Nebraska Motivation Symposium on Emotion in the Mind and Body April 2018

Nebraska Motivation Symposium on Emotion in the Mind and Body April 2018By Maital Neta, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior Program, and Ingrid Haas, Assistant Professor of Political Science

This year, for the 66th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, the Department brought together two affective neuroscientists: one in Psychology (Maital Neta) and one in Political Science (Ingrid Haas) to organize our annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

Maital Neta and Ingrid Haas (standing, L to R) with Symposium Presenters
Maital Neta and Ingrid Haas (standing, L to R) with Symposium Presenters

Despite coming from different departments, we share many common research interests, particularly related to individual differences in emotion processing in the human brain. The topic of “Emotion in the Mind and Body” was quite timely as the fields of social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience are bridging stronger interdisciplinary connections, and are enabling researchers to approach questions related to emotion in new and exciting ways.

Once again this year, we had a number of outstanding scholars participate in the symposium who are all recognized leaders in their respective disciplines. This year’s speakers included Deanna Barch (Washington University in St. Louis), Elaine Fox (Oxford University), James Gross (Stanford University), Brian Knutson (Stanford University), Kevin Ochsner (Columbia University), Leah Somerville (Harvard University), and Tor Wager (University of Colorado, Boulder). Each of them pursues a research program aimed at explicating the neural and physiological processes that underlie emotions, including those related to emotion regulation, emotion development, psychopathology, cognitive and genetic biomarkers of psychological well-being, and the relationship between emotion and motivation. The speakers approached this broad topic from a multi-disciplinary perspective using the most advanced scientific tools from social and cognitive affective neuroscience.

This year’s symposium was supported by the retired UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman and the Friedline bequest at the Nebraska Foundation, and we were privileged to have Chancellor Ronnie Green provide the opening day welcome again for the second time.

In order to expand the reach of the Symposium, we provided free live streaming of the presentations through the UNL website. This was a wonderful opportunity for scholars around the world to participate, even though they may not be able to travel to Lincoln.

Plans are being made for the Department to host the 67th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation in April on the topic on how natural environments influence health and cognition. The 67th symposium is being organized by professors Schutte, Torquati, and Stevens. Join us in person or online.