During the last decade there is a renewed biomedical interest in the crucial role of social environmental factors in mediating human disease risk. Obviously, this is based on the fact that mammals live in complex social systems that are maintained by interactions between conspecifics. Although evolution has shaped these social structures for optimal survival by favoring affiliative and cooperative exchanges, social interactions are often the main source of serious conflicts and insidious stress that negatively impact physical and mental health of certain individuals. Social stressors ranging from social isolation to social instability to social defeat/subordination recruits a highly conserved (neuro)biological machinery principally positioned to effectively deal with these adverse social life situations. Yet, disruptions in the fine-tuned molecular regulation of these neural and neuroendocrine systems may lead to breakdown of adaptation resulting in bodily and mental diseases. What goes awry in the body and brain when the response to social stress stops being a healthy reaction to social life’s inevitable challenges and starts to become a chronic illness? Why do seemingly similar social stressors and adverse social life histories make one person sick but leave another unaffected? And how can we leverage an ever-increasing understanding of the brain and behavior to design new ways to alleviate the suffering of people afflicted by stress-related diseases and, ultimately, prevent them altogether? These are longstanding questions that continue to occupy the interest and work of both clinical and preclinical scientists in a wide variety of disciplines. Current translational research across rodents and humans on social stress-related disorders stand out as a field that is producing discoveries that illuminate mechanisms of vulnerability and pathophysiology at a brisk rate. Hence, the main purpose of this workshop is to provide an opportunity to learn about the most recent and often unpublished findings, discuss these current developments, and meet and interact with internationally distinguished researchers and scientists in this important research field.
University of Groningen (The Netherlands)
Università di Parma (Italy)
University of Ulm (Germany)
University of Groningen (The Netherlands)
University of Dresden (Germany)
Università di Parma (Italy)
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (USA)
University of Texas, Austin (USA)
University of Toronto (Canada)
Smith College, Northampton (USA)
University of Cork (Ireland)
Free University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
University of Mὔnster (Germany)
Università di Roma 2 (Italy)
Ohio State University, Columbus (USA)
Università di Milano (Italy)
Università di Roma 1, (Italy)
University of South Carolina, Columbia, (USA)