Speaker: Prof. Trevor W. Robbins (University of Cambridge)

Time: 16:00 - 17:00 p.m., Apr 23, 2025, GMT+8

Venue: Rm 1113, Wangkezhen Building, PKU

Abstract: 

Compulsive behaviour, the perseveration in often maladaptive acts, is a potential transdiagnostic symptom of several neuropsychiatric disorders, including obsessive- compulsive disorder and drug addiction, and may reflect the severe manifestation of a dimensional trait termed compulsivity. This lecture examines the psychological basis of compulsions and compulsivity and their underlying neural circuitry using evidence from human neuroimaging and animal models utilising both rodents and non human primates. Several main elements of this circuitry are identified, focused on fronto-striatal systems implicated in goal-directed behaviour and habits and their cognitive control or arbitration. These systems include such components as the orbitofrontal and lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and supplementary motor area, their connections with the striatum and their chemical neuromodulation in terms of glutamate:GABA balance and dopaminergic and serotonergic control. Finally, Implications are considered for the future classification of impulsive-compulsive disorders and their treatment by pharmacological or neuromodulatory approaches.

Source: McGovern Institute for Brain Research at PKU, PKU