[CTN] seminar of possible interest: Matthew Rushworth (Oxford) at York University

[Matthijs van der Meer]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: How the Brain makes Decisions - Public Lecture of the New
Systems and Computational Neuroscience Series
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:25:55 -0500
From: Thilo Womelsdorf <thiwom at yorku.ca>
To: Syscomp Newsletter <syscompmail at gmail.com>, YORKVIS at yorku.ca
CC: Matthijs van der Meer <mvdm at uwaterloo.ca>

Inaugural Public Lecture: "How the Brain makes Decisions",
Systems and Computational Neuroscience Speaker Series

We invite you to attend the inaugural, public lecture of the new Systems
and Computational Neuroscience Speaker Series at York University (see
*http://syscomp.apps01.yorku.ca**/)*:

*Talk: FRONTAL LOBE MECHANISMS OF DECISION MAKING*
*Speaker: Prof. Matthew Rushworth [Oxford University, UK]*
*Date: Tuesday, 4th of December *
*Time: 3pm*
*Location: Room 103, Life Sciences Building, York University*

On Tuesday, 4th of December, Prof Matthew Rushworth will visit York
University to give a talk on how the human brain makes decisions. Dr.
Rushworth is a distinguished systems neuroscientist whose research on
decision making has a wide influence on our understanding of the human
mind - from a neuroscience and a psychological perspective, but also
from an economic and clinical perspective.

In his recent work Dr. Rushworth discovered how brain areas in the
frontal part of the brain act together to bring about a choice. Brain
activity in these areas relate directly to the cost and the prospective
merit of a choice before the decision is actually made. These brain
activations are evident when we make social decisions, as well as during
economic decisions about what and why to buy. Dr. Rushworth brings
together these social and economic aspects of our daily lives with an
integrated neuroscience perspective that understands the brain as a
complicated system that has to consider many lines of evidence whenever
a decision is made. This perspective is of utmost importance to
understand failures of decision making. In many psychiatric and
neurological conditions, brain activity in the frontal lobes is
compromised, leading to dysfunctional social and personal functioning.
Dr. Rushworth's research is ground-breaking with respect to the brain
mechanisms underlying these conditions.

Dr. Rushworth's talk will be the inaugural lecture of the New Systems
and Computational Neuroscience Speaker Series at York University. The
Speaker Series attracts internationally distinguished and newly rising
researchers that combine systems neuroscience discoveries about the
brain with theoretical insights about the human mind - how it learns,
attends, and makes decision in real life.

The Systems and Computational Neuroscience Speaker Series is jointly
supported by the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Health and the
Office of the VPRI at York University.

To sign up for a newsletter and more information about the speakers of
this series, please visit: *http://syscomp.apps01.yorku.ca/.*

with kind regards,
Thilo Womelsdorf


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Thilo Womelsdorf (Asst. Prof.)
York University, Department of Biology
Faculty of Science and Engineering
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3
Tel. 416.736.2100 x22468
Web: http://www.yorku.ca/thiwom
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