Electrochemistry in the conscious human brain
Disturbances in the brain’s major neuromodulators, such as dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline, represent an enormous mental health burden worldwide. Yet, our understanding of why these neurochemicals are crucial for mental health has been impeded by an inability to measure fast chemical changes in the human brain. High-precision methods for studying neuromodulators are available in animals, but these results can be hard to relate to the uniquely human experience of mental disorders. In this talk, I will present our recent work in which we perform electrochemical recordings of sub-second changes in dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline in the conscious human brain. This unique opportunity occurs in movement disorder patients who are undergoing implantation of a deep brain stimulating electrode or epilepsy patients who have had depth electrodes implanted for the localisation of epileptic foci. I will present our results on the roles of dopamine and serotonin in action regulation and sensory inference and the relationship between noradrenaline, pupil dilation and emotional states.

About the speaker
Dan is a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at University College London (UCL). Before his Fellowship, Dan completed his PhD in the lab of Chris Summerfield at the University of Oxford, and he then worked for four years as a postdoc in the lab of Steve Fleming, also at UCL. Dan will start his own research group at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital in 2023, funded by the Lundbeck Foundation Fellows programme. His group will use human electrochemistry to develop and test theories of the neuromodulatory basis of cognition and behaviour and apply these insights to the study and improvement of mental health.

Website
https://sites.google.com/site/danbangphd/