An international meeting on theoretical neuroscience and macro-scale brain organization.
8th-10th OCTOBER | TORONTO, CANADA
Info
About the conference
BrainModes is a long-running annual international gathering of mathematical and computational neuroscientists, meeting to discuss their latest work on theories and principles of brain dynamics and functional organization.
The name is a nod to the broad concept of (eigen)modes. It reflects a philosophical and theoretical orientation shared by its community of attendees and organizers: the idea that both the brain and the mind, although complex and nonlinear, are ultimately low-dimensional dynamical objects. And, moreover, that this property is key to understanding, measurement, and therapeutic control of neural systems.
Scientific discussions at BrainModes are varied and lively, as the conference attracts scientists from a wide range of neuroscience (and non-neuroscience) sub-fields, including a mix of experimentalists, data analysts, and theoreticians. All of the work discussed involves some combination of concepts from statistical physics, dynamical systems, complexity science, machine learning - which serve as guides and tools for thinking through neuroscientific ideas and research questions.
See here for information about past BrainModes meetings back to 2007. Archives of another annual meeting build around similar principles - the Brain Connectivity Workshop - going back to 2002 can be found here.
The Fields building is located on the South-West corner of the picturesque University of Toronto St George campus, in the downtown heart of Canada’s largest and most vibrant city.
University of Toronto
Right next door to Fields is the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics (KCNI) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) College Street site. KCNI Scientists Drs. John Griffiths and Andreea Diaconescu are leading the BrainModes Organizing Committee, and look forward to hosting visitors at Fields, KCNI, and Toronto more generally.
CAMH KCNI
Theme and Program
The nominal theme this year is “multi-scale mathematical modelling and organizational principles in neural dynamics, cognition, and computational psychiatry”.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Karl Friston, Joana Cabral, Axel Hutt, Steve Coombes, Petra Ritter, Shella Keilholz, Chris Mathys, Andreea Diaconescu, Jérémie Lefebvre, and Lyle Muller. See [here]#program for the full list of speakers and preliminary conference program.
Conference programming will include keynote talks, oral sessions, panel discussions, poster sessions, as well as a special reception and social activities.
The BrainModes planning committee are excited to be partnering with the organizers of the Fields Institute 2025 Thematic Program in Mathematical Neuroscience, which is hosting a series of meetings, visiting researchers, and facilitated collaborations in Toronto and Ottawa throughout the year.
We are also delighted to be featuring this year’s Fields Distinguished Lecturer Series by Prof. Friston, as an integrated part of the BrainModes conference program.
Register, Visit, and Present
Registration is open!. Note that numbers are limited, so be sure to register early to guarantee a place.
Attendance is free for trainees, and heavily subsidized for non-trainees.
There are opportunities to present your work: the poster sessions and the short talks.
Submit your abstract following the instructions on the registration page. The top-rated abstract submissions will be offered a speaker slot in one of the short talk sessions.
Information on travel and recommended accommodation is also given on the registration page.
Organizing Committee
John Griffiths
CAMH KCNI / University of Toronto
Andreea Diaconescu
CAMH KCNI / University of Toronto
Minarose Ismail
Sick Kids Hospital / University of Toronto
Shradha Bhullar
CAMH KCNI
Celeste Agard
CAMH KCNI
Sorenza Bastiaens
CAMH KCNI / University of Toronto
Kevin Kadak
CAMH KCNI / University of Toronto
Jeremie Lefebvre
University of Ottawa
Maia Fraser
University of Ottawa
Partner Institutions and Sponsors
Program
Keynote Speakers
Joana Cabral
University of Lisbon
Karl Friston
University College London
Axel Hutt
INRIA
Stephen Coombes
University of Nottingham
Christoph Mathys
Aarhus University
Lyle Muller
Western University
Shella Keilholz
Emory University
Petra Ritter
Charite University
Andreea Diaconescu
University of Toronto
Jeremie Lefebvre
University of Ottawa
Program
(provisional, subject to change)
📍 Locations:
All daytime keynotes, short talks, posters, and lunches are at the Fields Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 222 College St Toronto ON M5T 3J1
The first two evening (FDLS) lectures and receptions will be at the SickKids Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning: 686 Bay St., Toronto, ON M5G 0A4
The third FDLC lecture will be at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology: 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4
🗓️ Day 1 (Weds 8th October)
Theme: Principles of Brain Dynamics: Generative & Dynamical System Models
08:30 — ☕ Morning Coffee
09:00 — 🎤 Opening Remarks
09:15 — 🎓 Session 1
Keynote 1: Axel Hutt: “Additive Noise-Induced System Evolution (ANISE)”
Short Talks: Dimitris Pinotsis: “Ephaptic coupling drives power fluctuations in depression” F. David Wandler: “Metastable cluster dynamics in recurrent spiking networks explain the high variability of cortical activity”
11:00 — ☕ Break
11:15 — 🎓 Session 2
Keynote 2: Stephen Coombes: “Large-scale brain modelling: from nodes to white matter networks”
Short Talks: TBD
12:15 — 🍽️ Lunch
13:15 — 🎓 Session 3
Keynote: Lyle Muller: TBD
Short Talks: Seb Coleman: TBD Xiou Xang: TBD
15:45 — 🎓 Posters
17:30 — 🎓 Fields Distinguished Lecture Series (1/3)
Karl Friston: “I am therefore I think”
19:30 — 🎉 BrainModes Conference Reception
🗓️ Day 2 (Thurs 9th October)
Theme: Imaging the Dynamic Brain: Time‑Resolved & Multimodal Inference
08:30 — ☕ Morning Coffee
09:00 — 🎓 Session 4
Keynote: Petra Ritter: TBD
Short Talks: Leon Stefanovski: “Bridging scales with brain simulation – from molecules to disease mechanisms” Minarose Ismail: “Developmental disinhibition drives language dominance in childhood”
10:45 — ☕ Break
11:00 — 🎓 Session 5
Keynote: Shella Keilholz: “Connecting spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity across scales”
Short Talks: Tiago Duarte-Pereira: TBD Amrit Kashyap: “Using an ordinary differential equation model to separate rest and task signals in fMRI”
12:45 — 🍽️ Lunch
13:45 — 🎓 Session 6
Keynote: Joana Cabral: TBD
Short Talks: Giuseppe de Alteriis: “Exploring brain dynamics with DySCo” Rodrigo Rojas Leyton: TBD
16:15 — 🎓 Posters
17:30 — 🎓 Fields Distinguished Lecture Series (2/3)
Karl Friston: “Active inference and belief propagation in the brain”
18:45 — 🎉 Speakers+ Reception and Trainee Social
🗓️ Day 3 (Fri 10th October)
Theme: From Models to Medicine: Biomarkers, Neuromodulation & Computational Psychiatry
08:30 — ☕ Morning Coffee
09:00 — 🎓 Session 7
Keynote: Christoph Mathys: “Change of Mind - Computational Approaches to (Mal)adaptive Changes in Beliefs”
Short Talks: Szymon Tyras: “Hallucinations in schizophrenia are linked to elevated excitation in the dynamic mean field model” Rodrigo De Carvalho: TBD
10:45 — ☕ Break
11:00 — 🎓 Session 8
Keynote: Andreea Diaconescu: TBD
Short Talks: Larissa Albatankis: “Distance- and hierarchy-dependent functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia” Peter Bedford: TBD
12:45 — 🍽️ Lunch
13:45 — 🎓 Session 9
Keynote: Jérémie Lefebvre: TBD
Short Talks: Jacob Duda: “A model of rhythm production and rhythmic auditory stimulation in healthy and Parkinsonian basal ganglia”
16:15 — 👋 Closing Remarks
17:30 — 🎓 Fields Distinguished Lecture Series (3/3)
Karl Friston: “Active inference and artificial curiosity”
The BrainModes organizers and the Fields Institute are committed to facilitating access and minizing barriers to scientific education, training, exposure to cutting-edge research, and academic career development.
We have elected to follow a progressive two-tier registration rate approach, guided by the principle that those who can contribute financially to event operations are enabled to do so, but anyone who cannot is still fully able to participate.
Registration will therefore be free for all trainees (including post-docs). In addition, any non-trainees who feel they will need a registration fee waiver in order to be able to attend, please contact the organizers to discuss options.
A reduced Early-Bird registration rate will be available until 15th July.
Category
Early Bird Fee
Regular Fee
Trainee
Free
Free
Non-Trainee
$150
$250
Note that due to space restrictions, there are a limited number of places available for registrants of all categories. All planning to attend, go to the EventBrite registration page linked to above.
Poster/Talk Abstract Submissions
To present your work at the conference, go to the abstract submission page. All submitted poster abstracts will be considered for one of the limited short talk slots.
Abstract guidelines:
Title: 100 characters max Please refrain from using all caps.
Authors and Affiliations: maximum of 20.
Main text: Includes separated sections for Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions. 400 characters max.
Figures: Up to 2 figure images may be uploaded. Figure images should include adequately descriptive text captions as part of the image.
References: Up to 10 references can be added, and are separate to the main text character limit.
Keywords: Choose up to 5 keywords that best describe your research. Note that selection of the subject category determines the expertise of the reviewers who score the abstract.
Accommodation:
See here for a variety of discounted accommodation options within walking distance of the Fields Institute.
