Scientists to discuss biological links to emotions

The slightest variation in the normal development of a child's brain may determine her temperament, potentially influencing whether she is sociable or reserved, high-strung or easygoing. Scientists suspect that more extreme deviations in brain development may lead to serious problems, including disorders such as hyperactivity, autism and schizophrenia.

Seven of the world's leading researchers will gather in Madison April 26-27 to discuss various aspects of this powerful cause and effect phenomenon. More than 300 professionals and students will be on hand for the event, the seventh annual Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion. This year's program centers on "The Developmental Neurobiology of Emotion and Emotional Disorders."

"We are discovering that many biological factors can contribute fundamentally to a person's emotional makeup. These factors may include lower activity in a specific area of the brain, elevated levels of certain hormones or a paucity of signal pathways between brain regions," says Ned Kalin, director of the Medical School's HealthEmotions Research Institute.

Understanding exactly how these factors influence individual emotional development can be crucial to the future development of potential treatments.

"Knowledge of these biological factors should also help us better identify who might be vulnerable to them, giving us greater opportunities to intervene early in life to treat problems before they become harmful," says Richard Davidson, HERI co-principal scientist.

The roster of symposium speakers includes: Jerome Kagan of Harvard University, who will speak on "Temperamental Contributions to the Variation in the Emotion of Uncertainty to Unfamiliar Events"; Judith Rapaport, National Institute of Mental Health, "Brain Development in Healthy, Hyperactive and Schizophrenic Children and Adolescents"; David Amaral, University of California-Davis, "The Amygdala, Social Behavior and Autism."

Elizabeth Gould, Princeton University, will speak on "The Effects of Stress on Hippocampal Development and Plasticity"; Huda Akil, University of Michigan, "Searching for the Biological Basis of Individual Differences in Emotional Reactivity"; Bradley S. Peterson, Yale University School of Medicine, "Developmental Neuroimaging Studies of Emotional and Self-Regulatory Disorders"; and Kalin, "The Neurobiology of Fear and the Anxious Endophenotype."

The HealthEmotions Research Institute has sponsored the annual symposium for four years. First started by Davidson in 1995, the symposia have come to attract international attention as the preeminent annual meeting on the neuroscience of emotion.

The meeting does more than serve as the setting for presentations on the latest findings by the finest minds in the field. An equally important objective is exposing students at all levels to the discipline.

"One aspect of the Institute's mission is to train a new generation of scientists equipped to address the complex, interdisciplinary relations involved in the study of emotions, a field that has tremendous potential for improving health," says Kalin. "We are committed to attracting the brightest new talent to the symposium. The Travel Award Program helps us do that."

The institute-sponsored program provides travel and accommodation support for 85 post-doctoral trainees, medical students, residents, and graduate and undergraduate students from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe.

UW-Madison students enrolled in psychology seminar #711, taught by Davidson and Hill Goldsmith, another HERI-affiliated faculty member, also highlight the educational emphasis of the symposium. All semester the students have been immersed in journal articles by the seven scientists who will be speaking at the meeting, forming a detailed picture of each presenter's area of expertise. Armed with this knowledge, the students will lead discussion sessions following each expert's talk and will be prepared to offer their own questions and observations.

The HealthEmotions Research Institute was created in 1996, one of the first research organizations of its kind at a major university. Its mission is to scientifically examine emotions and their far-ranging effects on health, particularly the impact of positive emotions.

Researchers at the Institute are striving to: identify brain mechanisms and chemicals that control and express positive emotions; describe factors that determine individual differences in the experience of positive emotions; establish how neural circuits involved in positive emotions are linked to the cardiovascular, immune, endocrine and gastrointestinal systems; and understand the degree to which systems involved in positive emotion and their links to physiological systems are malleable.