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338-th «Stress and Behavior» Conference
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8-TH MULTIDISCIPLINARY INTERNATIONAL
Conference of Biological Psychiatry «Stress and Behavior»
Centre for Physiology and Biochemical Research (CPBR), The Russian Society for BioPsychiatry (RSBP), Institute of Experimental Medicine RAMS, I.P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology RAS,
Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia
Proceedings of the 8th Multidisciplinary International Conference of Biological Psychiatry «Stress and Behavior»
(Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 17-19 May 2004)
Welcoming address from the Conference Chair
DEAR COLLEAGUES!
I am delighted to welcome the delegates of the 8 th Multidisciplinary conference of biological psychiatry «Stress and behavior» which in 2004 we held in St. Petersburg — Russia's other capital and one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
We, neuroscientists, have to be very proud. Because we study the most challenging and the most complex object in the biomedical sciences — the brain and behavior. For us, there is nothing more exciting than the Brain and its — still undiscovered — abilities. 2004 is a special year since we celebrate the 100 th anniversary to Ivan Pavlov's Nobel prize in physiology and medicine (1904). Our conference, in fact, opens a number of events held in Russia this year, dedicated to this occasion and paying a tribute to the Scientist whose ideas influence many generations of neuroscientists.
We acknowledge the key role of the Russian Society for Biopsychiatry (RSBP) and the Ukrainian Society for Biological Psychiatry (USBP) in organizing the Conference and setting up its exciting multidisciplinary program. It gives me a pleasure to mention collaboration with CIANS, the Problem Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences on energy metabolism, the Russian Sleep Research Society, and many research institutes which contributed both intellectually and organizationally to the Conference. We would also like to thank the Institute of Experimental medicine, the Institute of Physiology, the Military Medical Academy, and the Museum of Medical History, for organizing and hosting our specialized conference symposia.
On behalf of the Conference Organizing Committee, I cordially welcome all specialists in the field of biological psychiatry, representing 30 countries worldwide, to our Conference. So let us stay open-minded and enjoy our
international multidisciplinary forum as well as the company of new friends and colleagues.
100 years ago, concluding his Nobel lecture, Pavlov noted: «...Essentially only one thing in life interests us: our psychical constitution, the mechanism of which was and is wrapped in darkness. All human resources, art, religion, literature, philosophy and historical sciences, all of them join in bringing light in this darkness. But man has still another powerful resource: natural science with its strictly objective methods.» Today, in the XX-Ist century, human and animal behaviors are still so far from being understood. But we have at our disposal «powerful resources» — the modern biomedical sciences: psychiatry and neuroscience, with their «strictly objective methods» — to explore the enigmas of the Brain.
I want to see this conference as an important contribution to this exciting area of research. I hope it will promote our further understanding of brain and behavior, which one day — let us be great dreamers! — will bring some new Nobel laureates to the science of Brain.
Dr. Allan V. Kalueff, PhD
Conference Chair
Director, Centre for Physiology and
Biochemical Research (Moscow, Russia)
Welcoming address
of the President of the Russian Society for BioPsychiatry
DEAR COLLEAGUES!
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
Let me welcome you to the 8 th CPBR-RSBP Multidis-ciplinary conference of Biological Psychiatry «Stress and Behaviour». For 8 years neuroscietists have been meeting regularly to discuss current issues of our specialities and share our scientific achievements. For 8 years we enrich each other with scientific ideas and, as a result, further promote our knowledge of human and animal psychology.
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^ 8-th «Stress and Behavior» Conference ^
This co-existence of academic science and free, informal scientific community is very fruitful, as creativity cannot be put into tight frames and strict plans. I hope that you will all agree that such tradition — the dialogue between biologists and psychiatrists — gives us truly encouraging and fruitful bilateral insights for further researches and clinical practice. A marked success has gained recent World Biopsychiatry congress in Australia (February 2004) — an encouraging example of how efforts of different biomedical professionals may stimulate further research in the field of psychopathology. Our 8 th Conference on biological psychiatry of stress also shows that this topic attracts many prominent and talented scientists worldwide.
Biological psychiatry, as we all know, is a part of psychiatry, studying ethiology and pathogenesis of psychiatric illnesses based on achievements and methods of natural sciences. This Conference deals with biomedical mechanisms of stress and behavioral responses of humans and animals. The concept, methods and models used in research of stress neuroscience have expanded our understanding of numerous areas of biology and medicine during the past decade. In this sense, this meeting represents major and creative attempts to broaden research on biopsychiatry. Such efforts are made possible in great part because of the fundamental discoveries that have been made in the sciences in general, and in biopsychia-try and allied disciplines in particular. There is a major need to expand such efforts further and to bring continuously the new knowledge from basic research areas to the scientists who are involved in the more short term applied research.
The Russian Society for BioPsychiatry has found its collaboration with the Conference and its symposia organizers particularly fruitful in that regard. The Organizing and the Program Committees for this, as for previous meetings, are to be congratulated for the selection of subjects for the Program and for ensuring the participation in it of prominent scientists representing 30 countries worldwide. Indeed, the conference would not have been possible without the great efforts of the Conference organizing Committee, standing firmly all these years behind our growing forum. The conference has received a great support from our St. Petersburg colleagues — professors V. Klimenko, P. Shabanov, V. Shalyapina, V. Bagaev, B. Margulis, Yu. Pastuhov and Dr. Yu. Golikov. We shall thank them all for their enthusiasm and activity. Finally, special pleasure is to mention the collaboration with «Psychopharmacology and Biological Narcology» — a professional and interesting journal publishing our conference proceedings. It is.
On behalf of all my colleagues from the Russian Society for BioPsychiatry, may I wish you a successful and enriching conference. I hope that this meeting will make another major success in the series of these important multidisciplinary international forums.
Professor Oleg. G. Syropiatov, PhD, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
President, the Russian Society for BioPsychiatry
Welcoming address
from Conference Program Committee Chair DEAR COLLEAGUES! DEAR GUESTS!
The history of biological psychiatry is tenaciously associated with the names of outstanding physiologists I. Sechenov, I. Pavlov, V. Bechterev, A. Ukhtomsky, N. Vvedensky and many others, who lived and worked in St. Petersburg.
Our conference takes place in the year of a memorable anniversary: it was a century ago that I.P. Pavlov, an outstanding Russian physiologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine. The contribution made by Pavlov is impossible to overestimate. His studies in the field of physiology of digestion merited the Nobel Prize, initiated the main lines of future research. The research which revealed the role of nervous system in regulation of physiological functions, on the one hand, and demonstrated the no less important participation of humoral mechanisms, on the other. At the same time they were also a starting point of numerous studies which laid the foundation for a new branch of neurosciences — Physiology of the higher nervous activity.
Pavlov's studies of conditioned reflex were key milestones for further development of neuroscience and brought world-wide respect and recognition. It is also necessary to emphasize that the outstanding scientist was very persistent in his striving to use fundamental knowledge in studies of experimental pathology so that later on they could become a part of medical practice.
Nowadays, in the view of our recently gained knowledge, Pavlov's ideas reveal a new depth. In their research, neuroscientists are now able to go down to cellular, membrane or even molecular levels basing at the same time on the integrative approach to systemic functions. It provides us with the opportunity to understand fine mechanisms of their regulation. Discovery of intercellular, intra- and intersystem interactions through neuromedia-tors and hormones of different chemical nature, including regulatory peptides, lays the basis for new approaches to study adaptation to stressful factors, pathogenic mechanisms and mechanisms of normal and deviant behaviors.
We hope that our discussions on integrative, molecular and cellular mechanisms of CNS activities, and their adaptation to constantly changing environment, which will take place during the conference, shall not only help us to summarize the achievements in these fields, but will also be a powerful stimulus to their further fruitful development for the benefit of the world neuroscience.
Finally, I would like to mention our unique city. St. Petersburg is a very beautiful city. There will be a wide choice of possibilities for visiting the museums, theaters, the wonderful rich palaces of Russian emperors located around the city and, of course, enjoy the beauty of famous Petersburg Nights with bridges opened across the Neva river. We do hope that the beauty of St. Petersburg will inspire you to the new discoveries in the brain physiology.
Professor Victor M. Klimenko, PhD, MD
Chair of the Program Committee
Head of I.P. Pavlov Department of Physiology,
Institute for Experimental Medicine (St. Petersburg, Russia)
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