4 Day Conference Focusing on Adhd and Stress in Vancouver
There’s going to be a 4 Day Conference Focusing on Adhd and Stress in Vancouver BC.
The 2nd biennial, international conference on Brain Development & Learning: Making Sense of the Science will be held on july 12-15, 2008 in Vancouver at the Sheraton Wall Center hotel.
Two main focus areas of the conference will be ADHD (executive function and prefrontal cortex) and stress (including trauma, depression, anxiety, and resilence).
It’s an interdisciplinary conference devoted to improving children’s lives by making cutting-edge research in neuroscience, child psychology, & medicine understandable & applicable to those who work with children on a daily basis.
Although it’s focused on children, it seems that some of the topic will be useful for ADHD adults too. Here’s who they suggest should attend:
- Educators and educational administrators
- Physicians, Pediatricians , Psychiatrists and Psychologists
- Parents
- Social workers, nurses, occupational therapists
- Government Officials concerned with Child, Families, Health, or Education
- Elected Representatives, Community Organizers
Here’s some of the speakers and topics directly relating to ADHD:
Amy Arnsten Professor of Neurobiology & Director of Graduate Studies in Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine who pioneered the role of norepinephrine in ADHD.
Presentation Title: “Stress Impairs Prefrontal Cortex Function: Why Stress Can Produce an ADHD-like Profile”
Jay Giedd Chief, Brain Imaging, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute for Mental Health who pioneered structural neuroimaging of ADHD.
Presentation Title: “ADHD: New Views from Brain Imaging”
Torkel Klingberg Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience, Stockholm Brain Institute, Karolinska Institutewho pioneered the role of computer games to improve working memory in children withADHD (CogMed)
Presentation Title: “Development and Training of Working Memory in Children”
Rosemary Tannock Canada Research Chair in Special Education & Adaptive Technology, Univ. of Toronto Professor of Special Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education ( OISE), Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto & Senior Scientist, Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, Hospital for Sick Children
a pioneer in ADHD research and co-developer of integrated multimedia resources on ADHD for teachers
Presentation Title: “ADHD: Beyond Behavior & Curriculum Connections”
There will also be famous speakers and researchers on resilience in the face of depression, anxiety, trauma, or abuse.
Neuroplasticity I think is the hope for mankind. It’s the idea that
…thinking, learning, and acting actually change the brain’s functional anatomy from top to bottom, if not also its physical anatomy.
ADHD is a neurobiological condition. So if you have it, you might want to learn about the neurobiology of ADHD. Or if your doctor/psychiatrist/psychologist hasn’t been adequately trained on ADHD (unfortunately the norm not the exception it seems according to medical professionals who are experienced in dealing with ADHD) you might want to suggest that they check it out.
There will be tutorials in Neuroanatomy, Functional Neuroimaging (fMRI). Here are some other interesting presentations
- A Specialized Systems for Working Memory in the Prefrontal Cortex
- Stress, the Immune System, and Disease: Tales from Psychoneuroimmunology
- Helping Children Become Masters of their Own Behavior through Improving their Cognitive Control, dependent on Prefrontal Cortex
- The Plastic Human Brain: Implications for Translational Neuroscience and Education.
Here’s who’s organizing it.
Adele Diamond -Ph.D. Conference Organizer
Canada Research Chair Tier 1 & Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the Dept. of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) & the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, BC Children’s Hospital Member of the Brain Research Centre, & the Neuroscience & Cognitive Science Programs
Jana Davidson - Conference Co-Organizer MD, FRCP(C)
Acting Head, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, UBC Director, Continuing Professional Development, & Consulting Psychiatrist, Emergency Unit, in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, BC Children’s Hospital Acting Medical Director, Child & Youth Mental Health & Addictions Programs, PHSA
[...] 2) Conference on Brain Development and Learning: Making Sense of the Science (thanks Pete) 3) 1 in 5 veterans found with mental disorder (Boston Globe) 4) Common Medications May Harm Memory in Older People (U.S. News & World Report) 5) Men More Likely to Develop Cognitive Problems (Forbes) For more on these news, and commentary: 1) A Paradigm Shift in Genetics (Philadelphia Inquirer) - "Our understanding of genetics is currently undergoing a paradigm shift," says Melanie Ehrlich, a molecular biologist at the Tulane Cancer Center. "It is now commonly acknowledged among scientists that it is not enough to look to DNA as the sole determinant of heredity." Ehrlich is referring to the emerging field known as epigenetics. - Scientists are now learning that the epigenome is highly sensitive to its environment. The food you eat, the air you breathe, and the stress or happiness you feel can actually alter your genetic makeup - not by changing the sequence of your DNA, but by deciding which genes are expressed. - Biologists have long known that our bodies and behaviors are shaped in part by nature and in part by nurture, but the exact link between gene and environment had always been fuzzy. Now, it is coming into focus: The link is the epigenome. - Epigenetics is opening up a whole new window on the nature of disease. Many cancers, for instance, are not genetic in origin - caused by one or more mutations to our DNA - but epigenetic. "We finally understand that abnormal epigenetic changes are just as important for cancer formation and development as are genetic mutations," Ehrlich says. "Without epigenetic changes, human cancers would probably be rare." The same is believed to be true for autoimmune diseases, diabetes and depression. Comment: this is a superb article on epigenetics and "genetic determinism". Given the growing discussion on the value of genetic testing, we often think the missing question is, "what are people supposed to do once they receive the results"? stress and depression can increase the risk of a variety of mental health problems, vs. good lifestyle habits that can lower it, so companies offering testing and their clients really should be paying attention to that follow-up. More are more biologists are excited about epigenetics, or how our own lives and environments are what turn on and off those genes, getting rid of the idea of genetic determinism (except for a few rare conditions). [...]
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