Ming Meng, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College

Abstract

A "predictive coding" hypothesis proposes that the brain dynamically anticipates and generates predictions about upcoming stimuli to guide perception efficiently. Here, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), multi-voxel pattern decoding, and an innovative time-resolved psychophysical paradigm to assess the temporal profile and spatial distributions of this prediction process.

Strikingly, we demonstrate rhythmic population activity in several task-related brain areas. Specifically, multi-voxel activity patterns in the fusiform face area (FFA) and the parahippocampal place area (PPA) show temporal fluctuations at a theta-band (~5 Hz) rhythm that accompany effects in visual object priming. These results provide novel and essential constraints to understand the neuronal dynamics of predictive coding. Moreover, these results suggest a feasible fMRI strategy to measure temporal fluctuations of multi-voxel activity patterns in the human brain, providing a critical link between fMRI measurements and neurophysiological recordings to understand fine-scale spatiotemporal dynamics of attention and consciousness. 

Christopher D. Fiorillo, Associate Professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Abstract: Decisions are based on predictions of the value of stimuli and actions. Value has commonly been viewed as a single dimension that varies from bad to good (punishment to reward), in analogy to light intensity varying from dark to light. I will present evidence that dopamine neurons in primate midbrain signal evidence for reward, but they are entirely insensitive to aversiveness (punishment). These experiments suggest that ‘reward’ and ‘aversiveness’ are two separate dimensions of value, each represented by two types of reinforcement corresponding to evidence ‘for’ and ‘against.’ I will propose that these four reinforcement signals are summed via G-protein-coupled receptors in one of eight ways, depending on receptor expression, to drive Hebbian learning and shape a neuron’s receptive fields to be one of eight value types. Reward and aversive information is mixed in early sensory neurons, then segregated into parallel paths, then divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ along each dimension. At the late motor stage, neurons receive evidence for reward or against aversiveness to mediate either approach or avoidance.

Garrison W. Cottrell, University of California, San Diego

Garrison W. Cottrell is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego. He is Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Cognitive Science at UCSD, and the Director of the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, an NSF-sponsored Science of Learning Center involving 40 PIs at 18 institutions in four  countries. He is also a founding PI of the Perceptual Expertise Network. 

Professor Cottrell's main interest is Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, in particular, building working models of cognitive processes and using them to explain psychological or neurological processes. In recent years, he has focused upon unsupervised feature learning (modeling precortical and cortical coding), face & object processing, visual salience, and visual attention. He has also worked in the areas of modeling  psycholinguistic processes, such as language acquisition, reading, and word sense disambiguation. He received his PhD. in 1985 from the University of Rochester under James F. Allen (thesis title: A connectionist approach to word sense disambiguation). He then did a postdoc with David E. Rumelhart at the Institute of Cognitive Science, UCSD, before joining the CSE Department in 1987.

Director, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Professor of Neurobiology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Psychology & Neuroscience, and Business at Duke University

Michael Platt studies how we make decisions, using a combination of neural recordings, pharmacology, brain imaging, genetics, and computation, in humans, monkeys, and other animals. He received his B.A from Yale and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at New York University. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Klingenstein Foundation, the McDonnell Foundation, the EJLB Foundation, Autism Speaks, the Broad Foundation, the Klarman Foundation, and the Department of Defense, among others. He is a winner of the Ruth and A. Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize in the Duke University School of Medicine, and was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow. He has given the Sage Lecture at UC Santa Barbara and has received the Astor Visiting Professor award at Oxford University. Michael has authored over 75 peer-reviewed papers and over 35 review and opinion papers. Michael is an editor of major textbooks in neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience, and he is a former president of the Society for Neuroeconomics. Michael’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and National Geographic, as well as on ABC’s Good Morning America, NPR, CBC, BBC, and MTV. Michael values teaching, and was a recipient of the Master Clinician/Teacher Award from the Duke University School of Medicine. He has also served as a consultant on several films, including The Fountain (Warner Bros, Darren Aronofsky, director) and as a scientific advisor to NOVA.

Assistant Professor at the School of Economics, The University of Sydney

My research goal is to improve scientific understanding of how individuals make decisions. In my work I pose questions that cross traditional boundaries between economics (my original discipline), psychology, neuroscience, public policy, and management. My research focuses on the economic consequences of the biological constraints placed on the nervous system of healthy decision-makers as well as those who tend to make poor choices, like adolescents, older adults and people with psychiatric disorders. 

My work has been published in various international journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Management Science, American Journal of Political Science and Journal of Neuroscience. My research has also been featured in popular international media such as Time magazine, CNN, NBC News, ABC, Businessweek and BBC News radio.

My ultimate goal is to relate insights from my research to applied work, especially in the area of policy interventions, optimal organizational and incentives design, finance, political economics, and marketing.

Joseph J. Ruvane Professor of Business Administration at Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

John W. Payne is the Joseph J. Ruvane Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. He also has appointments as a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and as a Professor of Law at Duke University.

His education includes a B.A. 1969, M.A. 1972, Ph.D. 1973 in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. He held a position as a postdoctoral fellow in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University, 1973-74.

Professor Payne’s research deals with how people make decisions, and how decision making might be improved. His particular subfield of interest is decision making under risk. He has authored or edited four books, including The Adaptive Decision Maker, and 100 additional journal articles and book chapters. 

Among his honors, Professor Payne has been elected President of the Judgment and Decision Society. He has won the Leo Melamed Prize for scholarship at the University of Chicago, for the most significant research by business school faculty. He was awarded the first JCR award for long-term contribution to consumer research He has been selected as a Fellow, American Psychological Association, 2007, and a Fellow, American Psychological Society, 1995.

Assistant Professor, Marketing and Supply Chain Management
Fox School of Business, Temple University

Dr. Venkatraman is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing, and also the Associate Director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. Dr. Venkatraman joined Temple University in July 2011 after completing his PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. His research involves the use of behavioral, eye tracking, neurophysiological and neuroimaging methodologies to study the effects of task environment, state variables, and individual traits on decision preferences and consumer behavior. A core emphasis of his research is also in the application of findings from the laboratory to real-world decisions in the areas of consumer financial decision making, public policy, and marketing communications. Dr. Venkatraman’s research has been published in leading scientific journals and has also been covered by several popular media outlets including BBC, Forbes magazine, National Public Radio, LA Times, and Newsweek.

Professor, National Chenchi University

Nai-Shing Yen, Professor at Department of Psychology in National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan. She obtained her Master and Ph.D in University of Texas at Arlington in USA. She was the former Chair of Department of Psychology (2007/8-2011/7), Vice President of College of Science (2011/8-2015/7), Director of Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning (2012/8-2015/7) at NCCU, the Board Member of Society for Neuroeconomics (2009/9-2012/9), and the President of Taiwan Psychological Association (2013-2014). Her research is in the area of cognitive neuroscience. She is currently interested in behavioral and neural mechanisms of decision making, and emotion processing.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Center for Experimental Social Science, New York University

About: Most of my current work is devoted to understanding the value (and limitations) of genetic marker data in economic analysis. With Dan Benjamin and Philipp Koellinger, I co-direct the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (www.ssgac.org), a research group designed to stimulate dialogue and cooperation between medical geneticists and social scientists. The SSGAC facilitates collaborative research that seeks to identify associations between specific genetic markers and behavioral traits, such as preferences, personality and social-science outcomes. SSGAC papers have been published in venues such as Science, PNAS and Psychological Science. Currently, the SSGAC has two major gene discovery efforts underway, one on educational attainment (and its precursors) and one on life satisfaction.

Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute

Rich Krauzlis earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and doctorate in Neuroscience from UC San Francisco, in Steve Lisberger’s laboratory. After postdoctoral training with Fred Miles and Bob Wurtz at the National Eye Institute, he was recruited to the Salk Institute in 1997, where he was promoted to Full Professor in the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory. In 2011, Rich returned to the NEI as a Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research and Chief of the section on Eye Movements and Visual Selection. Work in Rich’s laboratory is aimed at understanding the brain mechanisms that link motor control to sensory and cognitive processing, using a variety of techniques to manipulate and monitor neural activity. Rich’s vita includes papers on pursuit and saccadic eye movements, physiological studies of the superior colliculus, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex, psychophysical studies of visual motion perception and visual attention, and computational modeling of eye movements. 

Professor of Ophthalmology and Radiology, Harvard Medical School

Jeremy Wolfe is Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. He is Director of the Visual Attention Lab and the Center for Advanced Medical Imaging at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Wolfe received an AB in Psychology in 1977 from Princeton and his PhD in Psychology in 1981 from MIT under the supervision of Richard Held. His research focuses on visual search and visual attention with a particular interest in socially important search tasks in areas such as medical image perception (e.g. cancer screening), security (e.g. baggage screening), and intelligence. He is Immediate Past-Chair of the Psychonomic Society and just ended his term as Editor of Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics.