BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Emotion\, value and the tyranny of choice - Professor Ray Dolan\, 
 Director\, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging\, University College Lon
 don\, UK
DTSTART:20090930T080000Z
DTEND:20090930T084500Z
UID:TALK18681@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Hannah Critchlow
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Normative accounts of decision making invoke the ide
 a that we choose in order to optimise the hedonic value\, or utility\, of 
 future outcomes. Thus\, a decision maker faced with a choice between a set
  of options should weigh the utility of each choice and select an option t
 hat offers the maximal expected utility. Many of the processes involved in
  decision making can be given formal mathematical descriptions within the 
 framework of reinforcement learning (RL). One of  the most exciting aspect
 s of the science of  decision making is its likely importance for psychiat
 ry where it allows a principled account of how humans represent quantities
  such as reward\, risk and loss. In this talk I will illustrate key themes
  in decision science including how the human brain encodes reward value\, 
 under a range of contexts. I will suggest that a corruption core processes
  in decision making may explain common deficits seen in psychiatric disord
 ers including anhedonia\, amotivation  and impulsivity. I will conclude wi
 th a plea for a psychopathology grounded in knowledge emerging from system
 s and computational neuroscience.\n\nBiography: Ray Dolan is Mary Kinross 
 Professor of Neuropsychiatry at UCL and Director of the Wellcome Trust Cen
 tre for Neuroimaging at UCL. His research is concerned with a neurobiologi
 cal characterisation of human emotion and how it interacts with other comp
 onents of cognition\, particularly attention memory and decision making.  
 An emphasis in his recent work has been to link activation patterns seen d
 uring functional neuroimaging experiments to theoretical models\, particul
 arly models from reinforcement learning theory. He is among the top 5 most
  cited scientists in the world in the field of Neuroscience and Behaviour\
 , and the author of 350 original papers.. He is the recipient of numerous 
 awards and prizes including an Alexander Von Humboldt Research Internation
 al Research Award for Outstanding Scholars (2004)\, the Kenneth Craik Rese
 arch Award (2006)\, the Minerva Foundation Golden Brain Award (2006) and t
 he prestigious International Max Planck Research Award (2007).\n\n
LOCATION:West Road Concert Hall
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR