11th Annual Pinkel Endowed Lecture
Friday, March 20, 2009
Cohen Auditorium, Claudia Cohen Hall (formerly Logan Hall Room G17)
3:00 pm
reception to follow
Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD
Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Modifying Decision Making
In recent years, dual-process theories that contrast automated and controlled processes have been put forward to explain different areas of human cognition. In this context, will-power refers to goal-driven cognitive control or regulation of impulses, passions, cravings, and habits. Such regulation may be conceptualized as cognitive control over the balance between a “cool”, reflective mental system that effortfully represents rational and reasoned goals, such as long-term mental and physical health, and a “hot”, reflexic mental system that automatically guides quick, impulsive, and emotional responses to environmental stimuli.
In recent years, lesion and functional neuroimaging studies suggest that the prefrontal cortex is a critical component of the neural circuitry engaged when people voluntarily and consciously regulate their behavior. In addition to neuroimaging studies, lesion studies suggest that particularly the right prefrontal cortex plays a central role in behavioral regulation and the control of impulsive, reflexic tendencies.
Modulation of will-power and dual-process theories offer a valuable framework that can serve to guide translational insights from cognitive neuroscience into the clinic. Proof-of-principle studies reveal that noninvasive brain stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation or transcranial direct current stimulation can influence decision-making, enhance will-power and promote reflective processes in healthy subjects. The same type of noninvasive brain stimulation can suppress alcohol, cocaine, nicotine and even food craving in patients, who are known to have impaired decision-making behaviors. Modulation of decision making, and enhanced cognitive regulation of emotion, reward, and gratification could have widespread mental and physical health benefits, including mood disorders, anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, substance abuse, smoking, and obesity.
The Benjamin and Anne A. Pinkel Endowed Lecture Fund was established though a generous gift from Sheila Pinkel on behalf of the estate of her parents, Benjamin and Anne A. Pinkel, and serves as a memorial tribute to the lives of her parents. Benjamin Pinkel, who received a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1930, was actively interested in the philosophy of the mind and published a monograph on the subject, Consciousness, Matter, and Energy: The Emergence of Mind in Nature, in 1992, the objective of which is a "re-examination of the mind-body problem in the light of...new scientific information." The lecture series is intended to advance the discussion and rigorous study of the deep questions which engaged Dr. Pinkel's investigations.