Abstract

Theme: Adaptive Brain Computations

Abstract: Why do we make decisions impulsively blinded in an emotionally rash moment? Or caught in the same repetitive suboptimal loop, avoiding fears or rushing headlong towards illusory rewards? These cognitive constructs underlying self-control and compulsive behaviours and their influence by emotion or incentives are relevant dimensionally across healthy individuals and hijacked across disorders of addiction, compulsivity and mood. My lab focuses on identifying theory-driven modifiable biomarkers focusing on these cognitive constructs with the ultimate goal to optimize and develop novel means of neuromodulation. Here I will provide a few examples of my group’s recent work to illustrate this approach. I describe a series of recent studies on intracranial physiology and acute stimulation focusing on risk taking and emotional processing. This talk highlights the subthalamic nucleus, a common target for deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and obsessive-compulsive disorder. I further describe recent translational work in non-invasive neuromodulation. Together these examples illustrate the approach of the lab highlighting modifiable biomarkers and optimizing neuromodulation.

Biography: Valerie Voon is a Professor in the Dept of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and at Fudan University in Shanghai China and a consultant neuropsychiatrist with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. Her group investigates mechanisms underlying self-control and repetitive behaviours and the influence of emotion and incentives. Her lab focuses on integrative neuromodulation identifying modifiable biomarkers using multiple modalities with the goal to optimize and develop novel means of neuromodulation.

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