Themes

DIR investigates the neural basis of perceptual and value-based decision-making. We aim to understand the neural and behavioral mechanisms that support decision-making in healthy people, as well as in psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as Mood Disorders, (gambling) Addiction and Parkinson’s Disease.

The field combines methods from Mathematical Psychology, Behavioral Economics and Game Theory with those of Clinical, Affective and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Some of the topics we investigate at ABC include the role of emotions in economic and social decisions, meta-cognitive processes underlying choice, neurobiological mechanisms of reinforcement learning, the role of basal ganglia structures in impulsive behavior, and the mechanisms underlying deep brain stimulation for OCD and depression.

Researchers associated with the PML study mechanisms of brain plasticity, memory, and language. One central aim is to understand the fundamental molecular, cellular, and neural, and cognitive, underpinnings of these processes, another is to reveal how plasticity, memory, and language are altered in health and disease, and across the life-span.
A wide range of research techniques and manipulations are employed, for instance single-cell recordings, neuroimaging, psychophysiology, AI, behavioral experimentation, psychological interventions, computational modeling, and cognitive tasks.
The PML theme thus brings fundamental mechanistic and theoretical insights in memory and language, that range from basic neuroscience through cognitive science, to the field of mental health.

The PAC (Perception, Action and Consciousness) theme is one of the six thematic and interdisciplinary profiles that ABC recently established. PAC aims to promote collaborations and interactions among ABC members who are active or interested in the topics of perception, action and consciousness.
Following the interdisciplinary approach which characterizes ABC, all approaches are welcome: from fundamental research to clinical studies, from biology to cognition, and from experimental methods to theoretical and computational approaches. PAC aims to organize a few networking and outreach event every year, to foster collaboration and increase the visibility of ABC researchers.