Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.

"Cultivating Well-Being: Perspectives from Affective and Contemplative Neuroscience"

William K. Warren, Jr.  Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture 
Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital Conference Center 
11:00 am - 11:45 am    Registration and Lunch, lunch stops being served at 11:45 - no exceptions
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm     Program

Dr. Richard Davidson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and has been at The University of Wisconsin Madison since 1984. He has published more than 400 articles, numerous chapters and reviews and edited 14 books. He is the author (with Sharon Begley) of The Emotional Life of Your Brain published by Penguin in 2012. He is co-author with Daniel Goleman of Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body, published by Penguin Books in 2017. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research and was the year 2000 recipient of the most distinguished award for science given by the American Psychological Association – the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. He was the founding co-editor of the new American Psychological Association journal EMOTION and is past-president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology and of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. Dr. Davidson’s research is broadly focused on the neural bases of emotion and emotional style and methods to promote human flourishing including meditation and related contemplative practices. His studies have included persons of all ages from birth though old age and have also included individuals with disorders of emotion, such as mood and anxiety disorders and autism, as well as expert meditation practitioners with tens of thousands of hours of experience. His research uses a wide range of methods including different varieties of MRI, positron emission tomography, electroencephalography and modern genetic and epigenetic methods.

Learning Objectives
1. Identify four important constituents of well-being.
2. Discuss the brain circuits that underlie these constituents.
3. Understand the different forms of meditation practice that impact well-being and its neural bases.

Nora Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH

"Drug Addiction as a Disease of the Human Brain"
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital Conference Center 

Nora Volkow M.D., is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Over the past 30 years, she has published more than 770 peer-reviewed articles, more than 95 book chapters, edited four books on brain imaging and addiction and co-edited an Encyclopedia on Neuroscience. She has received multiple awards including membership in the National Academy of Medicine in 2000 and the International Prize for Science from the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in 2009. She was named one of Time magazine’s “Top 100 People Who Shape Our World”, “One of 20 People to Watch”, by Newsweek magazine and “Innovator of the Year” by U.S. News & World Report. Her work as a researcher and as a leader has been instrumental in transforming the paradigm of drug addiction from that of a behavioral choice to that of a treatable brain disease.