University of Cape Town: International Forum on Cognitive Neurosciences Was Held at the University
The international Cognitive Neuroscience Forum (“Cognitive Neuroscience”) 2021 took place in Ural Federal University on December 2-3. Leading neuroscience specialists from Russia, the UK, and the US took part in it. The participants included scientists and practitioners not only in the field of psychology, but also neurology, neurobiology, neuropsychology, mathematics, philosophy, and philology.
This year the forum was held in an online format. More than one hundred specialists joined the plenary session, section meetings, master classes and the roundtable discussions. At the opening, welcoming speeches were made by Elvira Symanyuk, Director of the Ural Institute of Humanities of Ural Federal University, Sergey Kortov, First Vice-Rector of Ural Federal University, representatives of partner organisations: Irena Basite, Deputy Minister of Health of Sverdlovsk region and Tatiana Tomenko, a first-class epileptologist of the UMMC-Health clinic.
“It is great when science and practice go hand in hand, because the achievements of science should be proven by applied and practical goals, and practice should be based on scientific achievements and evidence-based things,” Tatyana Fomenko noted.
The program combined two blocks: theoretical and practical. Every year the forum seeks to integrate the work of medical professionals, psychologists, social workers, as well as those associated with philosophy and ethical issues in the field of neuroscience due to the development of AI, machine learning, which is being actively implemented in health system and modern education.
“At present stage of the human development, the incredible speed of development of brain sciences plays an important role. Scientists all over the world call the XXI century the century of neuroscience,” said Irena Basite.
“Such roundtable discussions should be held in the future and, perhaps, in a more specialized way. The conversation turned out to be interesting: we are all from the different spheres and industries, and we see that there are common points of contact. All of us, one way or another, work for people, in the interests of a person, and in the interests of the society in which we live. We should not be afraid of destructive neurotechnologies, but we should foresee the risks and work with them carefully,” said Elvira Symanyuk.
This year the VI International Forum on Cognitive Neuroscience (“Cognitive Neuroscience”) has become a platform for discussions, and the result of the forum is the formation of new interesting projects and collaborations, which will lead to new scientific breakthroughs.