5th International Conference on Neuroscience and Mental Health

Cognitive and behavioural neuroscience sits at the captivating intersection of brain science and human experience, offering some of the most exciting and clinically relevant research in the field today. This session draws together researchers, psychologists, and clinicians to examine how the brain gives rise to perception, memory, attention, language, and complex behavioural patterns, and how disruptions to these processes manifest as neurological and psychiatric disorders. As neuroscience tools grow increasingly sophisticated, from high-resolution neuroimaging to computational modelling and real-time neural recording, our ability to understand and influence cognition and behaviour is expanding at an extraordinary pace.

A central theme of this session will be the neural basis of emotional regulation, decision-making, and social cognition, areas of profound relevance to mental health, education, and human performance. Participants will explore how reward circuits, prefrontal networks, and limbic structures interact to shape everyday behaviour, and how imbalances in these systems contribute to conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addiction. The session will also highlight the growing importance of computational neuroscience and machine learning in modelling cognitive processes and predicting individual differences in behaviour.

Practical clinical applications will be a strong focus throughout this session. From neuropsychological assessment tools that identify cognitive deficits in clinical populations, to evidence-based cognitive rehabilitation programmes that restore function after brain injury, this session connects fundamental research with real-world impact. Attendees will also explore the neuroscience of learning, neuroplasticity-based interventions, and digital cognitive training approaches that are gaining increasing clinical traction. This session is essential for anyone seeking to understand the brain-behaviour relationship and translate that understanding into meaningful therapeutic and educational outcomes.

Key Topics:

• Memory and Learning: Neural mechanisms of memory encoding, consolidation, retrieval, and the application of these processes to rehabilitation.
• Attention and Executive Function: How prefrontal networks regulate attention, planning, and cognitive control in health and neurological disease.
• Emotion Regulation: The neural substrates of emotional processing and regulation, and their relevance to mental health disorders.
• Decision-Making and Reward: How the brain evaluates options, weighs risk, and responds to reward, and implications for addiction and psychiatric disorders.
• Language and Communication: Neural basis of language processing, speech disorders, and advances in communication rehabilitation.
• Social Cognition: Brain mechanisms underlying empathy, theory of mind, and social behaviour, and their disruption in autism and schizophrenia.
• Computational Neuroscience: How computational models and machine learning are advancing our understanding of brain-behaviour relationships.
• Cognitive Rehabilitation: Evidence-based interventions for restoring cognitive function following brain injury, stroke, or neurological disease.