This year's JBC Annual Retreat, was held in Mitzpe Ramon, Tuesday, May 23 -Thursday, May 25.  The Retreat was a great opportunity to meet and greet, colleagues from multi-disciplinary fields, share and exchange ideas, as well as, form collaborations. Over 40 JBC members, as well as, local and international guests, presented an interdisciplinary view on the current issues in Brain Science, (Click here for program details). 55 students participated in the Poster Exhibition Contest. 10 students were chosen to present their posters at our annual Poster Blitz. In addition to the lectures, participants were able to experience the Ramon Crater via walking and bicycle tours. After a BBQ dinner in the crater, we watched the sun set and viewed the beautiful stars through telescopes.

Congratulations to Blitz Winners:

1st Prize of 4000 shekels to Roey Schurr, (PI Aviv Mezer), for his poster: Microstructure-Informed Tractography of the Human Optic Radiations in Vivo

2nd Prize of 2500 shekels to Adina Hazan, (PI Avi Priel), for her poster: Endogenous Inflammatory Metabolites Weakly Activate TRPV1 to Generate Robust Neuronal Firing

3rd Prize of 1000 shekels to Michael Peer, (PI Shahar Arzy), Evidence for Functional Networks within the Human White Matter

A very special thanks to all of the speakers, who took time to present talks, during the retreat.

Special Guest Lecturers:

Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky, Weizmann Institute, “Neural Codes for Natural Navigation in the Hippocampal Formation of Bats”

Prof. Ran Nathan, Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, Hebrew University, "Movement Ecology: A Brief Introduction to Brain Researchers" 

Speakers:

Prof. Ariel Knafo, Department of Psychology, Hebrew University, “Empathy - Genetic and Environmental Factors”

Dr. Shir Atzil, Department of Psychology, Hebrew University, “The Chemistry of Human Bonding: A Role for Dopamine”

Dr. Salomon Israel, Department of Psychology, Hebrew University, “Oxytocin and vasopressin modulate human social behavior”

Dr. Judah Koller, Department of Education, Hebrew University, “Approaches to Parsing the Heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Young Children”

Prof. Masha Niv, Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, Hebrew University, “The bitter taste of molecules: relation to toxicity and effect on emotions”

Dr. Dani Rokni, Department of Medical Neurobiology, Hebrew University, “Detection of Odors against a Background”

Dr. Yoram Ben-Shaul, Department of Medical Biology, Hebrew University, “The Vomeronasal System: Hardwired Processing of Pheromone Signals?”

Dr. Alon Zaslaver, Dept. of Genetics, Hebrew University, “Calculating Derivatives-Worms Can Too!”

Dr. Ilana Nisky, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben Gurion University, “Motor Learning Impacts Car-to-Driver Handover in Automatic Vehicles”

Dr. Dana Cohen, The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, “The Cerebellum – A Key Node in the Movement Production Network”

Dr. David Arkadir, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, “Dystonia - A Link between Movement Disorder and Risk Taking”

Dr. Mati Joshua, ELSC, Hebrew University, “Choice and Vigor in Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements”

Prof. Eran Meshorer, Department of Genetics, Hebrew University, “Modeling Neurodegenerative Diseases using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells”

Dr. Josh Goldberg, Department of Medical Neurobiology, Hebrew University, "Physiological Responses to Alpha-synuclein in Neurons at Risk in Parkinson’s Disease"

Prof. Ehud Cohen, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Hebrew University, "Two Maladies, One Mechanism: The Roles of Cyclophilins in the Development of a Familial Prion Disorder and of Alzheimer’s Disease"

Prof. Ruth Gabizon, Department of Neurology, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, "Novel Formulations of Pomegranate Seed Oil for the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases"

Prof. Hermona Soreq, Department of Molecular Neuroscience, ELSC, Hebrew University, "Dynamic Changes in Murine Forebrain miR-211 Expression Associate with Cholinergic Imbalances and Epileptiform Activity"

Prof. Udi Zohary, Department of Neurobiology, Institute of Life Sciences & ELSC, Hebrew University, "Learning to See through the Saccadic Veil"

Prof. Adi Mizrahi, Department of Neurobiology, Institute of Life Sciences & ELSC, Hebrew Universit, "Plasticity in the Mouse Auditory Cortex following Perceptual Learning"

Prof. Merav Ahissar, Department of Psychology & ELSC, Hebrew University,“What do we Learn when we Practice a Task?”

Prof. Eli Nelken, Department of Neurobiology, Institute of Life Sciences, & ELSC, Hebrew University,“Neural Inconstancy and Perceptual Constancy: What do Brains have to Learn in Order to Perceive?”

Click here to see all the pictures from the 2017 Retreat.