Submitted by Administrator on Mon, 20/08/2012 - 10:14
Summer lectures given by the Head of Department
During the summer, Professor Robbins presented papers at a number of major conferences across Europe. At the International Neuropsychology Society Mid Year Meeting, which took place in Oslo from the 27th - 30th June, Professor Robbins gave a lecture entitled Cognitive Enhancing Drugs: Prospects and Problems. The central theme of the Mid Year Meeting was 'The Changing Brain', with the emphasis on intervention, treatment and recovery. The meeting, jointly organised with the 11th Nordic Meeting in Neuropsychology and the Federation of European Neuropsychological Societies, was the largest conference concerning brain and behaviour relationships ever to have been staged in Norway.
In July, Professor Robbins presented his paper Neural and Neurochemical Decomposition of Decision-making Cognition in Humans and Other Animals at the Gordon Research Conference on the Neurobiology of Cognition. The conference was held in Barga, Italy from the 8th - 13th July. The Gordon Conference series gives researchers and students a forum for the interchange of ideas on the neurobiology of cognition.
Professor Robbins presented the European Brain and Behaviour Society/ Behavioural Brain Research Prize Lecture at the 8th FENS (Federation of European Neuroscience 
Societies) Forum of Neuroscience 2012 (pictured, right). The event, which took place in Barcelona from 14th – 18th July, and was organised by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, showcased major advances in brain development, learning and memory, behaviour and emotions, spinal cord injury and genetics.
The keynote lecture presented by Professor Robbins, ‘Neural Basis of Impulsivity and Compulsivity: Neuropsychiatric Implications’, was concerned with behavioural neuroendophenotypes, relevant to neuropsychiatry, and focussed on "… impulsivity and compulsivity, and their utility for understanding the aetiology and possible treatment of drug addiction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder."