- Wednesday, October 9th 2019 at 15:00 - 16:00 UK (Other timezones)
- General participation info | Participate online | + Phone in United States (Toll Free): 1 877 309 2073 United States: +1 (571) 317-3129 Australia (Toll Free): 1 800 193 385 Australia: +61 2 8355 1020 Austria (Toll Free): 0 800 202148 Belgium (Toll Free): 0 800 78884 Canada (Toll Free): 1 888 455 1389 Denmark (Toll Free): 8090 1924 France (Toll Free): 0 805 541 047 Germany (Toll Free): 0 800 184 4222 Greece (Toll Free): 00 800 4414 3838 Hungary (Toll Free): (06) 80 986 255 Iceland (Toll Free): 800 9869 Ireland (Toll Free): 1 800 946 538 Israel (Toll Free): 1 809 454 830 Italy (Toll Free): 800 793887 Japan (Toll Free): 0 120 663 800 Luxembourg (Toll Free): 800 22104 Netherlands (Toll Free): 0 800 020 0182 New Zealand (Toll Free): 0 800 47 0011 Norway (Toll Free): 800 69 046 Poland (Toll Free): 00 800 1213979 Portugal (Toll Free): 800 819 575 Spain (Toll Free): 800 900 582 Sweden (Toll Free): 0 200 330 905 Switzerland (Toll Free): 0 800 740 393 United Kingdom (Toll Free): 0 800 169 0432 Access Code: 731-636-357
Most psychiatric theories are “verbal models:” narrative explanations of psychiatric phenomena. Because of the vagaries of language, these theories are vulnerable to hidden assumptions and contradictions. Moreover, the imprecision of these theories makes them difficult to evaluate as they are rarely subjected to significant risk of refutation. As a result, psychiatric theories have a tendency to stagnate, remaining neither fully corroborated nor refuted. In this talk, I will propose that computational models can play a critical role in moving psychiatry toward better theory development. I will begin by reviewing the importance of formal theory in scientific research. I will then review three ways in which computational models facilitate theory development: (a) they identify what remains unknown in the theory, thereby guiding future empirical research; (b) they facilitate transparent and cumulative development of psychiatric theories across researchers; and (c) they allow researchers to simulate the behavior implied by the theory, thereby providing a tool for evaluating what the theory can explain and how well it accounts for findings from empirical research. Throughout, I will focus on the example of psychiatric theories of Panic Disorder and will illustrate the advantages of computational models using a recently developed model of Panic Disorder as a non-linear dynamical system.
Donald Robinaugh
Clinical Fellow in Psychology
Harvard Medical School
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department of Psychiatry
1 Bowdoin Square, Room 644
Boston, MA 02114