Women in Amazonian Neuroscience: Your Career Matters

Event Description:

The dissemination of scientific knowledge to the general public is a powerful tool of persuasion where communication works as an instrument not only for the divulgation of information but, above all, for the formation of scientific culture. Researchers from different areas of neuroscience tell about some of the difficulties they face and their achievements over their academic career.
WORKSHOP INFORMATION
The workshop is targeted to undergraduate students with no prior experience in neuroscience fields.
What students are going to learn?
The workshop and conferences will cover an intense 7 hours curriculum designed to give students a basic comprehension of neuroanatomy, neuroscience techniques, and some brain disease. The workshop programming will cover basic concepts of neuroanatomy pathways organization and the use of tractography in images from the human brain, and the mood and anxiety disorders. Throughout the workshop, participants will learn neuroscience through lectures and hands-on sessions, supported by a team of mentors.
What do students need to bring?
The joy of learning and lots of questions! Also, attendees are expected to bring their laptops. We might be able to assist participants who do not have their computers. During the workshops, we will help everyone install the necessary software on their computers.
What is the format of the workshop?
On March 18 from 02:00 pm to 06:00 pm we will receive participants on groups of 5-10 students in different classrooms adapted to each workshop. The goal is to offer everyone a pleasant environment to practice and learn neuroscience. The low student to mentor ratio (5-10:1) will ensure that every student gets an opportunity to ask questions in person and gets individualized instruction during practical sessions. After the workshops section, we will invite the students to make a coffee break, and after that to proceed to the auditor where the conferences will be presented. Each workshop will last at least 3-4 hours and the conferences will have half an hour-long each one. Mentors are helping to co-organize the event, teach the curriculum and provide one-on-one assistance to participants.
Who are we?
Mentors and instructors are all current professors at CESUPA. We all like and practice neuroscience and teach neuroanatomy and neurophysiology in a medical course. We are affiliated with to Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior, with some experience well successfully organized similar events in the past.
PROGRAMMING
WORKSHOPS (03/18/2020 – from 02:00 pm to 06:00 pm)
#1 Workshop: “How to transform 2D images of nerve bundles of the human brain into 3D images: offline processing of diffusion tractography in magnetic resonance.”
Claudio Eduardo Correa Teixeira, Ph.D.
In this workshop, participants will initially be introduced to the theory of diffusion, with a brief explanation of the basic physics of brain mapping by Diffusion-Weighted Image (DWI, from English Diffusion-Weighted Imaging) and obtaining the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC, from English Apparent Diffusion Coefficient), about the transformation of DWI data into images by diffusion tensor (DTI, from English Diffusion Tensor Imaging), and about the computational reconstruction in 3D images of bundles, fascicles and nerve fibers of the human brain (or tractography) from of DTI data in 2D. Then, participants will be instructed to follow a practical tutorial on their computers, to carry out in practice what they observed in theory.
#2 Workshop: “Reconstructing the ascending pathways: from the periphery to the primary somesthetic cortex.
Walther Augusto de Carvalho, Ph.D.
Celice Cordeiro de Souza Bergh Pereira, Ph.D.
Rosana Telma Lopes Afonso, Ph.D.
In this workshop, students will reconstruct step by step the somatosensory pathways or systems. The ascending tracts refer to the neural pathways by which sensory information from the peripheral nerves is transmitted to the cerebral cortex. Low-cost material representations of the spinal cord, brainstem, thalamus, and primary somesthetic cortex will be made. Different colored cotton threads can be passed through the models of the neuroanatomical structures to represent the epicritic and protopathic pathways.
#3 Workshop: “Mood and Anxiety Disorders: neuroanatomical and clinical correlation.
Fabiola de Carvalho Chaves de Siqueira Mendes, Ph.D.
The purpose of the meeting is to address the theme of mood and anxiety disorders, raising its neurological bases, as well as the correlation between the brain areas affected and the clinical patients and the available therapeutic options.
CONFERENCES (03/18/2020 – from 06:30 pm to 09:00 pm)
#1 Conference: “An encounter with neuroscience.”
Fabiola de Carvalho Chaves de Siqueira Mendes, Ph.D.
#2 Conference: “Care and welfare to mitigate the pain and suffering of experimental animals”
Rosa Helena Chaves, Ph.D.
#3 Conference: “Experimental spinal cord injuries and stem cell treatment.”
Celice Cordeiro de Souza Bergh Pereira, Ph.D.
#4 Conference: “Application of natural resources with neurogenic and neuroprotective potential.”
Rosana Telma Lopes Afonso, Ph.D.