Abstract: Despite the presence of relatively effective treatments and increasing knowledge of the basic science of psychiatric illness, the field has yet to create a diagnostic scheme based in knowledge of pathophysiology. In this talk, we will discuss how insights into the computational underpinnings of psychotic symptoms can serve as a bridge across levels of description and across time as psychosis develops. With this framework in mind, we will explore ways to build upon these insights to develop new ways of understanding prevention and treatment of psychotic illnesses.
Bio: Dr. Albert Powers
Dr. Albert Powers is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Yale University, Director of the Powers Laboratory at Yale, and Medical and Associate Director of the Yale PRIME Psychosis Risk Clinic. His research applies computational methods to understand the development of hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms.
Dr. Powers grew up in Northford, Connecticut and earned his BA in Cognitive Science from Yale in 2004. He completed his MD and PhD at Vanderbilt University, studying multisensory integration with Professor Mark Wallace, before returning to Yale for psychiatry residency and joining the faculty in 2018. Employing a predictive processing framework, his research has provided evidence that hallucinations may arise when the brain over-relies on prior expectations relative to incoming sensory information, causing people to perceive things that aren't there. Starting from this initial insight, his laboratory’s current work suggests that these processes may serve as a window into the development of psychotic symptoms develop by linking neural, computational, and phenomenological findings across levels of description and time.
Supported by the NIMH and other agencies, Dr. Powers's laboratory uses neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling to map psychosis development from early perceptual changes to full psychotic symptoms. Current projects focus on capturing the neural dynamics that drive voluntary control over hallucinations as well as the basic pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the emergence of psychosis during the menopause transition. Dr. Powers also serves as Medical and Associate Director of the Yale PRIME Clinic Psychosis Risk Clinic, where he treats young people at clinical high risk for psychosis while engaging them in research meant to understand the latent states driving disease development.