News

Abstract

In the rapidly evolving landscape of mental health treatment, the integration of artificial intelligence is bringing about a pivotal shift towards more effective and personalized care. This talk explores the burgeoning field of computational psychiatry, a novel approach that combines traditional psychiatric methods with advanced computational techniques. This fusion enhances our understanding and treatment of mental health disorders. I will elucidate the fundamental approaches of computational psychiatry, detailing its principles and the way it harnesses data-driven and mechanistic insights to demystify the complexities of mental health conditions. The focus will be on practical examples from the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and chronic pain, highlighting how computational psychiatry can offer new perspectives and solutions in these areas.

About

Dr. Frederike Petzschner is an Assistant Professor of Brain Science at the Carney Institute for Brain Science at Brown University. She is also a director of the Carney Brainstorm Program which accelerates the translation of computational brain science to clinical applications and commercialization and a member of the National Council for Digital Ecology in Germany. Prior to this, Frederike worked at the Translational Neuromodeling Unit at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich with Prof. Klaas Enno Stephan. Her research focus is human cognition and mental health: She uses mathematical models in combination with behaviour and brain imaging to understand brain-body and brain-world interactions in the healthy population and in patients suffering from Disordered Gambling, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Chronic Pain. Before coming to Zurich, Frederike received a Master’s with Honors degree in Physics at the University of Würzburg and a PhD in Systemic Neuroscience at LMU Munich.