ICON stands for International Conference for Cognitive Neuroscience.

ICON has taken place every 2-3 years since 1980 (click the "Where?" tab for an historical overview). ICON brings together researchers from diverse backgrounds, joined by their interest in studying the relationships amongst brain, mind, and behavior.

Central to the ICON idea is the dissemination and exchange of high-level scientific findings, methods, and ideas across various areas of cognitive neuroscience including all topics such as language, attention, decision making, and many more.

ICON conferences are always a big success, and 2017 in Amsterdam will follow this same tradition!

For questions about the meeting, contact icon2017@icon2017.org.

Requisite pictures of Amsterdam:

• Amsterdam is famous for bicycles (among other things).



• Queen's day (look carefully—this is the canal and everyone is on boats!)

ICON 1982 in Kingston Ontario:

• Love the clothes and beards! (Photo credit: Professor Pat Michie)

ICON has a long history of being in beautiful exotic locations (and close to the beach!). The table below lists all previous ICONs.

The next ICON will be no different. ICON 2017 will be located in the heart of the beautiful and cultural city of Amsterdam (Netherlands). And yes, it's close(ish) to the beach.

The venue will be the breath-taking Beurs van Berlage conference hall. It is located in the heart of Amsterdam. Amsterdam, in turn, is easily accessible from almost anywhere on planet Earth.

The closest airport is Schiphol, a 20-minute train ride from the city center. Amsterdam is also easily accessible by international trains, and the conference location is a 10-minute walk from Amsterdam Centraal Station.

For practical information about traveling to Amsterdam, click on the "Info!" tab.

ICON #	Year	Location	Near beach?
I	1980	Zeist (Netherlands)	Not really
II	1982	Kingston (Canada)	Yes
III	1984	Bristol (UK)	You call that a beach?
IV	1987	Dourdan (France)	Close enough
V	1992	Jerusalem (Israel)	Yes
VI	1996	Asilomar (California)	Couldn't be closer
VII	1999	Budapest (Hungary)	Too much good beer to notice
VIII	2001	Porquerolles (France)	Couldn't be closer
IX	2005	Havana (Cuba)	Yes
X	2008	Bodrum (Turkey)	Yes
XI	2011	Mallorca (Spain)	Yes
XII	2014	Brisbane (Oz)	Yes
XIII	2017	Amsterdam (Netherlands)	"Yes"
XIV	2020	???? (????)	Sure hope so!

ICON will take place from the 5^th to the 8^th of August, 2017

Mark your calendars and plan your research accordingly!

Specifc dates for submissions and registration are listed below:

Registration opens	2 January 2017
Symposia/A.T.E./Hackathons submissions close	1 February 2017
Poster submissions close	31 March 2017
Notification of submission acceptance	1 May 2017
Early-bird discount registration ends	15 May 2017
Late registration fees apply	3 July 2017

Please note that ICON2017 weekend is also the weekend of the gay pride celebration in Amsterdam (auspicious though unintentional serendipitous timing). Don't wait until the last minute to book your accomodation!

Executive committee

• Mike X Cohen and Birte Forstmann

(Please direct conference-related questions to icon2017@icon2017.org.)

Program board

•  Ole Jensen
•  Peter Hagoort
•  Richard Ridderinkhof

Scientific committees:

Anatomy	Rogier Mars
Attention	Kia Nobre
Clinical	Cam Carter
Cognitive modeling	Scott Brown
Connectivity/networks	Andreas Engel
Consciousness	Rufin VanRullen
Decision-making	Tobias Kalenscher
Developmental	Eveline Crone
Electrophysiology methods	Eric Maris
Hackathons/tutorials	Tal Yarkoni
Language	Simon Fisher
Memory	Charan Ranganath
MRI methods	Russ Poldrack
Neural modeling	Gustavo Deco
Open science and replication	Dorothy Bishop
Sensory processing	John Serences
Social behavior	Christian Ruff

Honorary executive members (previous ICON organizers)

•  Frini Karayanidis
•  Francisco Barcelo

We strive to make ICON2017 a world-class conference that includes both a standard conference program and some novel options.

We believe that ICON should showcase high quality science that values scientific rigor and careful experimentation over "sexy" results. We encourage people to present their best research even if it includes null findings.

ICON is an international conference featuring all topics around the cognitive neurosciences such as:

• Anatomy
• Attention
• Clinical
• Cognitive Modeling
• Connectivity/Networks
• Consciousness
• Decision-making
• Developmental
• Electrophysiology Methods
• Hackathons/Tutorials
• Language
• Memory
• MRI Methods
• Neural Modeling
• Open Science and Replication
• Sensory Processing
• Social Behavior

Standard program material:

• Inspiring keynote speakers
• Impressive parallel sessions
• Powerful posters

Novel program options:

• Hackathons: In hackathons, people will have the opportunity to come together and focus on programming a specific problem. Examples include data analysis, cognitive modeling, making a psychtoolbox experiment, etc. We also invite computer/programming-based workshop tutorials that are more educational than traditional hackathons.


• Self-organized critical pico-discussions: SOCDs are a novel concept. Each morning, any attendee can propose a small discussion around a single topic, specialized for 5-15 people. There will be "nooks" in the conference venue available with a TV and VGA cable for spontaneous presentations. SOCDs can also meet at a designated location such as a cafe or coffee shop (please know the Netherlands distinction between cafe and coffee shop).


• Ask the experts: A panel of 3-5 experts in a topic will sit on stage and have a Q&A discussion with the audience. One person (preferably PhD student or postdoc) will be responsible for organizing the panel and keeping the 1-hour discussion going.

Let's make the world a better place

• Part of our responsibility as scientists (not to mention citizens of planet Earth) is to try to make the world a little bit better than how we found it. Proceeds of the ICON meeting will be given to one or a few charities that focus on increasing literacy and supporting displaced refugees. We will also provide opportunities to make individual donations at the meeting. If you have other suggestions or new ideas, please let us know!

Information about our blind review process

Part of our commitment to advancing fair and high-quality science is a blinded review process, in which reviewers do not see authors' names or institutions. This helps ensure that there are no unintentional biases.

To maintain blindness, we request that you avoid using speakers' names in abstracts. For symposia abstracts, you should refer to "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2" rather than names. Thanks in advance for your help with making the review process fair!

Click here for the official registration/submission site

Submission guidelines

Poster presentation

• Overview: A poster presentation involves describing your research and findings on a poster (paper or cloth) of maximum 97 by 147 cm (landscape format). Your poster will be on display for one day at the conference, and you will be expected to be in front of your poster for a 90-minute period either morning or afternoon (see Progam tab for time information).


• Title: Maximum of 15 words.
• Author list: Please include only authors that contributed to the work presented in the poster.
• Abstract: Maximum of 300 words.
• Theme: You will select one theme. If your poster fits into multiple themes (e.g., EEG methods and networks), pick the one you think best reflects the most important aspects of the poster. For a list of themes, click on the "Who?" button to the left.


• Getting your poster abstract accepted: Write a clear abstract that includes (1) the motivation for doing the research, (2) a clear but brief description of the methods, (3) a summary of the key results, (4) a statement about the importance of the findings in the literature. Abstracts are selected on the basis of the quality of the research; we encourage high-quality submissions even if the results are not statistically significant.

Additional information about evaluations: We evaluate poster submissions based on the abstract having a solid theoretical background, clear and falsifiable hypotheses, good experiment design (as appropriate), and clear description of analyses. Null findings or preliminary data are acceptable, as long as the above criteria are met.



• Maximum poster presentations: You may be the first (presenting) author of only ONE poster. You may be co-author on any number of posters.

Symposia

• Overview: A symposium includes 3-4 speakers on a single topic in two-and-one-half (2.5) hours. One person acts as the main symposium organizer and is responsible for recruiting speakers, gathering abstracts, etc. The main organizer is the sole submitter and contact-point for their symposium.


• Titles: The symposium should have a brief (maximum 15 words) title. Each speaker within the symposium will need their own title.
• Author list: There must be 3-4 speakers in a symposium. Each speaker can submit their own author list for their presentation.
• Abstract: There will be N+1 abstracts submitted; one per speaker, and one for the entire symposium. Each abstract should have a maximum of 300 words.
• Theme: You will select one theme. If your symposium fits into multiple themes (e.g., EEG methods and networks), pick the one you think best reflects the most important aspects of the symposium. For a list of themes, click on the "Who?" button to the left.


• Getting your symposium accepted: The number of symposia is strictly limited, so we anticipate (unfortunately) not being able to accept all submissions. Symposia will have a higher chance of acceptance if they are focused on a clear topic that is expected to attract an audience. As with poster sessions, we are looking for high-quality science regardless of the p-values, and we welcome a mix of methods- and content-oriented talks.


• Multi-symposia participation: You may be a speaker in maximum two symposia. You may be the organizer of only one symposia.


• Posters for symposium speakers: It is possible to be part of a symposium and also present a poster. If you are part of a symposium as chair or speaker and your symposium is not selected, you will have the option (selected during submission) to have your submission treated as a poster submission.

Ask-the-experts

• Overview: Ask-the-expert sessions involve a panel of 3-5 people who will sit on a stage and answer questions and have a discussion amongst themselves and with the audience about a specific topic. One person (preferably PhD student or postdoc) acts as the main organizer and is responsible for recruiting the expert speakers. The organizer is also expected to make sure the conversation keeps going, and so would need to come prepared with a list of questions and discussion points. The main organizer is the sole submitter and contact-point for their panel.


• Titles: The title should contain a maximum of 15 words.
• Author list: There must be 3-5 speakers in an ask-the-experts panel.
• Abstract: The abstract should include a 200-word description of the intended discussion, including several questions and discussion points. In addition, each speaker should describe their expertise in the relevant area in a paragraph of maximum 100 words.
• Theme: You will select one theme. If the panel fits into multiple themes, pick the one you think best reflects the most important aspects of the intended discussion. For a list of themes, click on the "Who?" button to the left.


• Getting your ask-the-experts panel accepted: Space is strictly limited, so we anticipate (unfortunately) not being able to accept all submissions. Panels will have a higher chance of acceptance if they are focused on a clear topic that is of interest or debate in the current literature, and with panel members that have complementary expertises.


• Posters for ask-the-expert panel members: It is possible to submit a poster and be a member of an ask-the-experts panel.

Hackathons

• Overview: A "hackathon" is a computer-based session that can be used either to have participants work on a common problem via programming or other computer-related work, or to organize a computer-based teaching session. This can include toolbox or data analysis workshops. Keep in mind that hackathons will last a maximum of 2.5 hours, so each hackathon should be focused on a topic that can be accomplished in that time frame. One person acts as the main organizer and is responsible for organizing the event. Sufficient desks, power outlets, and wifi will be available; particants must bring their own laptops.


• Titles: The title should contain a maximum of 15 words.
• Author list: There may be as many speakers/helpers as appropriate, but only one person acts as the main organizer.
• Abstract: The abstract should include a 200-word description of the goal of the hackathon. Be clear about what the goal is (e.g., "by the end of the session, participants will be able to..."). In addition, the main organizer should describe his or her expertise in the relevant area.
• Theme: You will select one theme. If the hackathon fits into multiple themes, pick the one you think best reflects the most important aspects of the intended workshop. For a list of themes, click on the "Who?" button to the left.


• Getting your hackathon accepted: Space is strictly limited, so we anticipate (unfortunately) not being able to accept all submissions. Hackathons will have a higher chance of acceptance if they are focused on a clear goal that involves a learning component and that can be accomplished in 2.5 hours, and that is likely to be of interest to a wide audience.


• Posters for hackathon members: It is possible to submit a poster and be a hackathon organizer.

Download an information brochure about Amsterdam!

Some highlights of the practical information about Amsterdam in August:

• City and country: Amsterdam is a modern, progressive, and cultural city in the Netherlands.


• Currency: The Netherlands uses the euro. Unlike the rest of Europe, however, Dutch people do not like 1- and 2- cent coins, and all purchases are rounded to the nearst 5-cent mark.


• Language: Dutch is the official language of The Netherlands. Nearly all Dutch people speak English as well.


• Tipping: Tipping is not expected in many situations (taxis, cafes, etc). If you have a nice sit-down-type dinner, a tip of around 10% is expected. Despite the rumors, tipping ICON organizers is unnecessary.


• Weather: The weather in Amsterdam in August can range from pleasant (15^C/60^F) to hot (30^C/90^F). It is likely to be humid and almost certainly will rain at least a little bit. Definitely bring an umbrella and an optimistic attitude!


• Transportation: Amsterdam is the city of bikes! The city is perfect for bicycles because there are no hills, and because cars and buses are always aware of bikes. There are many many bike rental shops all over the city, and we encourage you to experience Amsterdam on two wheels.
  
  If you prefer to use gasoline-based transportation, there are many busses and trams that will take you from anywhere in the city to the Centraal Station (that's not a typo—it's spelled with two a's), which is a very short walk from the conference location. You can plan your travel routes on google map or at 9292.nl. You can buy single-trip tickets, day passes, and week-long passes.
  
  If you are staying outside the city, you will probably want to take the Dutch "ns" trains.
  
  We generally recommend against driving your own car to the conference each day. Center-city traffic can be annoying, and parking can be difficult.
  
  Amsterdam has several legal taxi services. Taxis cannot be hailed from the street, and instead are called in advance.

Information about accomodation

• Hotels: We have several near-by hotels with arrangements for discounts. When you follow the link to register, you can also book your hotel and automatically receive your discount. You can also book your hotel on your own. Make sure it's accessible to the conference location (Beurs van Berlage)
  
  We have hotel rooms blocked off especially for ICON, and we recommend taking advantage of these discounted prices. Follow this link for more information!


• Hostels, Airbnb, etc: There are many hostels in Amsterdam. They are cheaper but typically have shared facilities. Airbnb and related services allow you to rent a room in someone's apartment, or rent the entire apartment. These services are legal in the Netherlands under some conditions, mostly that the owner of the apartment/house agrees to the short-term rentals.



Please note that ICON2017 weekend is also the weekend of the gay pride celebration in Amsterdam (auspicious though unintentional serendipitous timing). Don't wait until the last minute to book your accomodation!

Information about visas

• Some participants will require visas for entry into the Netherlands. Please check with your travel agency or airline to determine whether you will require an entry permit/visa. You can also find out through visiting the website of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs: www.minbuza.nl (in Dutch). Citizens of nearly all European countries, as well as citizens of Australia, Canada and the United States of America do not require a visa for entry to the Netherlands for a period up to three months. A valid passport will suffice.

  If you need a visa, you can apply for an invitation letter after completing your registration form, by sending an email to conference@uva.nl including the following information:

  
  Mr. / Mrs.
  First name (as written in your passport)
  Family name (as written in your passport)
  Date of birth
  Place of birth
  Nationality
  Passport number
  Date of issue (passport)
  Date of expiry (passport)
  Website company / email address company
  * The information must be complete, or else we cannot provide you a visa letter.
  * The visa letter will be sent after we have received your conference fee.
  * Letters are sent weekly.
  

We want to make ICON2017 an amazing conference, and we have worked hard to make it affordable.

The registration costs after 15 May are €500 for students (masters and PhD levels) and €700 for full registration (including postdocs). Late registration after 3 July will involve an additional charge, so don't wait until the last minute to register!

Registration includes breakfast and lunch every day (sandwiches/salad/fish/veggies/fruit/bread), juice/tea/coffee and lots of stroopwafels, and the opening night reception at the beautiful Hotel Krasnapolsky!

Click here for the official registration/submission site.

Note these important registration dates!

Registration opens	2 January 2017
Early registration ends	15 May 2017
Late registration fees apply	3 July 2017

Cancellation/registration-transfer policy

• Please note that the conference office should be notified of cancellations by e-mail (conference@uva.nl). Cancellations will be refunded minus €100 administration costs if the cancellation is made on or before 3 July 2017.


• From 4 July 2017 refunds are no longer possible. "No shows" (due to all causes including natural disasters) are non-refundable.

Paid registration may be transferred to another person (student-to-student and full-to-full) at any time. You must give prior notice by emailing conference@uva.nl.

Visit the program page to see the preliminary schedule and search through all program material!

We are pleased to announce the following ICON keynote speakers:

	John Duncan (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit)
	Eleanor Maguire (UCL)
	Satu Palva (University of Helsinki)
	Daphna Shohamy (Columbia University)

Accepted symposia (title and main organizer):

Anatomy
The Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Social Cognition: Evidence from anatomy, electrophysiology, computational and translational neuroscience	Joshua Balsters
Attention
Oscillations in the broad alpha band: New Findings	Manuel Schabus
You know it's time: The beneficial effects of temporal attention on perception	Felix Ball, Toemme Noesselt
Neural oscillatory mechanisms in temporal prediction	Assaf Breska
The temporal dynamics of response inhibition: neural markers, modes, and modulations	Rene Huster
Cognitive and neural mechanisms of attention development	Joe Bathelt
Cognitive modeling
New computational approaches to P300 research in humans	Francisco Barcelo
Models of category formation and adaptation: distributional learning of speech and language	Katerina Chladkova
Toward a unified account of frontopolar function in higher-level cognition	Micah Goldwater
The Influence of Cortical Field Potentials on Perception, Action, and Cognition	Jason Palmer
Connectivity/networks
Connectivity research in cognitive neuroscience: Hype or approach of the future?	Rogier Mars
Decision-making
Contemplating conflict: the role of metacognition and performance monitoring in voluntary action	Frederike Beyer
Dilemmas in the face of uncertainty: Computational approaches to adaptive behavior	Zsuzsika Sjoerds
Neurobiology of Motivation: Anatomy, pharmacology, pathology, and computation	Matthew Apps
Principled computations of goal-directed perceptual inference: from the cortical column to the large-scale network	Saskia Haegens
Deciding how to decide: when and how the brain takes short-cuts to make decisions	Hanneke den Ouden
Functional interactions between neural systems for attention and decision making	Mark Bellgrove
The neural basis of social decision-making	Jan Engelmann
Developmental
Functional and structural determinants of lifespan differences in cognition	Linda Geerligs
Building Cognitive Architecture in Atypically Developing Populations: Assessing The Potential of Targeted Cognitive Training	Kim Cornish
Electrophysiology methods
Eye movement-related brain activity in perceptual and cognitive processing	Andrey Nikolaev
Can we measure without influencing the measured: Rhythmic sensory stimulation in brain research	Rasa Gulbinaite
MRI methods
Dynamic Causal Modelling: a promising tool for studying the putative mechanisms underlying brain function?	Elinor Tzvi
Memory
Mnemonic priorities: dynamic interplays between attention and working memory	Nahid Zokaei
Theta oscillations in the human medial temporal lobe - From single units to MEG	Simon Hanslmayr
Is visual cortex relevant for visual working memory?	Annelinde Vandenbroucke
Theta-gamma coupling as a mnemonic mechanism in the human brain	Moritz Koester
The role of expectancy in episodic memory encoding	Andrea Greve
Hippocampal representations of realistic memories: event segmentation, integration and organisation of memories in naturalistic contexts	Branka Milivojevic
Sensory processing
Modulation of perceptual processes by motor processes: the role of neuronal oscillations.	Alice Tomassini
Predictions in perception and action: neural mechanisms, cognitive determinants, and computational architectures	Ryszard Auksztulewicz
Sensory and Cognitive Plasticity Following Visual or Auditory Impairment	Stephen Lomber
Perspectives on sensory prediction	Juanita Todd
How can deep neural networks help us understand sensory processing in the human brain?	Iris Groen
See, smell, and taste this! The neuroscience of multimodal food perception	Kathrin Ohla
Open science, replication
How to organize open and reproducible science?	Eric Maris
Open and reproducible neuroscience: What, Why and How?	Dorothy Bishop

Accepted hackathons (title and main organizer):

A tutorial on multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) of fMRI data in Python	Lukas Snoek
The Amsterdam Decoding And Modeling toolbox (EEG/MEG)	Johannes Fahrenfort
Stochastic modelling for neurosciences in R	Jan Kirchner

Accepted ask-the-experts (title and main organizer):

Leveraging electrophysiology to study visual perception across non-human and human primates	Vinitha Rangarajan
Towards a theory of Prefrontal Cortex: Throwing out the babies with the bathwater?	Eliana Vassena

Overview of the daily ICON schedule:

Registration/coffee	8:00-8:30
Morning parallel sessions	8:30-10:50
Welcome address or keynote	11:00-12:00
Poster session and lunch	12:00-13:30
Afternoon parallel sessions	13:30-16:00
Poster session and snacks	16:00-17:30
Keynote address	17:30-18:30

Note about posters: Posters should be formatted in landscape, with a maximum of 97x147 cm.

Pre-conference satellite sessions:

Post-conference satellite session:

A related conference that ICONeers might be interested in:

Social media (twitter and facebook) will play an important role in disseminating information during ICON2017. Follow us on twitter and facebook!

When tweeting about ICON2017, please use the hashtag #iconNL

Visit our Facebook site!

Tweets by @ICON2017

We are grateful for the generous support of:

For questions about sponsorships, contact icon2017@icon2017.org.