Professor Dr. rer. nat. Nicola Palomero-Gallagher,
Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich
Céline Amiez, Ph.D.
Research Director (DR2) CNRS Inserm U1208, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute
Camille Giacometti, Postdoctoral fellow; Research Centre Jülich.
Lucija Rapan, Research associate; Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf.
Jade Oh, PhD student; Oxford University.
This symposium explores the cingulate cortex as a hub linking emotion, cognition, and adaptive behavior across species. Integrating structural, receptor, and functional connectivity data from mice, macaques, and humans, speakers will examine its interactions with the amygdala and cingulate cortex, revealing conserved and species-specific motifs that bridge microstructural organization with macroscale network dynamics and behavioral flexibility.
The cingulate cortex integrates inputs from multiple amygdalar nuclei, supporting its pivotal role in decision-making, conflict monitoring, and affective regulation. Its cytoarchitectonic and receptor-level diversity across species may underlie key translational differences between rodent and primate systems. A multiscale, comparative approach is therefore crucial to connect cellular and molecular architecture with systems-level dynamics and behavior.
This symposium will clarify which aspects of cingulate organization, including amygdalo-cingulate connectivity patterns, are conserved across species and which are divergent, provide a framework for interpreting functional imaging in light of microstructural features, and propose best practices for translational research that aims to move mechanistic insights from rodents to primates and humans.
Dr. Giacometti Camille is a postdoctoral researcher at the C. and O. Vogt Institute of Brain Research, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf and Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich in Germany. During her PhD and first postdoctoral position, she investigated the anatomo-functional organization of the amygdala-frontal network in both humans and macaque monkeys using structural and functional MRI. In her current position, she extends this line of research through a multiscale framework that integrates fMRI with microscopic techniques such as autoradiography and cytoarchitectonic mapping. This integrative approach aims to understand the microscopic organization underlying larger-scale brain structures and functions, providing insights into the neural foundations of human brain specialization.
Dr. Lucija Rapan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the C. & O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research, University Hospital Düsseldorf, and at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich. Her current research focuses on comparative analyses of the human and macaque posterior default mode network with a multimodal approach combining quantitative cytoarchitecture, multi-receptor mapping, and neuroimaging data. Previously, she studied the receptor architecture and connectivity of the macaque frontal and cingulate cortices, as well as comparative neurochemical features of the human and macaque visual systems, advancing cross-species insights into the structural and functional principles of the primate brain
Jade is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Bioscience at the University of Oxford, based in the Cognitive Neuroecology Lab (PI Prof. Rogier Mars) and the Preclinical Imaging Group (PI Prof. Jason Lerch). She is working on building a mouse-human translational brain model using resting state functional connectivity data, aiming to inform and improve cross-species comparisons, with a particular focus on the cingulate cortex and precuneus