Connectionists: Save the date! The 1st Israeli Computational Psychiatry Workshop, January 29-30, 2020

[Yael Niv]

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Save the date! The 1st Israeli Computational Psychiatry Workshop

January 29-30, 2020 at Geha Mental Health Center, Petach Tikva, Israel 
(Registration opens December 15th)

Organizers: Eran Eldar, Ronny Geva, Yael Niv, Gal Shoval 
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The burdens of mental illness on both individuals and society are painful and immense. Yet psychiatry is in a crisis, as the development of new treatments has stalled. A large part of the problem is that the diagnosis of mental illnesses and disorders is based on self-reported symptoms rather than quantifiable laboratory tests.

In the last two decades there has been tremendous progress in our understanding of the computational and neural processes that link reward, evaluation, affect, memory and decision making – the exact processes that are impaired in psychopathology. Recognizing that a computational understanding of these neurocognitive processes offers particular promise for bridging biology to behavior in mental illness, a new field called “computational psychiatry” has emerged and is gaining traction.

The goal of this meeting is to bring together leading researchers in this novel field, from Israel and abroad, as well as clinicians whose research is theory-driven and who are interested in collaborating with computational neuroscientists. Our aim is to spur research in computational psychiatry in Israel and to provide a setting that will be conducive to creating new international collaborations that have a potential to lead to breakthroughs in our understanding and treatment of mental illness.

The meeting will be held at Geha, a world-renowned center for treatment and research of mental illness, and in cooperation with the Israeli Society for Biological Psychiatry (ISPB). The format of the meeting will focus on short invited talks with ample discussion time, as well as breakout sessions and informal time scheduled for making connections with colleagues.

Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to register and attend the meeting (registration will open in December, once we know the status of our funding applications, and can set registration costs accordingly). Please save the dates in the meantime -- preference in registration will be given to those who can fully attend both days. 

Invited Speakers (in alphabetical order):

Ran Barzilay – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia & UPenn Medicine 
Renana Eitan – Hadassa Medical Center & Hebrew University 
Ronny Geva – Bar Ilan University 
Doron Gothelf – Sheba Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Division & Tel Aviv University 
Marc Guitart-Masip – Karolinska Institute 
Eran Eldar – Hebrew University 
Ruth Feldman – Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya 
Catherine Hartley – NYU 
Jonathan Huppert – Hebrew University & UPenn 
Quentin Huys – UCL 
Sheri Johnson – Berkeley 
Amir Krivoy – Geha Mental Health Center & Tel Aviv University 
Mor Nahum – Hebrew University 
Yael Niv – Princeton University 
Chiara Nosarti – King's College London 
Roy Salomon – Bar Ilan University 
Gal Shoval – Geha Mental Health Center & Tel Aviv University 
Gil Zalsman – Geha Mental Health Center & Tel Aviv University