November 27-28 – Brussels, Belgium.

This year’s Social Cognition Workshop, “From Self-Knowledge to Knowing Others,” focused on bridging the gap between understanding plasticity and developing practical interventions in social cognition. Attendees delivered talks designed to foster more effective interventions, addressing the need for shared practices within the field. The workshop also aimed to uncover the relatively unexplored, fluctuating nature of social cognition, investigating how and why it changes over time. Over two days, leading experts in the field showcased groundbreaking research, state-of-the-art empirical tools, and advanced theoretical models examining the plasticity of social cognition in both healthy and clinical populations:

Day 1

• Dr. Arthur Pabst opened with a compelling discussion titled "Social cognition in alcohol use disorder: why it matters, what we know, where to go," emphasizing the importance of this field in understanding and addressing alcohol use disorder. 
• Pr. Leonhard Schilbach followed with his insightful presentation, "Second-person neuroscience: Focusing on change and dynamics of social interactions," shedding light on how neuroscience can explore the nuances of interactive social processes. 
• Pr. Heather Ferguson discussed the intriguing differences in self-concept malleability in her talk, "Autistic adults experience greater malleability of the self after simulating other people than neurotypical adults." 
• Pr. Jan Van den Stock shared his research on "Social cognition deficits in neurodegeneration," exploring how these deficits manifest and their implications for individuals affected by neurodegenerative disorders. 
• Pr. Dirk Scheele closed the first day of the workshop with his talk on "Chronic loneliness as a risk factor for stress-related disorders: cognitive biases and neural mechanisms," highlighting the cognitive and neural underpinnings of loneliness.  

Day 2

• Dr. Ekaterina Pronizius opened the second day of the workshop and presented findings from a large-scale collaboration titled "Self-other distinction in individuals with borderline personality disorder: a behavioral perspective."
• Pr. Pavla Linhartová completed the BPD discourse by providing a comprehensive overview of "Borderline personality disorder: From neuroscience to effective treatments."
• Pr. Maude Schneider offered valuable insights into daily social functioning with her talk,"Daily-life social functioning in neurodevelopmental disorders: insights from EMA studies."
• Finally, Pr. Isabel Dziobek closed the session with her innovative presentation, "From interaction-focused group psychotherapy to robot-assisted intervention: New therapies for social difficulties in individuals with autism," showcasing the potential of emerging therapies to enhance social functioning in autism.  

The event provided an engaging platform for blitz talks featuring Niklas Buergi, Jiaze Sun, Ilenia Gori, Annika Konrad, Maura Nevejans, Mahsa Barzy, Marcel Eicher, Serena Maria Stagnitto and Serena Lecce. 

On the second day of the event, attendees explored 37 displayed posters, with Serena Maria Stagnitto and Laura Tibermont being recognized with the Best Poster Award for this edition of our workshop.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who made this year's workshop such an inspiring experience. We hope this event inspires future collaborations and continued exploration in the field of social cognition.

Looking forward to what lies ahead—until next year!

The event has been organized by Pr. Henryk Bukowski, Alix Bigot, and Dr. Ekaterina Pronizius, with support from Nita Bislimi, Anna Kulesza, and Anja Gaiswinkler. We also thank our funders: UCLouvain, FNRS, IPSY, EDT Neuroscience, EDT PSYCEDUC, and BAPS.

For more information about our workshop and the featured talks, please visit www.self-knowing-others.org