Events

The Appetitive Side of Placebo Effects in Brain and Behavior

Liane Schmidt, PhD

Liane Schmidt is a faculty member at INSERM in Paris, France. She earned her PhD at the Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI University in France, for her investigation of the neuropsychological determinants of incentive motivation in humans. Her scientific background stems from the cognitive neurosciences. 

In her current work at INSERM, she investigates how beliefs about oneself, the world and the future bias decision-making and motivation in health, depression or obesity.

Liane’s writings have been published in international peer reviewed journals such as Science, Journal of Neuroscience, Nature Neuroscience and Psychological Science. Her native tongue is German and she is fluent in English and French.

Neural and Physiological Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness-Based Analgesia as Compared to Placebo

Watch the Lecture

Fadel Zeidan, PhD

Fadel Zeidan is an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and director of the Pain Health and Mindfulness Laboratory. He is also a co-founder and Neuroscience Director for the UC San Diego Center for Psychedelic Research. Zeidan’s current research is focused on determining the psychological, physiological and neural mechanisms that mediate the relationship between self-regulatory practices and health. Fadel’s work examines the mechanisms of action supporting mindfulness meditation, psychedelics, cannabis on pain. To date, he and his team have demonstrated that mindfulness meditation is mechanistically distinct from and more effective than placebo, distraction, and relaxation. 

An Embodied Approach to Symptom Perception

Watch the Lecture

Christopher Eccleston, PhD

Christopher Eccleston, PhD, is a professor of Pain Science at the University of Bath in the U.K. where he directs the Centre for Pain Research. He has published over 300 peer reviewed scientific publications and is widely cited (web of science h-index of 84).

Chris founded and directed the Bath Pain Management Unit from 1994-2008, including the first residential pediatric pain program. He consults internationally on new services and team training in pain management. From 2009-2019 he was psychology editor for the journal PAIN, and coordinating editor of Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Cochrane Review Group.

Chris has published three books with Oxford University Press. 

Resilience and Impact on Behavior and Outcomes

Watch the Lecture

Barbara Resnick, PhD, RN, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP 

Barbara Resnick, PhD, RN, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, is a professor, the associate dean for research, and the Sonya Ziporkin Gershowitz Chair in Gerontology at UMSON.

She has over 40 years of clinical experience as a nurse practitioner across all settings of care. Her research program is focused on optimizing function and physical activity among older adults, exploring resilience and genetics on function and physical activity, and testing dissemination and implementation of interventions in real world settings. She currently has several R01s, with one focused on optimizing physical activity among hospitalized older adults living with dementia and the other testing the implementation of a Pain Management Clinical Practice Guideline in Nursing Homes.

Translating the Science of Placebo into Medical Practice

Wayne Jonas, MD

Wayne Jonas, MD, is a widely published investigator, practicing family physician, and professor of medicine at Georgetown University and at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He is also a retired lieutenant colonel in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. Dr. Jonas was the director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 1999 and led the World Health Organization’s Collaborative Center for Traditional Medicine. Prior to that, he served as the director of medical research fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He now advises national and international organizations on ways to implement evidence-based healing practices in their medical systems. He serves as the president of the Healing Works Foundation.

View the Photo Gallery

The Experience of Pain and Emotion: Meeting of Body, Brain, and Mind

Gadi Gilam, PhD

Gadi Gilam is an assistant professor in the Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, where he has established the translational Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience (tSCAN) lab. The lab's primary research focuses on the causes, consequences, and prevention of human suffering related to affective states, such as pain and anger, as they manifest at the intersection of chronic pain and psychopathological conditions. To address these issues, the lab uses a combination of methods from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and health informatics, while integrating perspectives from emotion science, social psychology, and pain medicine

Watch the Lecture

(Un)Learning Pain: Learning Mechanisms of Placebo Effects in Pain

Przemyslaw Babel, PhD

Przemyslaw Babel is a full professor of psychology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, where he serves as the director of the Institute of Psychology, the chair of the Research Discipline Council for Psychology, and the head of the Pain Research Group. His research interests include placebo effects in pain, the memory of pain, and psychological factors affecting pain perception. Babel has co-authored nearly 100 scientific publications and over 100 popular science publications. In 2019, he was awarded the status of Fellow by the Association for Psychological Science for his sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology. 

Watch the Lecture

Cheryl Stucky, PhD

Cheryl Stucky is the Marvin Wagner Endowed Chair at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) where she is also Director of the Pain Division of the Neuroscience Research Center. Stucky's lab studies the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms of sensation, particularly how we sense touch and pain in the normal, healthy state and in conditions of tissue injury or disease.

Tor Wager, PhD

Tor Wager is the Diana L. Taylor Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at Dartmouth College, and the Director of Dartmouth’s Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory, the Dartmouth Brain Imaging Center, and the Dartmouth Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.  Professor Wager’s research centers on the neurophysiology of affective processes—pain, emotion, stress, and empathy—and how they are shaped by cognitive and social influences. More information about Dr. Wager and his lab’s activities, publications, and software can be found at http://canlab.science.

Watch the Lecture