Computational Psychiatry

Computational psychiatry is an emerging field of research that strives to leverage recent discoveries in the computational basis of high-level cognitive functions in order to understand, diagnose, and treat mental illness. Psychiatry is the only field of medicine where there are currently no laboratory tests, due in part to a lack of understanding what is the biological basis of symptoms. Computational theories of the brains mechanisms for evaluation and decision may provide a foundation for such an understanding and tasks measuring their function can offer objective measures. This seminar discusses recent findings in the field.