In June, 2002 there will be a meeting consisting of a series of workshops focusing on """"""""The role of the ventral striatal network in emotional processing: regulation of positive and negative states."""""""" The conference will take place at the Congres Hotel Leeuwenhorst, Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands. The Principal Investigator is Suzanne N. Haber, and the co-organizers are: Drs. Barry Everitt, Anthony Grace, Henk Groenewegen, Ann Kelley, Jacqueline McGinty, Bita Moghaddam, Celeste Napier, Cyriel Pennartz, Linda Porrino, and Daniel Weinberger. To stimulate active, informal discussion, the meeting will be relatively small. In preparation for the meeting, six focus groups have been created to develop the topics for the workshops and prepare the workbook. The six groups are: anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, behavior, clinical, and genomics/proteomics. The goal of each focus group is to address three issues prior to the meeting: 1. Summarize the current state of knowledge for the each research area; 2. Develop questions that each focus group would like to raise for consideration by other focus groups; and 3. Develop questions that address broad issues that cut across the focus groups. These will form the basis for meeting workshops. Communication will take place through our web site and internet message boards. A meeting workbook will be developed containing background material and focus groups summaries for use as a tool for the participants at the meeting. The workshops will be an open forum, led by two discussion leaders, representing different focus groups. Sessions will begin with a brief summary of the question(s) to be addressed, including a summary of how they were formed and the relevant background material. Following this opening, workshops will be devoted to active participation from all attendees, addressing new questions and directions that cut across the specific areas of expertise. This unique format, which was very successful at our last meeting, encourages free exchange of ideas to address the question """"""""what is the role of the ventral striatal network in emotional processing?
