WCNP 2027
Mahekal Beach Resort
Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
February 14-19, 2027
Symposia
Sunday, February 14
The Richard F. Thompson New Concepts
Chair: Jason Shepherd (U of Utah)
Participants: Open to all participants. Five minute PowerPoint presentations on new ideas, findings or techniques.
Monday, February 15
Morning (Session 1): Locus coeruleus in stress, memory and cognition.
Chair: Steve Maren (UIUC)
Speakers: Jeremiah Cohen (Allen Institute), Josh Johansen (UCI), Steve Maren (UIUC), Keri Martinowich (Lieber/JHU)
Evening (Session 2): The Predatory Imminence Continuum: From humans to molecular mechanisms.
Chair: Michael Fanselow (UCLA)
Speakers: Dean Mobbs (Caltech), Michael Conoscenti (U of Utah), Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka (UC Riverside), Karin Roelofs (Radboud Netherlands), Michael Fanselow (UCLA).
Tuesday, February 16
Morning (Session 3): The orbitofrontal cortex as a conductor of complex learning and decision-making.
Chair: Kaue Costa (UAB)
Speakers: Geoffrey Schoenbaum (NIDA/NIH), Christina Gremel (UCSD), Thorsten Kahnt (NIDA/NIH), Thomas Elston (UT Austin).
Evening (Session 4): The Dorsal Peduncular Cortex and Its Role in Medial Prefrontal Function.
Chair: Hong-Wei Dong (UCLA)
Speakers: Hong-Wei Dong (UCLA), Jonathan Fadok (Tulane University), Paul J Kenny (Mount Sinai), Maithe Arruda-Carvalho (University of Toronto), Kirstie A Cummings (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Wednesday, February 17
Morning (Session 5): Revealing Neural Dynamics Through Behavioral Strategy.
Chair: Jim Heys (U of Utah)
Speakers: Christine Constantinople (NYU), Jim Heys (U of Utah), Merhdad Jazayeri (MIT), Kishore Kuchibhotla (Johns Hopkins University)
Evening (Session 6): Structure and Function of Hippocampal Computations.
Chair: Tristan Shuman (Mount Sinai)
Speakers: Andre Fenton (NYU), Ipshita Zutshi (Rutgers), SueYeon Chung (Harvard), Tristan Shuman (Mount Sinai).
Thursday, February 18
Morning (Session 7):Cellular and Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Brain-body interaction.
Chair: Tianyi Mao (OHSU)
Speakers: Holly Ingram (UCSF), Sarah Garfinkel (UCL), Rui Chang (Yale), Zack Knight (UCSF), Bart Jongbloets (U of Amsterdam)
Evening (Session 8):Endogenous opioids and the regulation of adaptive and maladaptive behaviors.
Chair: Larry Zweifel (U of Washington)
Speakers: Hugo Tejada (NIH), Stephanie Borgland (U of Calgary, Canada), Jose Moron-Concepcion (Wash U, St. Louis), Larry Zweifel (U of Washington).
Friday, February 19
Morning (Session 9):Flexibility and Vulnerability in Retrosplenial Cortex.
Chair: Megha Sehgal (Ohio State), Karri Hoffman (Vanderbilt)
Speakers: Andy Alexander (UC Santa Barbara), Daniel Gray (University of Arizona/University of California-Los Angeles), Omar Ahmed (University of Michigan).
Evening (Session 10): Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in sensory pathways – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Chair: Susanne Schmid (U of Western Ontario)
Speakers: Travis Faust (U Mass), Stephen Lomber (McGill), Andreas Frick (Neurocentre Magendie, Bordeaux), Susanne Schmid (U of Western Ontario).
Venue
Mahekal Beach Resort
Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
If attendees need to add or remove days, please email Laura at lcastellanos@gsf-hotels.com.
Set directly on the beach, surrounded by soft sands, vivid waters, and lush tropical foliage, Mahekal Beach Resort becomes an energetic haven where Mayan heritage and the vitality of the Caribbean come together. Just steps from Fifth Avenue, the resort offers the perfect balance between oceanfront calm and immediate access to Playa del Carmen’s cultural, culinary, and creative life.
Allow yourself to be embraced by the timeless charm of our Mayan traditions, suites crafted with careful attention to detail, and elevated gastronomy with a distinctive, refreshing Mexican touch, all within a Playa del Carmen All Inclusive Hotel that celebrates the connection between body, mind, and nature.