Research summary
We make decisions every day. But how do we decide what to do and how do we control when to do it? As Canada Research Chair in Translating Neuroscience, Dr. Jeffrey Schall aims to better understand how the brain enables decision-making processes in order to diagnose and treat those who suffer from mind-brain disorders such as dementia or schizophrenia.
He and his research team are characterizing how brain circuits select important items, produce actions to obtain those items, and react to errors. They are also formulating new mathematical models of the computational algorithms embodied by the characterized brain circuits and explaining how activity in those circuits produces electrical brainwaves on the surface of the head, indexing the computational algorithms. Ultimately, their findings could offer new insights into brain function that could improve the diagnosis and treatment of disorders like dementia or schizophrenia.