October 12, 2016
Sponsored by the Center for Social Brain Sciences, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and CTBH
Russell A. Poldrack, PhD
Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology
Stanford University
About the Presentation: Cognitive neuroscience has witnessed two decades of rapid growth, thanks in large part to the continued development of fMRI methods. In this talk, Dr. Poldrack will question what this work has told us about brain function, and will propose three new directions that he sees as being crucial to the ultimate success of cognitive neuroscience. First, Dr. Poldrack will discuss the need for approaches that allow selective associations between mental operations and representations and brain activity. Second, he will discuss whether current ontologies of mental function are sufficient to support a robust cognitive neuroscience, and ask whether new ontologies might be developed in a data-driven way. Finally, he will discuss the need for neuroimaging researchers to adopt practices to improve reproducibility and transparency.
About the Presenter: Russell Poldrack is the Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology at Stanford, and Director of the Center for Reproducible Neuroscience. He received his Ph.D in cognitive psychology from the University of Illinois, and has previously held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, UCLA, and the University of Texas. His research uses neuroimaging to investigate the brain systems underlying decision making and executive function. His lab has also developed or contributed to a number of tools to improve transparency and reproducibility in neuroimaging research, including the OpenfMRI and Neurovault data sharing projects, the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) initiative, the Neurosynth project, and the Cognitive Atlas ontology.