Document download: WCN 2011: Scientific Program

The bulk of the scientific program is made up of main topic sessions, each with a number of lectures under a common theme.

Many of the sessions and lectures focused on the congress theme, “With Africa, for Africa,” and highlighted the achievements of African neurologists and the challenges they face. These included “History of Neuroscience in the Maghreb” and “Neurological Care Policy in Africa”.

Daily plenary sessions included the following topics:

• The Mirror Neurons and the Cognitive Brain (Giacomo Rizzolatti, Italy);
• The Future of DBS in Neurology and Psychiatry (Alim L. Benabid, France);
• Challenges in Adopting International Guidelines Into National Stroke Programs (Lu Chuanzhenn,China);
• Neuroaesthetics: Artistic Creativity and the Brain (Sémir Zeki, UK); and
• Vertigo and Balance (David Zee, USA).

Also included under the plenary sessions are the Named Orations:

• Melvin D. Yahr Lecture (presented by Anthony Lang, Canada);
• the Eddie and Piloo Bharucha Lecture (Elly Katabira, Uganda);
• Soriano Lecture (Christian Elger, Germany); and
• the Fulton Symposium Soriano Lecture (Hidehiro Mizusawa, Japan).

The topics for the presidential session are

• Neuropsychology of the Arabic Language (El Mostafa El Alaoui Faris, Morocco, president of the WCN 2011);
• Hypertension and the Brain (Vladimir Hachinski, president of the WFN); and
• the Changing Spectrum of Neurology: New Agenda, Opportunities, and Allies (Werner Hacke, Germany).

In addition to the aforementioned sessions, attendees were also able to participate in regional and educational sessions and daily debates.