Treating psychiatric disorders is one of the key challenges of our time. Recent advances in technology and research have led to new insights in the fields of neuropsychiatry from genetics to behavior, and from basic animal to human clinical and cognitive studies, that have direct consequences for our understanding and treatment of disease.

The meeting will cover both basic neuroscientific and genetic approaches as well as translational topics in neuropsychiatry, bringing together thought leaders within these fields and providing a forum for sharing and disseminating the latest advances and provide a common ground for cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration between the fields to understand the pathogenesis of these disorders and improve diagnosis and therapeutics.  

Our topics will include:

• Genetic and molecular disease mechanisms 
• Disease modeling 
• Neural circuits 
• Neuroscientific tools and translational implications
• Cognitive neuropsychiatry

Symposium topics and key questions that they will address that bridge the interest of both basic neuroscientists to clinicians:

• Genetic and molecular mechanisms

  What can genetics tell us about the likely etiology of these disorders, their diagnosis, prognosis, and options for treatment and potential prevention?

• Neural circuits

  Are the behavioral manifestations of these disorders recapitulated in models that can inform treatment and understanding of neurological underpinnings of disease? Are there hallmarks of neural circuitry that can help stratify the disorders?

• Disease Modelling

  What are the current and future models for psychiatric disorders: Can complex diseases be modeled (syndrome/symptom approach), and how will these models shape our understanding of its etiology and their translational potential to design novel and effective treatment options for patients?

• Treatment mechanisms and application

  How are current avenues for treatment faring, what can they tell us about what more needs to be done to improve treatment and understanding of these complex disorders, and is prevention possible?

• Human cognition and clinical studies

  Working directly with patients, what do we know about the range of symptoms, co-morbidity, timing of diagnosis, and efficacy of therapies based on patient studies? What can we learn from normal cognitive development and how it becomes pathological?

Please note, the following speakers will be presenting virtually and will not be present onsite in Sitges, Spain: Karl Deisseroth, Guoping Feng, Jonathan Flint, Hailan Hu, Sergiu Pasca, Beatriz Rico.