Mauricio Papini to talk about comparative neurosciences at the UAB

19/05/2015

Dr Mauricio Papini, professor at the Texas Christian University and expert in comparative psychology, will be giving two conferences at the UAB Institute of Neuroscience on 26 and 27 May: "Nothing in Neuroscience makes sense, except in the light of behaviour. A personal testimony", on 26 May and “Psychological pain: From vulnerability to resilience”, on 27 May. Both conferences will be held at 12 noon, at the Aula Laia Acarin (M1/129), Faculty of Medicine.
 
The visit, organised by the CORE in Mental Health and the UAB Institute of Neuroscience, forms part of Dr Papini's Fulbright grant, who will be visiting the UAB as a Fulbright Visiting Professor.
 
Dr Papini's research focuses on comparative neuroscience on anxiety and frustration. He analyses the mechanisms involved in situations related to the unexpected omission of reward, i.e., the fact that a gratifying reward of a certain action disappears. In psychology, the unexpected disappearance of these types of rewards is a source of modulation of emotions which can lead to things such as suppressing certain behaviour, turning to more aggressive behaviour, releasing stress-related hormones, modulating sensitivity to pain and consumption of addictive substances. The objective of Dr Papini's research is to have a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the evolution of learning, as well as of the interface between learning, emotions and the bases of anxiety disorders from a neurobehavioural viewpoint.