AI and Education Initiative Human and Machine Learning Lunch Series with MIT Professor

Speaker: John Gabrieli, Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT

Talk Title: “Predicting Risk and Resilience in Mental Well-Being”

Abstract: Mental well-being has declined by many measures over the past decade, especially in youth. Brain mechanisms underlie mental well-being, mental illness, and the treatment of mental illness, but elucidation of those mechanisms has had, to date, little benefit in promoting mental well-being. I will review some research pointing to ways in which brain research may help with the early identification of risk for mental illness (potentiating the prevention of such illness) and may help with identifying which current treatments are most likely to be effective for individual patients (personalized or precision psychiatry). I will also review some research about how mindfulness training may enhance mental well-being.

Bio: John Gabrieli is the director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute. He is an Investigator at the Institute, with faculty appointments in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, where he holds the Grover Hermann Professorship.

He also has appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is the director of the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative. Prior to joining MIT in 2005, he spent 14 years at Stanford University in the Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Program. He received a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a B.A. in English from Yale University. In 2016 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

John Gabrieli’s goal is to understand the organization of memory, thought, and emotion in the human brain. By combining brain imaging with behavioral tests, he studies the neural basis of these abilities in human subjects. In collaboration with clinical colleagues, Gabrieli also seeks to use brain imaging to better understand, diagnose, and select treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases.

This series is organized by the AI and Education Initiative. If you are interested in presenting, please contact Naomi Caselli and Ola Ozernov-Palchik.

When 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm on Monday, October 21, 2024
Location CDS, Room 1101 (11th floor), 665 Commonwealth Ave