IBI Daegu Conference 2026: Mapping the Emotional Brain from Synapses to Behavior

On September 4 – 5, 2026, the Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI) hosted the 5th International Brain Initiative (IBI) Daegu Conference in Daegu, South Korea. Held under the continuing theme, “Emotional Brain Mapping in Health and Disease,” the conference brought together neuroscientists from Korea, the United States, China, Singapore, India, and other countries to explore how neural systems give rise to emotion, social behavior, and cognition, and how disruptions in these systems contribute to psychiatric and neurological disorders.

The conference serves as the flagship annual meeting of the IBI Emotional Brain Working Group, coordinated by KBRI through Professors Ja Wook Koo, Jong-Cheol Rah, and Yong-Seok Lee. The meeting was also the first Daegu Conference held under KBRI President, Dr. Seungbok Lee, who welcomed participants together with IBI Chair Professor Anthony Hannan of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Their opening remarks highlighted the importance of sustained international collaboration and of creating opportunities for the next generation of neuroscientists to engage with the global research community.

The scientific program opened with a lecture by Professor Jun Soo Kwon (Hanyang University) on cortico-thalamo-cerebellar dysconnectivity across the schizophrenia spectrum. His presentation highlighted the potential of neuroimaging-derived circuit measures as biologically grounded biomarkers for understanding disease progression and improving the assessment of psychosis risk.

Three scientific symposia then examined the emotional brain across complementary biological and analytical scales.

The Synaptic and Circuit Mechanisms of Social Behavior Symposium explored neural mechanisms underlying social recognition, memory, attention, and affective behavior. Presentations addressed hippocampal and infralimbic circuits involved in social identity, the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus in social memory and attention, AI-based approaches for identifying neural representations of affect and social intelligence, and oxytocin-dependent maturation of prefrontal inhibitory circuits during adolescent development.

The Circuits and Connectomics Symposium focused on how neural circuit organization and synaptic dynamics shape information processing and behavior. Topics ranged from visual navigation circuits and cerebellar plasticity to advanced expansion microscopy for large-scale connectomics and the role of short-term synaptic depression in regulating short-term memory.

The Stress and Psychedelics Symposium examined emerging approaches to understanding and treating neuropsychiatric disorders. Discussions covered the clinical potential of classic psychedelics for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders; structural mechanisms of 5-HT2A receptor signaling relevant to the development of non-hallucinogenic therapeutics; ibogaine-associated reopening of adult cortical plasticity; and the influence of early-life stress on RNA methylation and memory.

Across the two-day meeting, a central theme was the need to connect discoveries across multiple scales — from synapses and cellular mechanisms to neural circuits, brain-wide networks, behavior, and human disease. The discussions demonstrated how molecular and circuit neuroscience, connectomics, computational and artificial intelligence approaches, and clinical research can be integrated to build a more comprehensive understanding of the emotional brain.

A dedicated poster session further provided early- and mid-career researchers with opportunities to present their work, exchange ideas, and receive feedback from senior scientists from across the international neuroscience community. These interactions highlighted the conference’s broader role not only as a forum for scientific exchange, but also as a platform for building new collaborations and supporting the next generation of researchers.

Looking ahead, the IBI Emotional Brain Working Group will continue to explore new dimensions of the emotional brain through future Daegu Conferences, while strengthening international partnerships and promoting collaborative, multiscale approaches to understanding emotion and its disorders.

The KBRI and the IBI thank all speakers, participants, and organizers whose contributions made the 5th IBI Daegu Conference possible, and look forward to continuing this international dialogue at future meetings.