2025 Karger Workshop - "Evolution of cortico-hippocampal circuitry in vertebrates & JBJC Annual Meeting – UC San Diego Park & Market 13th and 14th November - CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Alexandra de Sousa
We thank you for your proposal submissions for the Karger Workshop to be held on the 13th November in San Diego. We are pleased to announce that the 37th Karger Workshop in Evolutionary Neuroscience is entitled:
"Evolution of cortico-hippocampal circuitry in vertebrates" and is organized by Menno Witter, Daniel Reznik and Kari Hoffman.
Episodic memory is one of the most complex cognitive functions allowing humans to recall the past, to orient in the present and to plan for the future. Multiple lines of research argue that episodic memory is not uniquely human and is present in other species as well. At the neural level, episodic memory critically depends on the hippocampus and its interactions with the rest of the cerebral cortex. Intriguingly, in mammals, the hippocampal region largely preserved its gross anatomical structure and functional properties throughout 200 million years of evolution. This notion is particularly striking given the dramatic divergence in the size, structural differentiation and functional specialization of the cerebral cortex in the mammalian lineage. Other vertebrates, such as fish and birds, have as well a brain structure that is structurally and functionally considered a homologue of the mammalian hippocampus. While previous research aimed to understand the differences in animal mnemonic cognition by focusing on the levels of differentiation within the cerebral cortex, one of the understudied factors potentially underpinning the way different species perform hippocampus-dependent tasks might be the type of information processed by the hippocampus. We thus suggest that the hippocampus in all species performs similar computations albeit on dramatically different types of input.
In this workshop, we aim to leverage the contrast between the preserved hippocampus and the intriguing diversification of cortex by bringing together experts working on hippocampal connectivity and function in different vertebrate species to provide a large-scale view on episodic memory. To examine the role of the hippocampus and associated neocortex across vertebrate taxa, their functional properties and homologues in birds and fish will be discussed. The goal of the workshop is to showcase the insights from adopting a cross-species perspective on studying the link between anatomy and function of the hippocampus and neocortex in support of episodic memories.
Speakers:
1. Loreta Medina, University of Lleida, Spain, email: loreta...@udl.cat - Evolution of the pallium and the amygdalo-hippocampal projections
2. Cosme Salas, University of Sevilla, Spain- Limbic networks for memory and for emotions in teleost fish
3. Anat Barnea, Open University, Israel, - The effects of light pollution on brain plasticity in birds: Evidence for sex-dependent resilience of the hippocampus
4. Sarah Woolley, Columbia University, USA, Interactions of auditory memory and species rules in development of learned vocal communication
5. Onur Güntürkün, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. - Convergence of brain and cognition in mammals and birds
6. Menno Witter, NTNU, Norway, Comparative structure of cortico-entorhino-hippocampal networks in non-primates
7. Kari Hoffman, Vanderbilt University, USA, - Functional organization of content across hippocampal-cortical circuits in primates
8. Daniel Reznik, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany, email: The evolutionary trajectory of hippocampal-cortical circuitry in humans
9. Special Invited Guest: Christian Doeller, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany, TBD
Venue details for the Karger Workshop and JBJC Annual Meeting:
We have found a modern (and affordable) venue in downtown San Diego. We are, therefore, pleased to announce that the 37th Karger Workshop in Evolutionary Neuroscience and the 44th Annual Meeting of the JB Johnston Club will be held at UC San Diego Park & Market(parkandmarket.ucsd.edu) on the 13th & 14th of November. This facility is conveniently located within walking distance to the San Diego Convention Center. We also have a local agent working on a nearby reasonably priced courtesy hotel room block.
Call for Abstracts: JBJC Annual Meeting – Deadline 15th July
Presentations for the annual meeting will be selected by the program committee from submitted abstracts. The abstract form for 2025 is available on our website and should be mailed to Andrew Iwanuik (aniw...@gmail.com) by the 15th July 2025. JBJC presentations are short talks (~ 20 minutes) meant to present a comparative viewpoint not available in other venues. We give preference to synthetic talks or those with a relevant theoretical overview. We also invite speculative or divergent viewpoints and encourage talks that will provoke discussion. Note that you must be a member to submit an abstract. If you need to join or renew your membership, you may do so on our website: https://www.jbjclub.org/join-today.html. Please feel free to share this with colleagues and students that might not normally present at or attend our meetings but should! We look forward to a wonderful Karger workshop and accompanying set of talks for the Annual meeting. Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions.
We look forward to seeing you all San Diego!
Chris Heesy PEO JBJC