To be held in Bangor Gwynedd, in lovely North Wales. This year the fMRS symposium will be held jointly (one after the other) with the 9th GABA and Edited MRS symposium.
We therefore invite all interested neuroscientists and spectroscopists to come join us and discuss the latest research using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to probe brain function and metabolism.
Location: Bangor Gwynedd, on the edge of Eryri, and right next door to Ynys Môn (the Isle of Anglesey), Bangor provides easy access to wonderful beaches, stunning mountains, and a host of outdoor pursuits. It also is home to Bangor University, and the Bangor Imaging Unit, which is hosting this event.
Dates:
fMRS symposium :- 31st August – 2nd of September 2025.
9th GABA and Edited MRS symposium: – 3rd – 5th September 2025.

Menai Strait and Menai Bridge drone footage Fideo drôn Y Fenai a Phorthaethwy

Aims of the symposium

To develop a core community within the field of functional MRS by
- sharing novel insights
- discuss and establish current best practices
- identifying research priorities
- and providing opportunities to network and form collaborations.
To increase the access and relevance to other fields
To increase the international profile of the fMRS field
To educate and provide skills training and networking opportunities for early career researchers entering the field

Registration details:

We invite all interested neuroscientists and spectroscopists to come join us at the joint fMRS and Edited MRS symposia. You are welcome to come for both, or just one of these two symposia.

Dates:

fMRS symposium – evening of the 31^st August – 2^nd of September 2025.
Joint fMRS and Edited MRS symposia – evening of the 31^st August – 5^th of September 2025

Registration details: –

Attending both the Functional and the Edited MRS symposium –

£300 early bird registration (before May 31^st),
£400 regular registration (from June 1^st to July 31^st),
£600 late registration (from August 1^st – 31^st) .

If attending only the fMRS symposium –

£175 early bird registration (before May 31^st),
£250 regular registration (June 1^st to July 31^st),
£350 late registration (August 1-31^st)

We have endeavoured to keep costs and fees as low as possible. Registration covers lunch and coffee breaks on both days, a buffet dinner on the first full conference day, and fees for symposium room hire etc. A welcome dinner, and a closing dinner may be available as optional extras.

Please register using this online form. There is a second link at the end of the registration form that will take you to the payment page, or you can pay here.

Submitted Talks:

Attendees are invited to submit abstracts for talks or posters – we have currently planned 5 sessions for talks (fMRS in cognitive neuroscience, fMRS in clinical applications, fMRS in neural physiology, fMRS methodology, and preclinical fMRS), a special “Power Pitch” session (2 minutes to present your ideas for an fMRS experiment), and a possible poster session during lunch on day 1.

Abstract Submission

Please submit your abstracts here.

Accommodation:

We have a block of rooms available in Student halls if participants wish to book. Otherwise, there are several hotels in the vicinity of Bangor that can be booked. Bookings can be made via the accommodation portal, use the code SYMPOSIA25 for bed and breakfast accommodation at ~£55 per night.

More information on the on campus accommodation.

Preliminary Program Outline

Sunday 31st

16:00 Welcome drinks (location to be confirmed)

Monday 1st September

08:30 – Registration

09:00 – Welcome

09:30 – Keynote “Zoom” – Lijing Xin, EPFL.

10:30 – Refreshment break – Tea, Coffee, water, biscuits and cakes.

11:00 Session 1 : fMRS in cognitive neuroscience Chair: Dr Caroline Lea-Carnall

11:05 Mixed Block and Event-related fMRS to investigate different phases of Working Memory at 7T

Daniel Cocking¹, Ryan Elson², Katherine Dyke², Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu^3,4, Claudia Danielmeier^2, Adam Berrington¹

Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, UK. ³School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, UK.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham, UK.

11:20 Dynamic Neurochemistry of Inhibitory Control: A Systematic Review

Siavash Rakhtshah¹, Katherine Dyke¹, Ryan Elson¹, Adam Berrington², Daniel Cocking², Claudia Danielmeier¹

School of Psychology, ²School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham”

11:35 Functional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (fMRS) Study on Reading-Related Metabolite Changes at 7T

Katarzyna Wasilewska¹, Bartosz Kossowski², Agnieszka Glica¹, Agata Charzyńska¹, Katarzyna Jednoróg¹

Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

11:50 Functional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at 7 Tesla: Examining Glutamate & Lactate Dynamics during Processing Speed

Antonia Kaiser^1,2, Ying Xiao^1,2, Mark Widmaier^1,2, Lijing Xin^1,2

CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Switzerland,
Animal Imaging and Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

12:30 – Lunch break

13:30 Session 2: Advice for fMRS from other neuroimaging techniques

Panel discussion with experts from outside the fMRS field + Q&A from the audience

Fernando Zelaya – fMRI and brain physiology imaging and Itamar Ronen – using diffusion weighted spectroscopy to investigate neural processes.

14:30 Session 3: Preclinical fMRS

14:30 GABA Increase Revealed during Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest using Short TE 1H MR Spectroscopy

Meng Gu¹, Ralph Hurd¹ and Daniel Spielman¹

Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States

14:45 Integrative Multimodal MRI and Functional MR Spectroscopy for Mapping Interhemispheric Communication

Nathalie Just¹

Ecole Polytechique Fédérale de Lausanne

15:00 Functional activation of metabolism as detected using 13C MRS

Joao Durate

15:30 – Refreshment break – Tea and Coffee.

16:00 – Session 4: fMRS in Clinical and Cognitive applications

Chairs: Dr. Betina Ip and Dr. Beata Godlewska

16:00 Big fMRS: a functional MR Spectroscopy multi-site study

I. Betina Ip¹, Anouk Schrantee², Saad Jbabdi¹, William T. Clarke¹, Adam Berrington³, Francesca Saviola⁴, Antonia Kaiser⁵, Alexander R. Craven^6,7,8, Georg Oeltzschner^9,10, Martin Wilson¹¹, Ashley Harris^12,13,14, James Stone^15,16, Koen Cuypers^17,18, Lijing Xin¹⁹, Paul G. Mullins²⁰ and the Big fMRS working group

Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom;
Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom;
Neuro-X Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland;
CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland;
Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway,
Department of Clinical Engineering, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway;
Mohn Medical Imaging and Visualization Centre (MMIV), Department of Radiology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway;
Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA;
F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA;
Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom,
Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada;
Hotchkiss Brain Institute. Calgary, Canada;
Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Calgary, Canada;
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Brighton;
Sussex Medical School, University of Brighton and University of Sussex, Brighton;
Neuroplasticity and Movement Control Research Group, Rehabilitation Research Institute (REVAL), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium;
Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium;
Center for Biomedical Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;
School of Psychology and Sport and Exercise Science, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK.”

16:15 Applying fMRS for Dynamic Measures of Glutamate in Psychiatric Studies

Vilca-Melendez, S, Godlewska, BR, Ip, B, Clarke, W, Cowen, PJ.

Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford , Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford

16:30 Neurochemical Correlates of Episodic Mismatch Detection in the Human Hippocampus

Dominika Varga¹, Itamar Ronen², Chris Bird¹

¹Sussex Neuroscience, University of Sussex, ²Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex

16:45 Increased lactate production in Myalgic Encephalitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) during brain stimulation with a flashing checkerboard: a 7T functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Beata R Godlewska (1, 2), William Clarke (3), Sylvana Vilca-Melendez (1), Aaron Hess (3), Philip J Cowen (1, 2)

(1) Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK

(2) Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

(3) Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, UK

17:00 – End of days sessions – exit hall please

Tuesday 2nd

08:30 – Welcome

09:00 – Session 5: fMRS for physiology. Chairs Professor Paul Mullins and Dr Assaf Tal

09:15 Measuring neurometabolism with fMRS during exercise

Asare Adomako^1,2, Muhammad Subhan Zahid Nazir¹, Geoff Combs¹ Sam Oliver^1,, Julian Owen¹, Paul G. Mullins¹.

¹Institute of Applied Human Physiology, School of Psychology and Sports Science, Bangor University; ²MSc in Neuroimaging, Bangor University.

09:30 Biological validity of fMRS in a working-memory task

Asia Ferrari1,2,3, Manuela Moretto3,4,5, Francesca Saviola6, Stefano Tambalo7, Matthias Kirschner1,2, Ottavia Dipasquale8, Jorge Jovicich3

1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland;

2. Division of Adult Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland;

3. CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy;

4. Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom;

5. Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy;

6. Neuro-X Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland.

7. Department of Physics, University of Torino, Torino, Italy

8. Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, London, UK

9:45 Regional Neurometabolic Responses to Intermittent Hypoxia

Ferrida Ponce¹, Jamie Macdonald¹, Sam Oliver¹, Richard Edden², Yulu Song², Paul Mullins¹

Bangor University, UK.
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA.

10:00 Disentangling metabolic and neurovascular timescales supporting cognitive processes.

Francesca Saviola1,2,3,*, Stefano Tambalo1,4,5,*, Laura Beghini1,6, Asia Ferrari1,7, Barbara Cassone1,8, Dimitri Van De Ville3,9, Jorge Jovicich1

CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto (TN), Italy
Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Neuro-X Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva,Switzerland
Department of Physics, University of Torino, Torino, Italy
Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, University of Torino, Torino, Italy
Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Neurology Unit, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, University of Geneva (UNIGE), Geneva, Switzerland
* Equally contributing first-authors

10:15 Refreshment break – Tea, Coffee, water, biscuits and cakes.

10:45 – Keynote : Jeffery Stanley – Methodologic considerations for fMRS studies

11:45 – Session 6: fMRS methodology. Chair: Dr Martin Wilson

11:45 Basis Set Choice in fitting fMRS data

Steve Williams, Polina Emiliyanova, Caroline Lea-Carnall, Laura Parkes

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Human Sciences, University of Manchester and Geoffery Jefferson Brain research Centre, MAHSC, Manchester UK

12:00 Simultaneous detection of BOLD and metabolite dynamics with motion, frequency and shim corrected 1H semi-LASER fMRS at 3 Tesla

Brandon Ingram¹, Dinesh Deelchand², Andrew Bagshaw¹, Martin Wilson¹

Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

12:15 Simultaneous two-voxel functional MRS and fMRI of the motor cortex at 7T

Anouk Schrantee¹, Adam Berrington²

Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, The Netherlands.
Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, UK

12:30 Impact of Unsupervised Learning–Based Denoising on Event-Related MRS Data: Evidence from the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

Harleen Chhabra¹, Michael Burke¹, Michael Nitsche¹, Erhan Genc¹

Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany

12:45 Managing temporal covariates in fMRS studies

Alexander R Craven,

Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway and Department of Clinical Engineering, Haukeland University Hospital, Norway
+ collaborators

13:00 – Lunch break

14:00 Walk and Talk/Break out sessions

An opportunity to stretch the legs and discuss thoughts and ideas about fMRS while seeing some of the sights of Bangor. This was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the last workshop, and hopefully it will be again.

15:30 – Refreshment Break

16:00 – Session 7: Fish Tank – My interesting fMRS experimental idea

Currently an open slot for anyone with ideas for cognitive, clinical or physiological research questions they think fMRS might be useful in answering, to present. This would give attendees an opportunity to present the ideas to an audience of experts and gain useful feedback.

17:30 – Close.