Neuroscientists have made great strides in understanding the brain, revealing insights into the biology behind many everyday human experiences. In this webinar, experts will discuss what happens in the brain during mental health distress, such as anxiety or depression, and how scientists can target future treatments towards these underlying neural mechanisms.

Topics to be covered

• Blood-brain barrier-changes and vascular biomarkers underlying stress response and depression
• The neural circuitry of adaptive and pathological anxiety
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    Caroline Ménard, PhD
    Assistant Professor, Sentinel North Research Chair, Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval and CERVO Brain Research Center
    Caroline Ménard joined the CERVO Brain Research Center and Université Laval Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience in 2018. Ménard’s deciphers the role of the blood-brain barrier in stress responses in mice and human mood disorders. Her research combines behavioral experiments and imaging with molecular, cellular, pharmacological, and viral-mediated functional approaches. Her team also collaborates with clinicians and tissue banks to add translational value to their mouse-related findings, including support from the Sentinel North Research Chair, a Canada First Research Excellence Fund-sponsored program. Her other funding sources include the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Tri-Council New Frontiers in Research Fund, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Fonds Recherche du Quebec, Brain Canada, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation in the United States.
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    Oliver Robinson, PhD
    Professor and Co-group leader of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London
    Oliver Robinson is a United Kingdom medical research council senior nonclinical fellow and runs the anxiety laboratory within the Neuroscience and Mental Health Group in the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. He earned his PhD and bachelor of arts at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and his postdoc at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland in the United States. He currently sits on the committee of the British Association for Psychopharmacology.