Sending trainees to meetings can become quickly very expensive, which is a pity, given how important it is for their scientific and professional development. Registration costs are often quite an obstacle for labs that do now swim in money. Meeting locations in expensive or far away cities add to that problem We were curious about this and looked at some numbers of great meetings in the field.

Neuromodec 2017: Regular $600, students: $300. Location: NY City. 
Brain Stimulation 2019: Regular: $630, students $335. Location: Vancouver

These are great meetings that I recommend. However, we felt that there is a gap in the "conference menu", which  is an affordable (shorter) meeting in a cheaper location (with still the best speakers!). Our meeting is thus designed as an addition and not a competition with these other meetings. We look forward to welcoming you to Chapel Hill on May 21-23. Just because you asked, here are our rates:

Carolina Neurostimulation Conference: Regular $ 165, students $95.

We are delighted to announce that registration is now open for the Carolina Neurostimulation Conference. Here are the details:

Registration:
Please register at the link provided here . The deadline for Registration is May 1st 2018
Regular (Faculty, Postdocs, Industry Professionals): $165
Students (Graduate, Undergraduate): $95
UNC Members (Registration required): Free

For a full program, and information regarding registration, travel, and accommodations please visit our conference website. Like us on Facebook for updates.

Abstract Submission for Posters:
In addition to attending the plenary sessions, registrants are invited to participate in the conference’s poster session. Original contributions addressing theory, research, practice, and training/education issues, in any areas of neuromodulation and brain network dynamics are welcome. The deadline for abstract submission is March 15th 2018. Authors will be notified of acceptance in the first week of April. Please follow the guidelines for the submission of your abstract.

• Max 500 words and 1 page including title, author(s), affiliation(s), and main body.
• Structure: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions (References and Funding)
• File format: single PDF file converted from the provided template
• Email us to submit your abstract ([email protected])

Travel Awards for Trainees:
We have funds allocated for trainee travel awards. All trainees (undergraduate students, graduate students, post docs, research associates) who will be presenting posters at the conference are eligible for travel awards. To apply for a travel award please complete the form in this link and email us at [email protected] along with your CV. Please note that you must attend the conference and present your poster to receive the travel award. The deadline for Travel Awards is March 15th 2018


Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Workshop:
Trainees and conference attendees are encouraged to attend the preliminary neurostimulation workshop on May 21st, 2018. This one-day innovative hands-on transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) workshop will be taught by Dr. Flavio Frohlich. The workshop will focus on transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with an exciting overview of theory, research, and methods. Click here for registration information.
When completing registration, please be sure to provide feedback regarding your current knowledge of TES as well as some questions or techniques you are interested in. We want this course to be as interactive as possible. Lunch and beverages will be provided.

About the Carolina Center for Neurostimulation:
The Carolina Center for Neurostimulation is part of the Department of Psychiatry at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is directed by Dr. Flavio Frohlich. Established in 2017, the Center seeks to revolutionize psychiatry and neurology by studying the dynamics of brain, body, and behavior, investigating the response to stimulation, and translating discoveries into clinical treatments.
 

I would like to take a moment to share with you something we are working on in the Center and to get your input. Now and then, we get research participants who ask about access to their own data. Researchers often provide a pretty picture (brain scan) or a more-or-less random printout of a time-series, which seems to be OK for most participants. Here at the Center, we feel that if you participate in a research study, you should get a copy of your own raw data if you are interested. We are working towards rolling out a policy across all our studies with healthy participants, in close collaboration with our IRB. Here are some of the thoughts and concerns that have come up along the way:

• How can we make sure participants do not misunderstand the raw data as "clinical results"? The obvious answer is to clearly state that any raw data from a single participant in our studies do not reveal or contain clinical information. Yet, this is a tricky issue since the potential for misunderstandings is quite substantial...
• How do we actually share the data? If we recorded your EEG and you are interested in getting the complete raw data, we might might need to buy high-capacity memory sticks...
• Does the IRB allow providing the raw data to the participant? In our case, we have had a good conversation with them about this and have according language in our consent forms.

Overall, we are convinced we are doing the right thing. After all, it is a special privilege to receive permission to perform biological measurements on someone's body. Let's never forget that! What are your thoughts on this? Are there other aspects of how human research studies are performed that could be changed to enhance autonomy and respect of/for the participants? We are eager to hear from you!

Take care,

Flavio

I am delighted to share with you that we are now enrolling patients for our new non-invasive brain stimulation study for auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia. This study is a follow up study to STILL 2, where we found that a new type of brain stimulation approach may (with all the uncertainty of small, early pilot studies!) provide more relief than placebo or a more established form of brain stimulation. Please understand that we are pioneering this type of intervention (to our knowledge we are the first in the world to study this specific type of intervention in schizophrenia) and that there are no clear findings (yet!) that prove the effectiveness of any form of brain stimulation for the treatment of schizophrenia. Only through research we will get to that point!

In STILL 3, We are using very low power stimulation with the goal to reduce chronic auditory hallucinations associated with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. In this study, we use a form of stimulation called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). This is a low power intervention that most participants report that they cannot even feel. Previous research, including studies done here at the Carolina Center for Neurostimulation, support further investigations of this modality.
This study will also provide the research community with important and fundamental information on brain rhythms in complex disorders like schizophrenia. This is essential for enhancing our understanding of mental health at a brain-network level and may be key to unlocking future methods of treatment.
 
You may be eligible for the study if:

• You have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
• You are over 18 years old
• You have at least 3 auditory hallucinations per week

 
If you are interested in the study or have questions please reach out to our Study Coordinators
 
Anthony: 919-966-9929
[email protected]
 
Morgan: 919-966-4755
[email protected]
 
We have locations at
UNC Chapel Hill Medical School Wings
And
Falstaff Road in Raleigh

We look forward to hearing from you. Please note that this study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Please do not forget that this is a research study and we do not know yet if any of the interventions studied will ultimately prove effective and become clinical treatments.

We are delighted to announce the 2018 Carolina Neurostimulation Conference. The meeting will take place at UNC-Chapel May 21-23 2018 and is organized by our center. We have a list of 19 confirmed speakers from all across the world. We are honored to have the best of the best join us for this meeting. You can learn more about the meeting on the website of the meeting.

I would like to take a moment to explain why we decided to organize this meeting. We have designed it in a way that it should not compete with other existing meetings, but rather provide a different, complementary experience.

• In today's world, we feel it is particularly important to make sure that excellent scientists of both genders are appropriately represented on the speaker roster.
• The southeast of the US is a vibrant place for research but not enough scientific meetings take place in this region.
• As we are growing our Center, we want to make sure we provide value to the brain stimulation community beyond our local stakeholders.
• Many scientific conferences in our field have become very expensive (high registration fees, international meeting locations, expensive conference hotels etc). We want to create an affordable and accessible meeting.

We hope you are able to join us! Please post below if you have any comments/suggestions for the planned meeting.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Flavio & Team

Our Center has so far focused mostly on transcranial current stimulation. Recently, we have expanded into static magnetic fields for brain stimulation (study closed, we are processing the data). Today, I am delighted to announce the impending arrival of our new rTMS system with neuronavigation in the Center. Installation is planned for early December. We are setting up a MagVenture X-100 system that includes a research rTMS coil, neuronavigation, and a MagOption Dual Pulse module. The system will be centrally located in the UNC Neuroscience hospital. We offer access to this system to researchers at a competitive rate. We are offering an initial discount (expires March 2018) and also have special rates for UNC-affiliated researchers and junior investigators (first three years of appointment as faculty). Please contact us with any questions you may have.

Welcome to the newly established Carolina Center for Neurostimulation in the Department of Psychiatry at UNC - Chapel Hill. I am honored and delighted to serve as the director of this new center. Our goal is to enhance neurostimulation research and to accelerate the deployment of research findings into clinical applications. The center has emerged from research endeavors in the Frohlich Lab. Right now, we are in the process of developing the center and we hope to hear from you to get input on how we can best serve you. 

Our focus will be:

• Expansion of neuromodulatory therapeutic options at UNC;
• Development of collaborative research ventures;
• Positioning of UNC as an innovative leader in neuromodulation;
• Expansion of training opportunities in neuromodulation.

We have a long list of ideas and plans. This blog is intended as a tool to communicate with you as we are rolling out new programs. I am looking forward to hearing from you! Please leave comments below or directly reach out to me.

Thank you - together we can change the world!

Yours,

​Flavio