Neuronus IBRO & IRUN Neuroscience Forum

Neuronus IBRO & IRUN Neuroscience Forum is an international and interdisciplinary conference organized annually at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland) to attract young researchers from diverse subdiscplines of neuroscience. Most of the topics cover neurobiology, cognitive and affective neurosciences, as well as clinical neurosciences and neurology.^[1]

Organizers

Neuronus Forums are operated by the work team of Tomasz Kruk (current project coordinator; previous coordinator for 2012-2014 was Iwona Kmieć), Wioleta Walentowska, PhD, Michał Kuniecki, PhD, and Michał Ślęzak, PhD, supported by neurobiology, psychology and medical students from the Jagiellonian University (Students’ Neuroscience Society NEURONUS and Jagiellonian University Neurology Student Club), working on the scientific program, fundraising and finances, public relations and all organizational issues (without outsourcing).^[2]

Support is also provided by:

• International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)^[3] Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO PERC) in a person of Juan Lerma (Alicante, Spain); in 2012 and 2013 it was provided by Central and Eastern Europe Regional Committee (IBRO CEERC) in a person of Ryszard Przewłocki (Kraków, Poland) and Western Europe Regional Committee (IBRO WERC) in a person of Juan Lerma (Alicante, Spain)
• International Research Universities Network (IRUN)^[4] in a person of Anton Coenen (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) until 2014
• BRATNIAK Foundation of the Jagiellonian University Students and Graduates

Structure and objectives

The main outline of the conference consists of keynote lectures given by the acknowledged scientists (invited speakers), followed by parallel symposia dedicated to cognitive and biological aspects of neurosciences, a session with clinical neuroscience presentations, as well as numerous poster presentations (all with open abstract submission and a priority given to the presenting authors with pre-doctoral status). Usually, 1-2 lectures per conference edition are given by the IBRO International Alumni.

As the emphasis during Neuronus Forums is mostly put on the development of young scientists, neuroscientific events are accompanied by sessions on scientific career opportunities or academic writing and reviewing. Annually, few travel grants for pre-doctoral attendees from Central and Eastern European countries are funded.

History

Since 2008, four editions of two separate events have been yearly organized at the Jagiellonian University. The first one, Students’ Neuroconference, has been organized by the Neuronus Students’ Society and was mostly devoted to molecular and biological neuroscience. Support from the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) was priceless and helped to attract foreign students and guest speakers, mostly from Central and Eastern European countries. The second one, Krakow Workshop on Psychophysiology, spreading knowledge in a field of cognitive neuroscience, has been organized by the Psychophysiology Laboratory of the Jagiellonian University within the framework of the International Research Universities Network (IRUN).^[5]

In both cases the investigation of the activity of the human or animal nervous system was in a centre of interests. The idea of merging these two conferences in 2012 has given rise to the IBRO & IRUN - featured annual event, organized and easily available for young researchers to gain deeper insight into the neuroscientific world and society. The 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions attracted more than 400 participants each.

2012 edition

Neuronus 2012 Forum was held between April 20th and 22nd in the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University. It was attended by about 460 neuroscientists affiliated in 14 countries.^[6]

Keynote speakers

• Margaret Niznikiewicz (Harvard Medical School, USA)^[7]
• Kenneth Hugdahl (University of Bergen, Norway)^[8]
• Sergey Kasparov (University of Bristol, UK)^[9]
• Tibor Harkany (University of Aberdeen, UK)^[10]

Sessions

Oral presentations were organized into 12 oral sessions, chaired by invited and delivered by regular speakers, including over 50 speakers:

• 6 sessions on cognitive neurosciences: Hemispheric Asymmetry of Language and Vision (chaired by Kenneth Hugdahl, University of Bergen, Norway), Cognitive Neuroscience (Aneta Brzezicka, Warsaw School of Social Science and Humanities, Poland), Emotional Functioning from Clinical and Experimental Perspective (Sven Müller, Ghent University, Belgium), Neural Correlates of Language Processing (Marcin Szwed, Jagiellonian University, Poland), Sleep and Pain – Experimental Approach (Rolf Verleger, Universität zu Lübeck, Germany), Visual and Auditory Processing (Sumie Leung, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)

• 6 sessions on biological neurosciences: Stem Cells and Regeneration (chaired by Benedikt Berninger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany), Neurophysiology (Gilles van Luijtelaar, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Neurogenetics (Oliver Griesbeck, Max Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany), Neuropsychiatry (Istvan Katona, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest), Neurodegeneration (Elena Dragicevic, Universität Ulm, Germany), Neuroplasticity (Jacek Jaworski, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland).

IBRO International Alumni lectures were given by Benedikt Berninger and Istvan Katona.

Poster session consisted of over 60 presentations.

Regular scientific program was accompanied by ‘Scientific Career Opportunities Session’.

Awards

Neuronus Conference Awards were given to the best oral and poster presenters with pre-doctoral status:

• Michał Bola (Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany)
• Szymon Biduła (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland)
• Martin Perescis (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
• Kamila Mizerska (Universidad Miguel Hernandez – CSIC, San Juan de Alicante, Spain)
• Elżbieta Klimiec and Paweł Moskal (Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland)

2012 edition was awarded in the nationwide competition StRuNa in the 'Conference of the year' category.^[11]

2013 edition

Neuronus 2013 Forum was held between May 9th and 11th in the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University. The meeting was attended by about 400 neuroscientists affiliated in 16 countries.^[12]

Keynote speakers

• Adrian Owen (University of Western Ontario, Canada)^[13][14]
• Peter Hagoort (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)^[15]
• Wolf Singer (Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany)^[16]
• Robin Franklin (University of Cambridge, UK)^[17]
• Anthony Holtmaat (University of Geneva, Switzerland)^[18]
• Juan Lerma (Universidad Miguel Hernandez – CSIC, San Juan/Alicante, Spain)^[19]

Sessions

Oral presentations were organized into 13 oral sessions, including over 60 speakers:

• 6 sessions on cognitive neurosciences: Visual Attention (chaired by Rolf Verleger, Universität zu Lübeck, Germany), Affective Neuroscience (Gilles Pourtois, Ghent University, Belgium), Epilepsy and Somatosensory Processing in Animal and Human Studies (Tineke van Rijn, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Psychophysiology of Cognitive and Affective Functioning (Tytus Sosnowski, University of Warsaw, Poland), Perception and Brain Plasticity (Gregory Kroliczak, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland), Auditory Processing (Raffaele Cacciaglia, University of Barcelona and University Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana, Spain)

• 6 sessions on biological neurosciences: Basic Neuroscience (chaired by Matthew Holt, KU Leuven, Belgium), Neurophysiology (Inna Slutsky, Tel Aviv University, Israel), Neuroimaging (Grzegorz Wilczyński, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland and Vincent Bonin, KU Leuven, Belgium), Neuropsychiatry (Karolina Skibicka, University of Göteborg, Sweden), Neurogenetics (Lora Heisler, University of Cambridge, UK), Neuropathology (Katarzyna Starowicz-Bubak, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland)

• an interactive session of Medical Case Reports (chaired by Krzysztof Banaszkiewicz, Kraków Academy of Neurology, Poland).

IBRO International Alumni lectures were given by Matthew Holt and Anthony Holtmaat.

Poster session consisted of 85 presentations.

The meeting was opened with ‘Adolf Beck’s Memorial Session’, which was organized to commemorate 150th birthday anniversary of the EEG pioneer born in Kraków. During the session the discovery of the brain electrical activity (Andrzej Trzebski, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland), collaboration of Napoleon Cybulski and Adolf Beck (Wiesław Pawlik, Jagiellonian University Medical College), Beck's place in the history of electroencephalography (Anton Coenen, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), as well as life and work of Beck in Lemberg/Lwów (Oksana Zayachkivska, Lviv National Medical University, Ukraine) were broadly discussed. The session was summarized in ‘Adolf Beck, co-founder of the EEG. An essay in honour of his 150th birthday’ (Anton Coenen and Oksana Zayachkivska with Stanisław Konturek and Wiesław Pawlik), distributed among conference participants.

Neuroscientific events were accompanied by ‘Meet Your Speaker - Scientific Career Opportunities Session’ and ‘Publish or Perish - Introduction to Academic Writing and Reviewing Session’.

Awards

Neuronus Conference Awards were given to the best oral and poster presenters with pre-doctoral status:

• Agata Woźniak-Kwaśniewska (Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience, France)
• Jeff Martin (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
• Dorota Badowska (University of Göttingen, Germany)
• Magdalena Kisiel (Wrocław Medical University, Poland)
• Brandon Michael Henry (Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland)

2014 edition

Neuronus 2014 Forum was held between April 25th and 27th in the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University. The meeting was attended by about 480 neuroscientists affiliated in 20 countries.^[20]

Keynote speakers

• Nikos Logothetis (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany) ^[21]
• Rafael Malach (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) ^[22]
• Carles Escera (University of Barcelona, Spain) ^[23]
• David Colquhoun (University College London, UK) ^[24]
• Philbert Tsai (University of California, San Diego, USA) ^[25]
• Angela Roberts (University of Cambridge, UK) ^[26]

Sessions

Oral presentations were organized into 13 oral sessions, including over 60 speakers:^[27]

• 6 sessions on cognitive neurosciences: Neural Correlates of Language Processing (chaired by Marcin Szwed,^[28] Jagiellonian University, Poland), Affective Neuroscience (Hadas Okon-Singer,^[29] University of Haifa, Israel), Visual Processing (Gilles Pourtois,^[30] Ghent University, Belgium), Neural Correlates of Pain and Somatosensory Stimulation (Tineke van Rijn, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Psychopathology in Neuroscientific Research (Adrianna Mendrek, Bishop's University, Canada), SSVEP Frequency Responses in Human EEG Studies (Jarosław Żygierewicz,^[31] University of Warsaw, Poland)

• 6 sessions on biological neurosciences: Basic Neuroscience (chaired by Laura Cancedda , Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy), Neuropathology (Gilles van Luijtelaar,^[32] Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Neurophysiology (Fabian Kloosterman,^[33] Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders, Leuven, Belgium), Neurogenetics (Paul Franken,^[34] University of Lausanne, Switzerland), Neurode(re)generation (Patrik Verstreken,^[35] University of Leuven, VIB, Belgium), Learning and Memory (Ewelina Knapska, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland)

• an interactive session of Medical Case Reports (chaired by Krzysztof Banaszkiewicz, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland).

Two poster sessions consisted of about 180 presentations.

Neuroscientific events was accompanied by ‘Meet Your Speaker - Scientific Career Opportunities Session’ with a special lecture by David Colquhoun entitled The crisis of reproduculility. Why is so much published science wrong?

Awards

Neuronus Conference Awards were given to the best oral and poster presenters with pre-doctoral status:

• Michał Bola (Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany)
• Katarzyna Anna Giertuga (Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland)
• Jan Nikadon (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland)
• Joanna Szczurkowska (Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy)
• Jeffrey Martin (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
• Łukasz Szewczyk (Center of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, Poland)
• Piravin Kumar Ramakrishnan (Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland)
• Katarzyna Siuda (Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland)
• Adrian Chrobak (Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland)

The Polish Congress Ambassadors Programme (2014 edition) nominated events and people promoting Poland on the international level - Iwona Kmieć (the Head of the NEURONUS 2012-2014 Forums) joined the group of Honorary Polish Congress Ambassadors. ^[36]

2015 edition

Neuronus 2015 Forum will be held between April 17th and 19th in the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University. Abstract submission and registration are now open.

Post-conference publications

To summarize the presentations given by the conference attendees, a set of scientific papers has been published by one of the field-relevant journals. In 2012, a special issue entitled ‘Basic and Applied Electrophysiology' has been accomplished by the guest editors (Michał Kuniecki, Marek Binder and Jan Kaiser, Jagiellonian University) of the International Journal of Psychophysiology.

In 2013, a special issue entitled 'Neuronus' has been published by Advances in Cognitive Psychology (volume 9, issue 4).

An interview with Professor David Colquhoun (University College London, UK), one of the keynote speakers at NEURONUS 2014 Forum, on pseudoscience has been published by Gazeta Wyborcza [in Polish].^[37]

External links

• Conference webpage: http://neuronusforum.pl

References