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Sept 6

The Grieving Brain: Mechanisms of Neuroscience that Inform Prolonged Grief Disorder
Mary Frances O’Connor
Arizona

Abstract: Held in collaboration with the School of Psychology, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Professor O’Connor specialises in understanding grief from multiple perspectives including neuroscience and brain body interactions. 

Using an integrative view of clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience, Dr. O’Connor describes how the brain is critical in understanding that a loved one has died, updating one’s view of the world while carrying the absence of this person, and learning what the loss means for one’s own self and future. Cognitive neuroscience can help clarify why grieving takes so long, and is so painful. This view of bereavement adds to a history of studying the trajectory of grieving, and Dr. O’Connor clarifies why older stage models of grief are no longer used. In addition, empirical research (including neuroscience) has helped to define prolonged grief disorder (previously called complicated grief) and how targeted psychotherapy is an effective treatment for this disabling condition.

Pevensey 1 1A6

Passcode: 210537

Sept 16

Predictive coding and neurodiversity: a robotic approach
Prof Yukie Nagai
Tokyo

Abstract: What neural mechanisms underlie human cognitive development? What causes individual diversity between typical and atypical development? My research group has been addressing these research questions from a robotic approach. Inspired by the human brain, we design artificial neural networks based on predictive coding and investigate why and how modifications in predictive processing produce diverse cognitive