: obesity, addiction and orexin neurons

Ralph J. DiLeone (Texas):
Novel molecular and neural mechanisms regulating food and drug intake

David N. Stephens (Brighton, UK):
Behavioural sensitization to food and drugs: similarities, but differences, too

 

Symposium 5


Psychopharmacology of phosphodiesterase inhibitors
Organizer: Thomas Steckler (Beerse, Belgium), Bruno Pouzet

Schmidt, Christopher J. (USA):
PDE10 inhibitors and striatal activity

Siegel, Steven J. (USA):
Overview on “PDEs inhibitors for treatment of schizophrenia”

Prickaerts, Jos (Netherlands):
PDE2 and 5 inhibitors and cognitive function

O’Donnell, James M. (USA):
PDE4 inhibitors and depression


Symposium 6


Cannabinoid modulation of cognitive processes
Organizer: Jacques Micheau (France), Gernot Riedel (UK)

Paola Fadda (Italy):
Plant-cannabinoid extracts modulate spatial short-term memory

Gernot Riedel (Scotland):
Differential role of hippocampal cannabinoid receptors in spatial memory formation

Robert Hampson (North Carolina):
Cannabinoids alter neuronal representation of task-specific information

Jonathan Arnold (Australia):
Neural and behavioural effects of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol in a putative transgenic mouse model of schizophrenia


Symposium 7


Behavioural pharmacology in pain
Organizer: Thomas Tzschentke (Germany)

A. Eschalier (France):
Pain – An overview of underlying mechanisms, symptoms, and treatment options: from bed to benchside and back

Thomas Christoph (Germany):
Traditional and novel behavioural models to evaluate pain and analgesia in preclinical studies

Francis Colpaert (France):
Is there a link between analgesia, tolerance and addiction?

Steve Negus (Belmont):
Emotional aspects of pain: Alternative read-outs and novel behavioural procedures


Symposium 8


Behavioural guidance by predicted reward
Organizer: Wolfgang Hauber (Germany)

Garret Stuber (USA):
Rapid dopamine signalling and excitatory synaptic plasticity in the mesolimbic system following reward learning

Wolfgang Hauber (Germany):
Role of prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum in guidance of instrumental behaviour by expected reward

David Belin (UK):
Instrastriatal mechanisms underlie drug-seeking habits maintained by drug-associated stimuli

Peter Kalivas (USA):
Neuroadaptations in corticolimbic circuitry by chronic cocaine: Effects on processing biological and drug reward


Symposium 9


Orexin and Melanin Concentrating Hormone – more than feeding alone
Organizer: Bart A. Ellenbroek (Germany)

Pierre Yves Risold (Besancon, France):
Functional neuroanatomy of the diencephalic MCH and ORX neuronal systems in the rat brain

Jean Louis Nahon (Valbonne, France):
Functional characterisation of MCH and Orexin neurons

Antonello Bonci (San Francisco, USA):
The role of orexin and MCH in reward

Joram Mul (Utrecht, Netherlands):
Functional characterization of the pro MCH knockout rat

Symposium 10


Behavioral evidence for inverse agonism and constitutive receptor activity at serotonin 5-HT2 receptors and at opioid receptors
Organizer: John A. Harvey

William P. Clarke (USA):
Constitutive activity and inverse agonism in vivo: the rules of the game

Vincent Aloyo (USA):
Regulation of 5-HT2A receptor constitutive activity by behaviourally defined agonists, antagonists and inverse agonists

Umberto Spampinato (France):
5-HT2C receptor constitutive activity regulates in vivo DA release: focus on the mesoaccumbens dopamine pathway

Alice M. Young (Texas):
Do inverse agonists play a role in opioid abstinence in vivo?


Symposium 11


Translational medicine in CNS research
Organizer: Robert McArthur

T.W. Robbins (UK):
Translational models of cognitive function

B. Ellenbroek (Germany):
Translational approaches in the treatment of schizophrenia: a preclinical approach

T. Steckler (Belgium):
Translational models of anxiety disorders

Bill Deakin (UK):
Translational models in schizophrenia: a clinical view


Symposium 12


Dopamine D2 receptors in Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
Organizer: Aldo Badiani

John Salamone (USA):
Nucleus accumbens DA and the persistent exertion of effort in food-seeking behavior

Henry Szechtman (Canada):
Modulation by kappa opioid receptors of compulsive checking in the quinpirole model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Paolo Nencini (Italy):
Quinpirole-induced perseverative drinking: implications for psychotic polydipsia

Damiaan Denys (The Netherlands):
Dopamine and obsessive compulsive disorder: What clinical evidence do we have?


Symposium 13


Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationship in psychopharmacology
Organizer: Thomas Steckler (Belgium)

Meindert Danhof (Netherlands):
Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic correlations in psychopharmacology

Jean-Michel Sherrmann (France):
Role of transporters at the blood-brain-barrier in determining cerebral exposure to psychotropic drugs

Gerald Zernig (Austria):
Measurement of drug concentrations and neurotransmitter release using microdialysis in rats – relationship to operant responding

Mark Schmidt (Belgium):
Using PET imaging to predict PK/PD relationships of novel psychoactive drugs in human


Symposium 14


The neuropharmacology of social behaviour
Organizer: Klaus A. Miczek

Francesca D’Amato (Italy):
Behavioural pharmacology of maternal behaviour/mother-pup interactions

Zuoxin Wang (Florida):
Dopamine and social attachment

K.A. Miczek (USA):
GABA-5HT interactions in aggressive behaviour

L.J.M.J. Vanderschuren (Netherlands):
The neuropharmacology of social play behavior in rats: insights into social reward mechanisms