Over 90 scientists and clinicians attended the workshop. Sixteen lectures, two round tables, forty poster presentations and a busy social programme filled the 4 days of the workshop. It started on Sunday evening with a historical lecture by Mario Wiesendanger on compensatory strategies in brain disorders. It was beneficial to learn that many concepts evoked in modern rehabilitation were already formulated in the last century, but often without a solid and convincing experimental data. Monday 1st March was devoted to hemispheric specialisation. Lectures by Joseph B. Hellige, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, Theodor Landis, University of Geneva, Marianne Regard, University of Zurich, Anna Grabowska, Nencki Institute, Warsaw, Peter Brugger, University Hospital Zurich, and Norman Cook, Kansai University, Osaka helped us to clarify the issue. Placed on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, 2 lectures dealt with interhemispheric connections: Carlo Marzi, University of Verona and Stephanie Clarke, University of Lausanne. Two other lectures, by John C. Marshall, University of Oxford and Guiseppe Vallar, University of Milan, were devoted to left hemineglect. On Tuesday afternoon, two lectures given by Jean-Guy Villemure, University of Lausanne and Maurice Ptito, University of Montreal, Canada addressed the question of recovery after hemispherectomies, both in patients and in non-human primates. On Wednesday morning, Cornelius Weiller, University of Jena, Germany presented his timely lecture on learning, brain plasticity and recovery of function following brain lesions. Two lectures of the workshop were dedicated to animal models, one by Jean Bullier, University of Toulouse, dealing with the visual system and the other by Michaela Thallmair, University of Zurich, dealing with the motor system. Two round tables took place during the workshop. One on Tuesday evening, dealt with interhemispheric collaboration in intact and damaged brain and was chaired by Marie-Claude Hepp-Reymond, University of Zurich. It caused many heated discussions, some of which lasted late into the night. The second round table, last session on Wednesday morning, dealt with new vistas in neurorehabilitation, chaired by Stephanie Clarke, University of Lausanne. It addressed several issues in neurorehabilitation and concluded on the need for further and deepened collaboration between neuroscientists and rehabilitators. The social programme of the meeting facilitated discussions and exchange of ideas: a welcome party on Sunday evening, a guided tour of the museum of Monte Verita on Monday evening, and a farewell party on Wednesday noon. The proceedings of the meeting were published in Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis. Two other international scientific journals asked for the privilege to display their issues at the meeting: European Journal of Neuroscience and Neural Plasticity. On the request of the Ticino radio station an interview concerning the workshop was given by Stephanie Clarke and Giuseppe Vallar. We were very pleased with the facilities on the Monte Verita. Everything seemed to work beautifully, from the meeting room to the accommodation. Many participants commented favourably on the beautiful situation of the Centre. Anna Grabowska, Marianne Regard, Stephanie Clarke Lausanne, 23rd March 1999 |