The symposium, 100 Years of Microglia tooks place as a webinar. It celebrated one century of microglial research through a series of plenary lectures on selected topics in brain physiology and pathology.

Event sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

The ALBA Network interviewed neuroscientists from all over the globe on their research and their experience of diversity in brain sciences.

What are in fact mental disorders? The problems faced in psychiatry have led researchers to reflect on the conceptualisation of mental disorders. Thus, some authors have argued for a neurocentric conceptualisation, suggesting to understand them as, precisely, brian disorders. However, this view implies some problems difficult to solve and reconcile to current data

Opinion article produced by FENS-Kavli Scholars (FKNE), and published in the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN).

Talk by Dr Thiago Arzua, Columbia University

Neuroscientists sit at a unique position, studying the same organ that is responsible for so much of our personalities, thoughts, and opinions. It is not surprising then, that from its origins, interpersonal and societal issues were directly linked back to neuroscience findings. What sometimes is missed is how societal norms and expectations affect the research itself. In the case of systemic racial inequalities, that gets translated into poorly designed or poorly interpreted studies that tend to serve as tools for promoting racist policies. With that in mind, this talk will explore the historical origins and the modern-day forms by which what we call neuroracism takes place. From phrenology to eugenics, to still-believed myths of Black people’s higher tolerance for pain, neuroracism is not just persistent, as it is also prevalent. Understanding how these biases are formed, and what we can do as a field to combat them is essential for a more just and equitable neuroscience.

The Corpus Curiosum series was produced with the support of FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET)

Talk by Dr Pascale Tremblay, Université Laval

The claim that “Language is special,” and thus encapsulated in a specialized language network, has informed cognitive neuroscience research since pioneer work of researchers in the late 19 th century. This talk aims to provide a snapshot of the state of knowledge in language neurobiology with a focus on demonstrating the failure of this classical viewpoint to capture the essence of contemporary language neurobiology and demonstrate how this viewpoint, which remains dominant to this day, has contributed to maintaining a narrow empirical and theoretical research focus and to perpetuating a disconnect between common understanding of language neurobiology and the actual state of knowledge in the field.

The Corpus Curiosum series was produced with the support of FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET)

Opinion article produced by FENS-Kavli Scholars (FKNE), and published in the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN).

Developed by the FENS Committee on Higher Education and Training (CHET) in cooperation with the SfN Neuroscience Training Committee (NTC), the Core Competencies in European Graduate Neuroscience Training are meant as guidance for:

– faculty and programmes that develop and evaluate the training they provide to students,

– trainees to assess the skills they have acquired in a MSc or PhD programme, track their progress, or provide awareness of the requirements for potential future training opportunities.

Learn how to identify and fix common problems with figures in scientific publications with this FENS Friday webinar organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET) and the Communication Committee.

In this special event, we will hear about credibility initiatives that have the potential to increase the reproducibility, replicability, and reliability neuroscience research, which will not only benefit scientific progress in the long-run, but also address a major cause for the poor mental health of research. Organised at FENS Forum 2020 by the British Neuroscience Association and FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

Are most published research findings false? Why should we care? And is there anything we can do about it?

This workshop covers the wide-ranging issues that contribute to irreproducibility. It focuses on the bias in dissemination of experimental data from the point of view of journals, funding agencies, and the general media.

Organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

This FENS Forum 2018 event discussed current situation of women and men in science, including gender statistics related to research funding, ways of combining career progress with family and parenting, and ongoing initiatives to support women and men in science. Event organised by the FKNE and the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

This webinars focuses on the concept of dendritic spines as learning hubs presented by two outstanding speakers Prof. Javier DeFelipe (ES) and Prof. Valentin Nägerl (FR).

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the Spanish founder of modern neuroscience, was the first researcher to identify dendritic spines as important neuronal structures and the role that spines play in learning and memory. Before, these tiny structures were considered mere artefacts.

More than a century after Cajal’s discovery, neuroscientists know that spines play an important role in memory acquisition and consolidation, and are the topic of cutting-edge research combining structural, physiological, and modelling studies.

The FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET) and History Committee have organised a new series of online webinars, “How concepts and techniques emerged in neuroscience: a historical perspective”, which aims to pair current trends in neuroscience, from revolutionary techniques or neuroscience concepts, with their historical roots and relevant historical figures in the field.

Talk by Dr Peter Hacker, Oxford University

Mereology is the logic of part/whole relations. One kind of mereological mistake is that of misguidedly attributing properties of wholes to their parts. Some holistic properties cannot licitly be ascribed to parts: aeroplanes fly, but their engines cannot be said to fly; antique clocks keep time but their fusées cannot be said to keep time. A widespread mistake in cognitive neuroscience is to attribute to the human brain properties that can be intelligibly attributed only to the living human being as a whole. The brain is commonly held to perceive, to think, to feel emotions, and to intend to do things. These are category mistakes that lead to widespread fallacies in the reasoning of neuroscientists. The rationale of the mereological fallacy in neuroscience will be explained and objections will be refuted.

The Corpus Curiosum series was produced with the support of FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET)

There are many ways in which FENS can benefit you as an early career researcher! Find out more in this graphic for you to download.

Graphic by Engage Visually.

Effects of early life stress are found to be dependent on many factors, including sex and genetic background, the age of early exposure, and the age and context within which the long-term impact is examined. Organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET), hosted on Neuronline.

This webinar focuses on how neural circuits underlying innate behaviours develop and how they modulate parental behaviour in adulthood.

Organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

This FENS Friday live webinar provided state-of-the-art knowledge on the microbiome and its influence on immunity and the nervous system from gestation until adulthood.

This FENS Friday webinar provided a landscape perspective overclassical and modern tools for tract-tracing purposes. The goal is to provide young trainees with the best tips, ideas and background information required for selecting the neuroanatomical tracer or the best combination for a given experimental paradigm.

In this FENS Friday webinar were discussed the challenges presented by the blood brain barrier to CNS biomarker discovery and use, the potential of extracellular vesicles as novel markers of brain function and dysfunction, and the clinical relevance of established and novel blood biomarkers of neuropsychiatric disorders and brain injury. The limitations of the use of blood-borne CNS biomarkers both in the laboratory and the clinic and provide insights into the future development of novel biomarkers of brain health and disease were also explored.

The webinar was organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

Have you ever wondered what our brains do while we are sleeping? Do all brains sleep the same? What makes their experiences differ from one another and what are the determining factors? Watch the new FENS Friday webinar “Brain on Sleep” and delve into the fascinating world of sleep research and its different states and functions.

The FENS Friday webinar “Brain development and neuropsychiatric disorders” presented the state-of-the-art knowledge on the brain’s development and how genetic disturbances and/or environmental influences are thought to underlie several neuropsychiatric disorders. Organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

Epilepsy is not only a common, often devastating disease but also a comorbidity of many neurological disorders, in which control of seizures may significantly improve quality of life and even prognosis. Recent years have witnessed major advancements in the identification of the mechanisms of disease that hold the promise to lead to new treatments. Organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET), this FENS Friday webinar provided an overview of these findings and of their potential implications not only for epilepsy but also for other neurological diseases.

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS SfN Winter School 2015 on Neurobiology of language and communication (held in Austria). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS Hertie Winter School 2016 on Memory mechanisms in humans: from physiology to behavior and computational models (held in Austria). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS Hertie Winter School 2017 on Neural Control of Behaviour – Series 1: Navigation (held in Austria). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

FENS actively supports graduate education, postgraduate training and professional development in neuroscience in Europe (online flyer).

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS SfN Summer School 2014 on Neurodevelopmental Psychiatric Disorders (held in Italy). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

This playlist contains lectures and interviews taken at the FENS SfN Summer School 2015 on Shared mechanisms and specificity in neurodegenerative diseases (held in Italy). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS SfN Summer School on Chemical Neuromodulation: Neurobiological, Neurocomputational, Behavioural and Clinical Aspects (held in Italy). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

Through its activities, grants and awards, FENS supports the education and continued training of neuroscientists, with a particular focus on early career neuroscientists. Learn more with this video

In this FENS webinar, four speakers discussed aspects of computing that are particularly relevant for neuroscience, as well as different ways we should teach them to the new generation of neuroscientists.

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS SfN Summer School 2016 on Cellular mechanisms and networks in addiction (held in Italy). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

This playlist contains lectures given during the FENS SfN Summer School 2018 on Neural stem cells, brain orga0ids and brain repair (held in Italy). The interview with the School’s scientific organisers provides an introduction.

Opinion article produced by FENS-Kavli Scholars (FKNE), and published in the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN).

Authors: Myrto Denaxa & Domna Karagogeos.

Material produced under the FENS Committee of Higher Education and Training (CHET) umbrella, hosted on Neuronline.

Interest in myelinated cells for neurobiologists has essentially been driven by research on demyelinating disorders. The majority of myelin is formed postnatally in the rodents and by adulthood in humans. Although myelin plasticity in response to neuronal activity is an old observation, its extent has been appreciated relatively recently. However, over recent years, myelinating cells have been found to participate to neural plasticity, being modified by neural activity, and in turn modulating the activity of neurons, and possibly vasculature.

It is now accepted that myelin can be shaped by environmental stimuli and undergo significant structural changes throughout life. This fine-tuning mechanism enhances neuronal function by orchestrating adjustments in myelin structure and axo-glial interactions. The potential link between this adaptive myelination and neuropsychiatric conditions is an active area of research. New directions in myelin research would be highlighted in this webinar.

Webinar organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training on the SfN digital platform, Neuronline.

The webinar discusses mechanisms involved in post-ischemic brain adaptation. The knowledge of these mechanisms may provide information to bring light on those molecular pathways involved in brain protection. Organised by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training under the signed agreement with the Neuroscience Training Committee of SfN; webinar available on Neuronline, the SfN online platform.

Talk by Katharina Bögl & Sandra Naumann, Scholar Minds

Although many academics love their research and experience fulfilment from various tasks of their profession, mounting evidence suggests that working in academia might contribute to mental health problems. We at Scholar Minds, a group of early-career researchers (ECRs) of Berlin’s universities and research institutions, strive to ensure the mental health of Berlin’s early career researchers by improving the status-quo on an individual and institutional level. Based on our Scholar Minds surveys, we will first provide an overview of ECRs’ current mental health status. Secondly, we want to unravel unhelpful thoughts and habits which ultimately impact ECRs’ mental health and show how to build helpful habits to overcome challenging times.

The Corpus Curiosum series was produced with the support of FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET)