Symposium "Neuroscience of psychomotor behavior"

About the Event

Psychomotor behaviors are important phenomena in multiple mental health conditions. They convey relevant information for the course and treatment of severe mental illness and may further aid early detection. Striking abnormalities of motor behavior in psychosis or depression may also be observed by lay people. However, subtle alterations of movement in social contexts are sometimes hard to detect. Psychomotor
phenomena may be captured by modern instruments or video analysis. Recent neuroimaging findings started to elucidate the neural processes underlying psychomotor abnormalities. Finally, first studies demonstrate that dysfunctional brain circuits in psychomotor slowing can be targeted with transcranial magnetic stimulation, alleviating the debilitating slowing.

This symposium of international experts in the field will discuss the psychomotor syndrome of catatonia, as well as psychomotor slowing in depression. The talks will cover highly prevalent disorders and will outline potential brain stimulation targets.

Programme

• 1.00 p. m.: Welcome and introduction
  S. Walther
   
• 1.10 p. m.: The nosology of catatonia – Shall we move or not?
  S. Heckers
   
• 1.45 p. m.: Catatonia Revisited: Towards a Mechanistic Understanding of a Psychomotor Syndrome
  D. Hirjak
   
• 2.20 p. m.: Break
   
• 2.45 p. m.: Quantitative EEG analyses in catatonia
  A. Iftimovici
   
• 3.20 p. m.: Psychomotor slowing as transdiagnostic phenomenon
  S. Walther
   
• 3.55 p. m.: Break
   
• 4.20 p. m.: Novel behavioral assessments of psychomotor disturbances in major depressive disorder
  S. Shankman
   
• 4.55 p. m.: Motor dysfunction in late‑life depression: disentangling clinical–imaging overlap with Parkinson’s disease through molecular biomarkers.
  M. Van Cauwenberge
   
• 5.30 p. m.: Non-motor functions of the subthalamic nucleus: Clinical observations from deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease.
  J. Volkmann
   
• 6.05 p. m.: Final discussion
   
• 6.40 p. m.: End of event
   

Speakers

• Margot Van Cauwenberge, MD, PhD
  Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry, KU Leuven, Neuropsychiatry, Assistant Senior Registrar – Neurologist, University hospitals Saint-Luc, Brussels (B)
   
• Prof. Stephan Heckers, MD, M.Sc.
  William P. and Henry B. Test Professor & Department Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences System Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, Nashville (USA)
   
• Prof. Dusan Hirjak, MD
  Managing assistant medical director, Head of the Clinical Neuroscience of Motor Behaviour Research Group (CLIMB), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim (D)
   
• Prof. Anton Iftimovici, MD, PhD
  Associate Professor of Psychiatry, MD, PhD, Université Paris Cité, INSERM U1266, Institut de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences of Paris GHU Paris Psychiatrie and Neurosciences, Paris (F)
   
• Prof. Stewart Shankman, PhD
  Dunbar Professor of Bipolar Studies, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago (USA)
   
• Prof. Jens Volkmann, MD
  Chairman of the German Parkinson’s Society, Director of the Neurology Department, Würzburg University Hospital (UKW), Würzburg (D)
   
• Prof. Sebastian Walther, MD
  Director, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Würzburg University Hospital (UKW), Würzburg (D)
   

Registration and Participation

• Please register by 14. October 2026 by Email: psy_veranst@ukw.de
   
• Registration fee: The training course is free of charge
   
• Certification: An application has been made to the Bavarian Medical Association for continuing professional development credits
   
• Contact: Juliane Erdinger, Tel.: +49 (0) 931 201-77119
  psy_veranst@ukw.de
   

Further information