Gian Franco Goldwurm (Italy)

THE CONCISE HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF CIANS

Collegium Internationale Activitatis Nervosae Superioris International Association for Integrative Nervous Functions, Neurobiology of Behavior and Psychosomatics

To tell the history of Collegium Internationale Activitatis Nervosae Superioris (CIANS) is more difficult than I expected. It’s a troubled history also because such was the history of our Countries and of ourselves during the second half of the last century.

Mine cannot be but a personal contribution of what I lived at that time.
I think that history must be interpreted from the present. And the present is what we are and what we want to be. Here is where I want to start from.
First, we would like to be an interdisciplinary space in which we can know, compare and discuss biological, physiological, neurological, psychiatric, psychological, educational and social problems. A space where we can focus our attention on the connection and the interdependence between behaviours, cognitions and emotions, the superior nervous functions, the somatic functions, as well as the impact of the natural and social environment the human beings live in.
Second, we would like to be an international space of connection and comparison not only of different disciplines but also of scholars from different countries.
Third, we would like to find important objects and stimulate the work on these crucial and significant points common to clinical and experimental studies.
Jagla (2003) for instance proposed two objectives, or wishes: “One is that our colleagues from clinical practice faced with
1 With the collaboration of Federico Colombo.

2 Part of this work was presented at the Symposium for CIANS in 8th Multidisciplinary International Conference of Biological Psychiatry “Stress and Behavior” held in St. Petersburg, May, 17-19, 2004.