Psychiatric disorders are understood to occur as a result of a specific pathology in the brain. Yet ultimately, the diagnosis is made primarily through diagnostic interviews. There are currently no single objective biological marker for any psychiatric disorder. Cognitive control refers to processes that allow us to flexibly adapt our behavior according to our internal goals and external environmental demand. Such processes afford us the capacity to control our thoughts, feelings, and actions. The failure cognitive control processes in the brain widely believed to underlie many psychiatric disorders. The aim of this module is to discuss the breakdown of cognitive control in different psychiatric disorders such as OCD, ADHD, schizophrenia and addiction. We will also discuss how different types of treatment such as neuropharmacology and deep-brain stimulation are hypothesised to benefit psychiatric patients through restoring control.
. Lecture 1: Freud, neuroscience, and modern day mental illness Lecture 2: The neurobiology of cognitive control (operationalizing it and imaging it) Lecture 3: OCD Lecture 4: ADHD Lecture 5: Schizophrenia Lecture 6: Models of Addiction Lecture 7: Open lecture discussing and appraising recent ground breaking findings Lecture 8: Psychopathy Lecture 9: Psychosurgery Lecture 10: Pharmacological manipulation of cognition/ethical issues Lecture 11: Recap of module |