Conference Announcement

"Brain Dynamics and Decision Making"

May 27-31 2012
Centro Stefano Franscini (CSF), Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland
Sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation, SystemsX.ch, Novartis, Merck-Serono, Roche, Science Products, Newport and Centro Stefano Franscini, ETH

REGISTRATION for the Conference is now closed.

Aims of the Conference

Decision-making is a basic task controlled by the brain. Modern neurosciences conceptualized decisions as the product of dynamic processes on the various spatial scales of brain organization. However, the neural correlates are only very poorly understood. At the lowest level we lack a complete understanding of the key molecular and cellular events that are crucial for decision making. At the intermediate level of local neuronal networks it is unclear how the network states in key areas evolve towards a decision. Similarly at the macroscopic scale the rules for multiple interconnected brain areas remain elusive. Finally, the ramification of such models on decisions taken as the interactions among many persons (i.e. multiple brains) remains unclear. The investigation of decision making as a dynamic process in the brain therefore requires a multilevel, interdisciplinary approach. In this conference we aim to bring together leading international scientists from diverse disciplines such as molecular and cellular neurobiology, theoretical neuroscience, and neuroeconomics, to provide a forum for discussion on brain dynamics during decision making across the various scales. Due to the advancements of brain recording techniques, these disciplines are growing together and we believe that an intense exchange of knowledge, concepts and ideas will be highly beneficial to further advance of a more comprehensive understanding of this topic. Highly relevant sub-themes to be discussed include: How does activity in neural circuits compute during decision-making? Which neuromodulatory pathways (e.g. Dopamine) are involved? How does uncertainty affect decisions? How do different levels of decision making connect? What's going wrong in addictive behavior? We expect the conference to have a significant impact on biology, medicine, and economics.