"Computational mechanisms and neuroimaging biomarkers of psychosis"
About the Speaker:
Guillermo Horga, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University, NY
Co-director, Clinical Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (C3N) Center
Columbia Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI)
Dr. Horga is clinically trained as a psychiatrist and completed a PhD program in clinical and experimental neuroscience at the University of Barcelona as well as a postdoctoral research fellowship at Columbia University focused on advanced MRI and cognitive neuroscience methods, where I was mentored by Bradley Peterson and later by Anissa Abi-Dargham. My lab mainly focuses on the neurobiological and computational mechanisms of psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia and of related cognitive functions in health, including inference, learning and decision-making. Psychosis is characterized by the experience of abnormal percepts, such as hallucinations, and delusional beliefs. While excessive dopamine transmission in the striatum is known to play a role in these symptoms, the cognitive and computational mechanisms mediating psychotic experiences remain unclear. To understand these neural mechanisms, our research uses behavioral paradigms and computational tools in combination with a variety of functional, structural and molecular in vivo neuroimaging techniques (mainly functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging [fMRI] and Positron Emission Tomography [PET]) in healthy humans and patients with psychotic disorders. This work has been continuously funded through private foundations and federal funding from the NIMH.
Objectives:
The activity is designed to help the learner:
1. Identify computational models of hallucinations and delusions in schizophrenia,
2. Describe perceptual inference and its relationship to psychosis,
3. Define neuromelanin-sensitive MRI methods
Summary:
Psychotic symptoms have long been associated with dopamine excess. I will describe research into how this alteration could lead to changes in perception and decisions that may explain these symptoms. Finally, I will talk about neuromelanin-sensitive MRI and its potential clinical utility as a biomarker in psychosis.
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This talk is sponsored by the
Hollender Lecture Fund
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
This educational activity received no commercial support.