BCN Lectures

BCN Lecture 4 September 2025 - Join in person or online!

Speaker: Roelant Ossewaarde (Researcher at the Artificial Intelligence lectorate of the Utrecht University of Applied Science)
Title: Language measurements in persons with brain damage
Time: 12:00 – 13:00
Location: Anda Kerkhoven Centre, 3227.0019
Online: https://meet.google.com/xfn-kajj-jwi

Topic: Language measurements in persons with brain damage

What you can expect to learn from this lecture: Spontaneous speech has become omnipresent as a way to communicate with AI agents powered by Large Language Models. Natural language has become a viable method to convey our thoughts and interact with machines. Brain damage can cause deterioration of the ability to use language. Linguistic technology may aid in measuring the degree to which the language use degrades; however, there is a surprisingly large gap between modern day chatbot capabilities and clinically useful measurements of language decline.In my talk I will survey the use of language software to analyze spontaneous language, and the promises of LLM linguistic processing software in this domain.

About the speaker: Roelant Ossewaarde is a researcher at the Artificial Intelligence lectorate of the Utrecht University of Applied Science (Hogeschool Utrecht). His research focuses on the application of AI methods in the linguistic domain. He recently obtained his Ph.D., on measurements of language decline associated with dementia, from the neurolinguistics department at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

BCN Lecture 6 November 2025

Speaker: Roelof Hut
Title: The flexible circadian clock: adaptive in nature, maladaptive in modern society
Time: 16:00 – 17:00
Online:

What you can expect to learn from this lecture: Circadian rhythms drive many aspects of behaviour and physiology and its evolutionary origin traces back to the very first life forms. Comparative evolutionary analysis suggest that daily rhythms were not only adaptive, but may also be a driving force in mammalian diversification. Daily rhythms have a well understood genetic basis (Nobel prize in 2017), but are by no means a fixed trait. Mammals can show flexibility in their rhythms and the underlying neurobiological features that translate the hypothalamic generation of circadian rhythms in to adaptive behavioural output that are tuned to the environmental needs are investigated. These finding will help us to understand health consequences for human circadian organization in a modern society.

About the speaker: Roelof Hut is Professor of Chronobiology at the University of Groningen.  He was trained as a chronobiologist and received his Ph.D. (2001) in the laboratory of Serge Daan at the University of Groningen.  Post-doctoral fellowships were conducted in the laboratories of Howard Cooper (Lyon), Michael Menaker (Charlottesville, Virginia), and in Groningen.  His scientific work has covered many aspects of chronobiology, including circadian light responses, suprachiasmatic nucleus physiology, evolutionary ecology of circadian organization, photoreception, thermoregulation, sleep, and photoperiodism, using species like insects, various nocturnal and diurnal rodent species, and humans.  He is also a founding member and current chair of the International Hibernation Society, where his early fascination with hibernation is combined with his interest in physiology and biological rhythms.  Being trained by prominent early scientists in chronobiology, who were themselves trained by the “founding fathers” of the field, has afforded Dr. Hut a wide perspective on all aspects of chronobiology, with a focus to the future and a respect for the past.

He recently teamed up with Dr. William Schwartz (MD) to write a comprehensive scholarly book on circadian rhythms, which introduces the fundamental aspects of this fascinating theme that connects the width of biological sciences to many clinical and societal applications.

The Essential Principles and Practices book is freely available at the University of Groningen Press website

BCN Lecture 6 November 2025

Speaker: Roelof Hut
Title: The flexible circadian clock: adaptive in nature, maladaptive in modern society
Time: 16:00 – 17:00
Location: Faculty Medical Sciences, room 3215.0149 (A. Deusinglaan 1), 1^st floor

Topic: The flexible circadian clock: adaptive in nature, maladaptive in modern society

Close your laptop and immerse yourself in the energy of a room full of people. Being physically present offers more interaction, inspiration, and connection than watching online. Don’t miss the chance to truly be in the moment. We look forward to seeing you there! If you really cannot make it, here is the online [meet.google.com/ubs-bvvd-bon] option.

What you can expect to learn from this lecture: Circadian rhythms drive many aspects of behaviour and physiology and its evolutionary origin traces back to the very first life forms. Comparative evolutionary analysis suggest that daily rhythms were not only adaptive, but may also be a driving force in mammalian diversification. Daily rhythms have a well understood genetic basis (Nobel prize in 2017), but are by no means a fixed trait. Mammals can show flexibility in their rhythms and the underlying neurobiological features that translate the hypothalamic generation of circadian rhythms in to adaptive behavioural output that are tuned to the environmental needs are investigated. These finding will help us to understand health consequences for human circadian organization in a modern society.

About the speaker: Roelof Hut is Professor of Chronobiology at the University of Groningen.  He was trained as a chronobiologist and received his Ph.D. (2001) in the laboratory of Serge Daan at the University of Groningen.  Post-doctoral fellowships were conducted in the laboratories of Howard Cooper (Lyon), Michael Menaker (Charlottesville, Virginia), and in Groningen.  His scientific work has covered many aspects of chronobiology, including circadian light responses, suprachiasmatic nucleus physiology, evolutionary ecology of circadian organization, photoreception, thermoregulation, sleep, and photoperiodism, using species like insects, various nocturnal and diurnal rodent species, and humans.  He is also a founding member and current chair of the International Hibernation Society, where his early fascination with hibernation is combined with his interest in physiology and biological rhythms.  Being trained by prominent early scientists in chronobiology, who were themselves trained by the “founding fathers” of the field, has afforded Dr. Hut a wide perspective on all aspects of chronobiology, with a focus to the future and a respect for the past.

He recently teamed up with Dr. William Schwartz (MD) to write a comprehensive scholarly book on circadian rhythms, which introduces the fundamental aspects of this fascinating theme that connects the width of biological sciences to many clinical and societal applications.

The Essential Principles and Practices book is freely available at the University of Groningen Press website

BCN Lecture 4 December 2025

Speaker: Bart Eggen
Title: The Healthy and Diseased Human CNS: An Omics Perspective
Time: 16:00 – 17:00 hrs
Location: room 3227.0015, Anda van Kerkhoven Centre, A. Deusinglaan 1

Topic: The Healthy and Diseased Human CNS: An Omics Perspective

Close your laptop and immerse yourself in the energy of a room full of people. Being physically present offers more interaction, inspiration, and connection than watching online. Don’t miss the chance to truly be in the moment. We look forward to seeing you there! If you really cannot make it, here is the online t.b.a. option.

What you can expect to learn from this lecture: Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), can adopt various shapes and states depending on their location, environment, the condition of the CNS, and both internal and external signals. Recently, changes that occur in microglia during development and in the context of CNS diseases have been thoroughly documented. Thanks to the advent of advanced technologies like single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, we can now map microglial states in much greater detail, both in healthy and diseased CNS. In this talk, I will discuss the complexity and role of microglial states in human CNS development, homeostasis, and disease processes.

About the speaker: Bart Eggen studied Medical Biology in Utrecht, where he also obtained his PhD degree. After postdoctoral research in the United States, first at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute with Gail Mandel and then with Ali Brivanlou at the Rockefeller University in New York after which he joined the RUG. In 2010 he moved to the UMCG where he currently is appointed as professor of molecular neurobiology and chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences. His research focuses on the role of glial cells in CNS development, function, and disease. His work examines neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and neurodevelopmental disorders using single-cell and spatial omics approaches combined with experimental model systems.

March 5, 2026

Lecture by:     Jamal Williams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Title:                What’s the Score: Music-evoked memory reactivation is linked to improved next-day recall
Time: 16:00-17:00 hrs
Location:        3227.0152, Anda Kerkhoven Centre, 1^st floor, see map

Step away from your screen and experience the unique atmosphere of being together in person. Joining us onsite means more opportunities for meaningful conversations, spontaneous inspiration, and real connections. Don’t let this special occasion pass you by—we can’t wait to welcome you and share this experience face-to-face.

What’s the Score: Music-evoked memory reactivation is linked to improved next-day recall

Music cues personal memories, but the neural mechanisms are still unclear. We used the full-length film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to test how repeated musical themes reactivate earlier-encoded events in cortex and support next-day recall. In an fMRI study, participants watched either the original film (with repeated musical themes) or a no-music version. Comparing neural activity between groups, we found that music-evoked reactivation of patterns tied to earlier scenes in the default mode network was linked to better subsequent recall. That reactivation–recall relationship was specific to the music condition and held when we controlled for a proxy of initial encoding strength, suggesting that music-evoked reactivation may support event memory in a way that goes beyond what is captured at encoding. Furthermore, using LLM-based semantic similarity analyses, we related this reactivation to how well recalled content matched scene descriptions.

 Jamal Williams is a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he develops computational models of music perception and studies the neural mechanisms linking music and memory. He received his PhD in Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2023, conducting large-scale, naturalistic neuroimaging experiments on how musical event processing relates to behavior. His work aims to understand how music can be used to improve memory and to build models that make quantitative predictions of music-evoked brain responses and behavior.

Next Lecture: April 2, 2026 / 12:00-13:00

April 2, 2026

Lecture by:     Jean-Christophe Billeter, GELIFES, University of Groningen
Title: Wired for Company: decoding how social environment affects an
individual physiology and behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster
Time: 12.00-13.00 hrs
Location:        3227.0133, Anda Kerkhoven Centre, 1^st floor, map

Step away from your screen and experience the unique atmosphere of being together in person. Joining us onsite means more opportunities for meaningful conversations, spontaneous inspiration, and real connections. Don’t let this special occasion pass you by—we can’t wait to welcome you and share this experience face-to-face.

Wired for Company: decoding how social environment affects an individual physiology and behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster

Social environments profoundly influence physiology and behaviour across species. In humans and other animals, the presence of others can reduce pain, slow disease progression, and improve survival, yet the biological mechanisms that allow individuals to detect and respond to social context remain poorly understood. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, offers a powerful model to uncover these mechanisms due to its exceptional genetic tractability and the availability of detailed brain connectomes and tools for manipulating specific neurons and hormones. In this talk, I will show that key aspects of Drosophila biology are shaped by the social environment, a factor that until recently has been largely overlooked in this model organism. Our work demonstrates that environmental and social cues interact to regulate not only the spatial distribution, affiliation and reproductive behaviours of focal individuals but also homeostatic processes such as sleep, hormonal titers and neuronal excitability. In addition, we have uncovered large individual variation in response to social context in this species, which is caused by natural genetic variation. By revealing how social cues are transformed into physiological and behavioral responses, we aim to provides a mechanistic framework for understanding how the presence of others influences an individual. 

Biosketch:
Jean-Christophe is a neurogeneticist studying the mechanistic basis of social behaviour, with the goal of understanding how genetic and environmental factors interact to shape how the brain regulates social interactions.
Early in my career, I trained in the laboratories of Jeff Hall (USA) and Stephen Goodwin (UK), where I investigated the genetic programs controlling the sexually dimorphic development of the nervous system. Using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, I examined how sex-specific expression of a small number of genes during development contributes to differences in male and female social behaviours. I later joined the laboratory of Joel Levine (Canada), where my focus shifted toward understanding how social interactions influence an individual’s physiology and behaviour. This work highlighted the profound and pervasive effects of the social environment on individuals and led me to develop an interest in the evolutionary mechanisms underlying social behaviour. As an experimental biologist, I have found that evolutionary theory provides a strong conceptual framework for generating hypotheses that guide innovative experiments. Integrating evolutionary theory with experimental approaches has become a central theme of my research since establishing my laboratory at the University of Groningen. A key aspect of my research is the use of simple model organisms to understand both the mechanistic and evolutionary foundations of social behaviour. My group has developed quantitative paradigms to measure sociability in Drosophila melanogaster, a species with powerful genetic tools that allow precise manipulation of the neural circuits underlying behaviour. These approaches aim to uncover mechanisms that may generalize across species.

Next Lecture: May 7, 2026 / t.b.a.

May 7, 2026

Lecture by:     Psyche Loui (Northeastern University, Boston)
Title:                Music, Prediction, and the Brain: From Neural Mechanisms to
Therapeutic Applications
Time: 17:00-18:00 hrs
Location:        online

Step into a world of inspiration—now from the comfort of your own space! Our previous in-person lectures were a huge success, filled with lively discussions, spontaneous ideas, and real connections. This time, we’re bringing that same energy and valuable insights online, bridging the distance between Boston and Groningen. Don’t miss this opportunity to be inspired and discover new perspectives—we can’t wait to welcome you virtually!

The quantitative biology of social dysfunction: A transdiagnostic and translational approach

Music is an integral part of every human society, and musical experiences have been associated with human health and well-being since antiquity. Recent use-inspired research on music-based Interventions include receptive (music listening) and active (music making) programs designed to make measurable changes to human health and well-being. Designing these interventions consistently and with measurable benefits require addressing the question of dosage, which refers to the duration and intensity (dosage) of the intervention. I argue that cognitive neuroscience and music technology together can improve the therapeutic benefits of music by rigorously defining the effects of dosage on receptive and active music interventions on predictive coding in the central nervous system. As a ubiquitous feature of biological systems, predictive coding is posited to underlie perception, action, and reward. I will present recent work that encompasses behavioral testing, neuropsychological assessments, and neuroimaging (EEG and fMRI) studies in my lab on how and why humans across societies learn to love music, uncovering the role of different types of prediction on the activity and connectivity of the reward system. Given that music taps into a relatively domain-general reward system which in turn motivates a variety of cognitive behaviors, I will also consider how this knowledge can be translated into music-based interventions for those with neurological and/or psychiatric disorders, presenting preliminary results on Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.

Biosketch
Psyche Loui is a cognitive scientist, musician, Associate Dean of Research at Northeastern University, and Director of the Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Laboratory (MIND Lab). . Her research aims to understand the networks of brain structure and function that enable musical processes: auditory and multisensory perception, learning and memory of sound structure, sound production and creativity, and the human aesthetic, emotional, and imaginative response to sensory stimuli. Tools for this research include electrophysiology, structural and functional neuroimaging, noninvasive brain stimulation, and psychophysical and cognitive experiments as motivated by the following questions:
• How do humans perceive and produce music?
• How do expectations develop?
• How do structural and functional connectivity in the brain enable perception and action?
• How can music be used to understand the brain and to help people with neurological and psychiatric disorders?

Next lecture: June 4, 2026

Lecture by:     Martien Kas, GELIFES, University of Groningen
Title: The quantitative biology of social dysfunction: A transdiagnostic and translational approach
Time: 16.00-17.00 hrs
Location:        t.b.a.

Step away from your screen and experience the unique atmosphere of being together in person. Joining us onsite means more opportunities for meaningful conversations, spontaneous inspiration, and real connections. Don’t let this special occasion pass you by—we can’t wait to welcome you and share this experience face-to-face.

The quantitative biology of social dysfunction: A transdiagnostic and translational approach

Social dysfunction is one of the most pervasive and disabling dimensions across psychiatric disorders, yet it remains poorly represented within current DSM-based diagnostic frameworks. This lecture will present a transdiagnostic and translational perspective on social functioning and social behavior as core dimensions of psychopathology, emphasizing how dimensional approaches may advance precision psychiatry beyond categorical diagnoses. Focusing on large-scale brain networks - particularly the Default Mode Network (DMN) -  the talk will examine converging evidence from neuroimaging, behavioral phenotyping, computational modeling, and large-scale initiatives such as the PRISM Project demonstrating that disturbances in social behavior arise from dysfunction in distributed neural circuits that cut across traditional diagnostic categories. Integrating human neuroscience with back translation to animals, the lecture will further illustrate how cross-species circuit approaches can identify causal mechanisms underlying social behavior and support the development of biologically grounded, mechanism-based interventions. Together, these findings highlight how social dysfunction may provide a powerful framework for reshaping psychiatric nosology and advancing precision psychiatry.

Biosketch
Martien Kas is Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Groningen. His interdisciplinary research integrates behavioral neuroscience, psychiatry, genetics, computational approaches, and translational medicine to understand how brain function shapes behavior across species. His work takes a transdiagnostic perspective across psychiatry and neurology, with a particular focus on the neurobiology of social functioning and behavior. By bridging animal studies with human neuroscience, his research aims to advance biologically informed diagnostics and precision psychiatry. His research also pioneers the application of novel technologies - including digital phenotyping, mobile health approaches, multimodal behavioral profiling, and computational modeling - to capture real-world behavior and improve the understanding of mental health and disease trajectories. By combining experimental neuroscience with data-driven approaches, his work seeks to move brain disorder research beyond symptom-based classification toward mechanism-based frameworks for diagnosis and intervention.
He has co-authored over 270 peer-reviewed publications and is internationally recognized for his contributions to translational and systems neuroscience. In addition to his academic role, he has held several leading positions within the scientific community. He is former President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), serves on the editorial board of Mammalian Genome, and contributes to the strategic development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). He is also Chief Scientific Officer of Behapp and a scientific member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.

Next Lecture: September 3, 2026