Laurence Kirmayer, PhD

Time: Monday, June 17, 9:00–10:30 am

Title: Introduction to Social and Cultural Neuroscience

Abstract: Social and cultural neuroscience has provided new insights into the mechanisms and meanings of human cognition and adaptation. This introduction will outline the workshop and consider the conceptual and methodological challenges of building bridges between the social sciences and neurosciences.  Topics will include: the relevance of social science for neuroscience; implications of 4-E cognitive science for social and cultural neuroscience; ecosocial approaches to studying the brain in health and illness; and strategies for integrating ethnographic methods and neuroscience in global mental health.

Biographical Note: Laurence J. Kirmayer, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS, FRSC is James McGill Professor and Director, Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University and Director of the McGill Global Mental Health Program. He is Editor-in-Chief of Transcultural Psychiatry, and Director of the Culture & Mental Health Research Unit at the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry, Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, where he conducts research on culturally responsive mental health services, the mental health of Indigenous peoples, and the anthropology of psychiatry. He founded and directs the annual Summer Program and Advanced Study Institute in Cultural Psychiatry at McGill. He co-edited the volumes, Understanding Trauma: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives (Cambridge University Press), Healing Traditions: The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada (University of British Columbia Press), Cultural Consultation: Encountering the Other in Mental Health Care (Springer), DSM-5 Handbook for the Cultural Formulation Interview (APPI), and Re-Visioning Psychiatry: Cultural Phenomenology, Critical Neuroscience and Global Mental Health (Cambridge). He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Social Sciences).

Readings (* = required)

Choudhury, S., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2009). Cultural neuroscience and psychopathology: Prospects for cultural psychiatry. Progress in Brain Research, 178, 263-283.

Kirmayer, L. J. (2012). The future of critical neuroscience. In: S. Choudhury & J. Slaby (Eds.) Critical Neuroscience. A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience (pp. 367-383) Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Kirmayer, L. J., & Crafa, D. (2014). What kind of science for psychiatry?. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 435.

*Seligman, R., Choudhury, S., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2015). Locating culture in the brain and in the world: from social categories to the ecology of mind. In: Chiao, J. Y., Li, S. C., & Seligman, R. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Neuroscience (pp. 3-20). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Maria Gendron, PhD (presenter); Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD (co-author)

Time: Tuesday, June 18, 9:00–10:30 am

Title: Affective Neuroscience

Abstract: Affective phenomena have traditionally been considered in a separate sphere from cognitive phenomena such as memory, perception, and decision making. This legacy of partitioning the brain into “emotional” circuits that are separate from “cognitive” regions is being actively dismantled with emerging neuroscience research on the network structure and function of the brain. This research has led to several key insights. First, affective phenomena are pervasive due to the core biological task of predictively regulating the body (allostasis) and representing the sensory consequences of that bodily regulation (interoception). Emerging research suggests that the experience of affective qualities (pleasure, displeasure) is a low-dimensional representation of these processes in consciousness. Second, emotional experiences and perceptions also involve a set of regions that implement conceptual processing, which serve to bring online past experience to guide actions and give sensations meaning. This finding suggests that affective neuroscience must be fused with cognitive neuroscience to make progress on understanding the nature of affect and emotion. A third, and final insight, is that diversity in emotional phenomena, across individuals and societies, may be unpacked by considering how the conceptual system guides the implementation of allostasis in a manner that is tuned to the demands and opportunities of an individual’s ecological, social and developmental niche. As a consequence, the entry point for measurement of affective and emotional phenomena in neuroscience research will be enhanced by considering conceptual frameworks for affect and emotion within a given (cultural) context.

Biographical Notes:  

Maria Gendron, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Dr. Gendron is a Social Psychologist by training. She completed her doctorate at Boston College in 2013 with Lisa Feldman Barrett, where she conducted research on emotion perception in laboratory studies, patients with neurodegenerative disorders, and in small-scale societies. Her research focused on the role of conceptual knowledge, anchored in language, in the perceptual representation of and inferences about emotional cues (facial movements, vocalizations). During her post-doctoral work, supported by a NIMH fellowship, Dr. Gendron expanded her training to affective neuroscience and its integration with cultural psychology. Ongoing work aims to integrate affective neuroscience approaches with the study of individual and cultural diversity in emotional phenomena, including through fieldwork in a small-scale societal contexts and in laboratory research in industrialized, globalized societies.

Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, is a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Northeastern University, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in psychiatry and radiology. Dr. Barrett’s research focuses on the nature of emotion from the perspectives of both psychology and neuroscience, and takes inspiration from anthropology, philosophy, and linguistics. Her lab takes an interdisciplinary approach, and incorporates methods from social, clinical, and personality psychology, psychophysiology, cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, and visual cognition. Current projects focus on understanding the psychological construction of emotion (i.e., how basic affective and conceptual ingredients provide the recipes for emotional experiences), age- and disease-related changes in affective circuitry within the human brain, how language and context influence emotion perception, how affect influences vision, and sex differences in emotion. Dr. Barrett received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award for her research on emotion in the brain, and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada and has been named president-elect for the Association of Psychological Science.

Readings (* = required)

Adolphs, R. (2017). How should neuroscience study emotions? By distinguishing emotion states, concepts, and experiences. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(1), 24-31.

Atzil, S., Gao, W., Fradkin, I., & Barrett, L. F. (in press). Growing a social brain. Nature Human Behavior. [draft forthcoming, upon availability]

* Barrett, L. F. (2017). The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(11), 1833.

*Barrett, L. F. & Satpute, A. B. (2017). Historical pitfalls and new directions in the neuroscience of emotion. Neuroscience Letters. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.07.045

Brooks, J.A., Shablack, H., Gendron, M., Satpute, A.B., Parrish, M.J., & Lindquist, K.A. (2017). The role of language in the experience and perception of emotion: A neuroimaging meta-analysis. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12, 169-183.Critchley, H. D., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2017). Interoception and emotion. Current opinion in psychology, 17, 7-14.

Kleckner, I. R., Zhang, J., Touroutoglou, A., Chanes, L., Xia, Chengie, Simmons, W. K., Quigley, K.S., Dickerson, B. C., & Barrett, L. F. (2017). Evidence for a large-scale brain system supporting allostasis and interoception in humans. Nature Human Behavior, 1,0069.

Ledoux, J. E., & Brown, R. (2017). A higher-order theory of emotional consciousness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(10), E2016-E2025.

Somerville, L. H. (2016). Emotional development in adolescence. In Handbook of Emotion, 4th Edition (Barrett, Lewis, & Haviland-Jones, Eds.).

Michael Meaney, PhD

Time: Wednesday, June 19, 11:00–12:30 pm

Title: Epigenetics & Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract: Epigenetics refers to a collection of molecular modifications to the chromatin environment that regulate the probability of gene expression. Epigenetic signals, especially the more stable modifications, such as DNA methylation, are implicated in cell differentiation. However, a portion of the epigenome remains “plastic” and is sensitive to environmental regulation, thus producing stable individual differences in cell function and health outcomes. Epigenetic variation at such sites strongly reflects G x E interactions and may thus serve as an interesting class of biomarkers reflecting both experience and genetic predispositions. This lecture will explore the implications for social psychiatry and mental health. Emphasis will be placed on the limitations of the current state of knowledge, especially with respect to the issue of inter-generational transmission.

Biographical Note: Meaney was trained in Child Clinical Psychology (Concordia University) as well as Molecular Neuroscience (The Rockefeller University). His research interest is that of the stable effects of early experience on gene expression and brain development and function, focusing on the influence of variations in maternal care. Over the past 10 years he has been actively developing translational research models in the context of birth cohort studies. Together these studies led to the discovery of novel epigenetic mechanisms for the influence of early experience and their implications for understanding the origins of resilience and susceptibility in children. This program now emphasizes informatic approaches with genomic and epigenomic data to examine the origins of individual differences in the risk for psychopathology.

Readings (* = required)

*Teh AL, Pan H, Chen L, Ong ML, Dogra S, Wong J, Macisaac JL, Mah SM, McEwen LM, Saw SM, Godfrey KM, Chong YS, Kwek K, Kwoh CK, Soh SE, Chong M, Barton S, Karnani N, Cheong CY, Buschdorf JP, Stunkel W, Kobor MS, Meaney MJ, Gluckman PD, Holbrook JD. (2014). The effect of genotype and in utero environment on inter-individual variation in neonate DNA methylomes. Genome Research 24:1064-1074.

*Meaney MJ, Ferguson-Smith A. (2010) Epigenomic regulation of the neural transcriptome: The meaning of the marks. Nature Neuroscience 13:1313-1318.

OR

*Zhang TY, Meaney MJ. (2010) Epigenetics and the environmental regulation of the genome and its function. Annual Reviews of Psychology 61:439-466.

Supplemental

O’Donnell KJ, Chen L, MacIsaac JL, McEwen LM, Nguyen T, Beckmann K, Zhu Y, Chen LM, Brooks-Gunn J, Goldman D, Grigorenko EL, Leckman JF, Diorio J, Karnani N, Olds DL, Holbrook JD, Kobor MS, Meaney MJ (2018) DNA methylome variation in a perinatal nurse-visitation program that reduces child maltreatment: a 27-year follow-up. Transl Psychiatry 8:e15.

O’Donnell KJ, Meaney MJ (2017) Fetal origins of mental health: The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis. American Journal of Psychiatry 174:319-328.

Qiu A, Shen M, Buss C, Kwek K, Saw S-M, Chong Y-S, Gluckman PD, Wadhwa PD, Entringer S, Stner M, Gilmore JH, Karani N, Heim CM, O’Donnell KJ, Holbrook JD, Fortier MV, Meaney MJ and the GUSTO study Group (2017) Effects of antenatal maternal depressive symptoms and socio-economic status on neonatal brain development are modulated by genetic risk. Cerebral Cortex 27:3080-3092.

Yehuda R, Daskalakis NP, Lehrner A, Desarnaud F, Bader HN, Makotkine J, Flory JD, Bierer LM, Meaney MJ. (2014) Influences of maternal and paternal PTSD on epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene in Holocaust survivor offspring. American Journal of Psychiatry 171:872-880.

Véronique Bohbot, PhD

Time: Wednesday, June 19, 2:00–3:30 pm

Title: Cultural Differences in Hippocampus-Dependent Spatial Memory: Impact on GDP and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Abstract: A larger hippocampus has been associated with healthy cognition in normal aging and with a reduced risk of numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Post-Traumatic Stress disorder and Depression. The hippocampus is implicated in spatial memory strategies used when finding one’s way in the environment, i.e. it is allocentric and involves remembering the relationship between landmarks. On the other hand, another strategy dependent on the caudate nucleus can also be used, i.e. the response strategy, which relies on making a series of stimulus-response associations (e.g. right and left turns from given positions). Measures of spontaneous navigation strategies from ages 8 to 80 yrs have shown a decrease in spatial memory strategies across the life span, along with a reduction in activity and grey matter in the hippocampus in favor of caudate nucleus dependent response strategies.

In this talk, I will be discussing variables that promote caudate nucleus-dependent strategies, such as reward seeking behaviors which include smoking and playing action video games, stress, gender, age and cultural differences. Furthermore, in a recent article, we show that spatial memory, measured in 2.7 million players of a free mobile app, correlates with the gross domestic product of countries around the world. Our findings suggest that spatial memory, which involves learning the relationship between environmental landmarks, is critical to hippocampal function which in turn, may be fundamental to contextualizing memory for events and have an impact on the incidence of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Readings (* =  required)

*Bohbot and West (2015) ­­No, there is no causal link between action video games and Alzheimer’s disease. But here is what you need to know…. Huffington Post.

*Bohbot VD et al. (2007) Gray matter differences correlate with spontaneous strategies in a human virtual navigation task. J. Neurosci. 27, 10 078 -10 083. (doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1763-07.2007)

*West GL, Konishi K, Diarra M, Benady-Chorney J, Drisdelle BL, Dahmani L, Sodums DJ, Lepore F, Jolicoeur P, Bohbot VD (2017) Impact of video games on plasticity of the hippocampus. Mol Psychiatry. 2017 Aug 8. doi: 10.1038/mp.2017.155. [Epub ahead of print]

*Coutrot, A., Silva, R., Manley, E., de Cothi, W., Sami, S., Bohbot, V. D., Wiener, J. M., Holscher, C., Dalton, R.C., Hornberger, M.,* , Spiers, H. J.,* (In Press) Global determinants of navigation ability. Current Biology. BioRxiv http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/188870.

Supplemental Material

Amico F et al. (2011) Structural MRI correlates for vulnerability and resilience to major depressive disorder. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 36, 15 – 22. (doi:10. 1503/jpn.090186).

Apostolova LG, Dutton RA, Dinov ID, Hayashi KM, Toga AW, Cummings JL, Thompson PM. (2006) Conversion of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer disease predicted by hippocampal atrophy maps. Arch. Neurol. 63, 693 – 699. (doi:10. 1001/archneur.63.5.693).

Bohbot, V. D., Del Balso, D., Conrad, K., Konishi, K., & Leyton, M. (2013). Caudate nucleus-dependent navigational strategies are associated with increased use of addictive drugs. Hippocampus, 23(11), 973-984. doi:10.1002/hipo.22187

Erten-Lyons D, Woltjer RL, Dodge H, Nixon R, Vorobik R, Calvert JF, Leahy M, Montine T, Kaye J. (2009) Factors associated with resistance to dementia despite high Alzheimer disease pathology. Neurology. 2009 Jan 27;72(4):354-60. doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000341273.18141.64.

Gilbertson MW, Shenton ME, Ciszewski A, Kasai K, Lasko NB, Orr SP, Pitman RK. (2002) Smaller hippocampal volume predicts pathologic vulnerability to psychological trauma. Nat. Neurosci. 5, 1242 – 1247. (doi:10.1038/nn958).

Gur RE, Turetsky BI, Cowell PE, Finkelman C, Maany V, Grossman RI, Arnold SE, Bilker WB, Gur RC (2000) Temporolimbic volume reductions in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. Aug;57(8):769-75.

Konishi, K., Joober, R., Poirier, J., MacDonald, K., Chakravarty, M., Patel, R., . . . Bohbot, V. D. (2018). Healthy versus Entorhinal Cortical Atrophy Identification in Asymptomatic APOE4 Carriers at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease. J Alzheimers Dis, 61(4), 1493-1507. doi:10.3233/JAD-170540

Persson, K., Bohbot, V. D., Bogdanovic, N., Selbaek, G., Braekhus, A., & Engedal, K. (2018). Finding of increased caudate nucleus in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Acta Neurol Scand, 137(2), 224-232. doi:10.1111/ane.12800