Obesity and chronic disease prevention has a place on the agenda of governments and other stakeholders at local, national and global levels. However, as comprehensive as they may be, traditional governmental policies and programs alone cannot reach the scale, scope and speed of changes needed to reverse current obesity and chronic diseases trends.
Recent neuroscience research has generated detailed models of the brain circuits involved in reward processing, decision-making and self-control in humans that are highly relevant to understanding maladaptive, motivated behaviours. Neuroscience has typically considered individual components of behaviour one at a time, divorced from the complexity of the social and physical environment that is obviously important in real life. Thus, there are important gaps in what we know, and what we need to know to move from the laboratory to real world behavior.
The overarching goal of the Brain-to-Society (BtS) research program at MCCHE is to develop and articulate a transdisciplinary and translational framework, anchored into decision neuroscience and behavioral economics, to improve what individuals and society can do to achieve better physical and mental health.
Previous Webinars
Lessons from the Science of Motivation
Dr. Ayelet Fishbach
February 3, 2022
Multi-componential approach to odor elicited emotions for product and experience design
Dr. Sylvain Delplanque
September 1, 2021
The neural correlates of ongoing conscious thought and experience
Dr. Jonathan Smallwood
Professor, Department of Psychology, Queen's University
July 21, 2021
Neuroethics, free will and the self: Distinguishing levels of intervention and analysis
Andrea Lavazza
Senior Research Fellow in Neuroethics at Centro Universitario Internazionale and Adjunct Professor at University of Pavia
June 29, 2021
Computational Psychiatry Across Scales: From Genes in Evolution to Brains in Interaction
Dr. Guillaume Dumas
June 16, 2021
Sailing the ghost ship: The case for radical free will
Dr. Kennon Sheldon
Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri
May 5, 2021
Pragmatic Computational Psychiatry: Towards Precision in Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Treatment-related Objective Markers in Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Dr. Martin Paulus, MD
Scientific Director and President of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR)
January 13, 2021
From brain to self – A temporo-spatial and neuro-ecological approach
Georg Northoff, MD, PhD, FRCP
Canada Research Chair for Mind, Brain Imaging, and Neuroethics
November 18, 2020
Integration of Mind and Metabolism
Dr. Dana Small
Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry and she is the Divisional Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at Yale University
October 28, 2020
A Window on the Mind: Investigating Cognitive Processing through Eye Movements
Dr. Monica Castelhano
Professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen’s University, Chair of the Cognitive Neuroscience area
July 15, 2020
Perceived social isolation and its impact of the human social brain
Dr. Danilo Bzdok
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University
June 25, 2020
Brain imaging studies of obesity risk in children
Dr. Susan Carnell
Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
June 2, 2020
Measuring what users really experience: Using neuroscience to inform information system research
Dr. Pierre-Majorique Léger
NSERC-Prompt Industrial Research Chair in User Experience and Full Professor of IT HEC Montréal
February 27, 2020
Long-Term Care Insurance: Information Frictions and Selection
Dr. Pierre-Carl Michaud
Professor in the Applied Economics Department of HEC Montréal
January 16, 2020
Geospatial Technologies for Decision Environments: Current and Future Opportunities
Dr. Raja Sengupta
Associate Professor of Geography & School of Environment, McGill University
February 6, 2020
Regulatory success in dietary choice: insights and predictions from behavioral and neural computational models
Dr. Anita Tusche
Assistant Professor at Queen’s University (Departments of Psychology and Economics)
November 27, 2019
Dynamic Health Policy Modeling in the Age of Big Data
Nathaniel Osgood
Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Associate Faculty in the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan
May 15, 2019
Scaling-up what Metagenomics, Microbiome, Neuroinformatics, and Multiscale Computational Models can contribute to Convergent Innovation in Food and Health
Dr. Sharmila Mande
Chief Scientist & Head of Bio-Sciences R&D at Tata Consultancy Services
September 13, 2018
Consumer Neuroscience: The Case for Signal Triangulation
Sylvain Senecal
PhD, Professor of Marketing, RBC Financial Group Chair of E-Commerce and Tech3Lab Co-Director, HEC Montreal
June 6, 2018
Understanding and modulating the multiple dimensions of empathy
Philip Jackson, PhD
Professor, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval, co-director of Consortium d’imagerie en neurosciences et santé mentale de Québec (CINQ), researcher at CIRRIS and CERVO research centers and member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada
April 18, 2018
It's About Time: Can Earlier Rewards Increase Intrinsic Motivation?
Ayelet Fishbach
Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
March 7, 2018
Beyond Risk, Resilience and Dysregulation
Differential Susceptibility & “For Better and for Worse” Environmental Influences
Jay Belsky, PhD
Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professor of Human Development at the University of California, Davis
February 19, 2018
