Prof. Tor D. Wager

时间： 2015-09-18 12:30 - 14:30

地点： Room 1113 Wang Kezhen Building

For thousands of years, scholars have believed that beliefs have the power to harm or heal. The meaning ascribed to situations and events can influence health in important ways; but how, and where, are beliefs formed in the brain, and what are their effects? Can simply believing in a treatment reduce pain, or change pain-related physiology? Can it affect motivation in fundamental ways, or only superficial ones? Building on work developing fMRI-based markers for pain, I will discuss how beliefs can influence pain- and motivation-related physiology in the brain and autonomic responses in the body. This work provides a new window into how psychological treatments work: Though many psychological treatments can affect pain reports and other symptoms, only some treatments have profound effects on brain physiology. Overall, the findings illustrate how brain measures can be informative about the nature of belief and its effects on health and disease, and open up new possibilities for understanding the relationships between mind and brain.

2015-09-18

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2015-09-18