Antoine Bechara, PhD
 |
Researcher, Douglas Institute
antoine_dot_bechara2_At_mcgill_dot_ca |
Areas of expertise
Decision-making, addiction, neurobiology, decision neuroscience, social behaviour
Profile
Antoine Bechara’s, PhD, research focus is on “decision neuroscience”, or how the brain makes decisions. This field integrates the study of brain physiology with behaviour and enriches the understanding of a variety of human decision-making events including the development of economic theories, and political or legal decisions. Decision neuroscience interests economists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and physicians who are attempting to understand the neural basis of judgment and decision-making, social behavior, and market economies.
Antoine Bechara uses a variety of laboratory behavioral decision tasks, neuroscientific analyses, including the study of patients with focal brain damage, functional neuro-imaging techniques, pharmacological manipulations, and psychophysiological techniques to study decision-making. He developed a decision-making task, the Iowa Gambling Task, which is the first tool to detect and measure a decision-making deficit observed in many patients with frontal lobe syndrome. This work has drawn attention to the potential value in studying the neural basis of decision-making, and in bringing this question to the laboratory through the use of structured decision-making tasks involving choices that mimic real-life situations. This tool is now widely used for clinical and investigative studies all over the world.
Antoine Bechara is currently exploring some of the underlying neural mechanisms that lead to poor decision-making in a subgroup of older adults, and which render them more susceptible to falling victims to advertisement scams. This in turn, results in poor decisions about health and financial matters. He is also studying the use of neuroscientific knowledge to test new marketing strategies that could promote healthier eating and nutrition, and thus reduce obesity.
Antoine Bechara uses a variety of laboratory behavioral decision tasks, neuroscientific analyses, including the study of patients with focal brain damage, functional neuro-imaging techniques, pharmacological manipulations, and psychophysiological techniques to study decision-making. He developed a decision-making task, the Iowa Gambling Task, which is the first tool to detect and measure a decision-making deficit observed in many patients with frontal lobe syndrome. This work has drawn attention to the potential value in studying the neural basis of decision-making, and in bringing this question to the laboratory through the use of structured decision-making tasks involving choices that mimic real-life situations. This tool is now widely used for clinical and investigative studies all over the world.
Antoine Bechara is currently exploring some of the underlying neural mechanisms that lead to poor decision-making in a subgroup of older adults, and which render them more susceptible to falling victims to advertisement scams. This in turn, results in poor decisions about health and financial matters. He is also studying the use of neuroscientific knowledge to test new marketing strategies that could promote healthier eating and nutrition, and thus reduce obesity.
Contact information
| Douglas Institute Perry Pavilion Room E-2209 6875, LaSalle blvd Montreal (Quebec) H4H 1R3 |
Phone : 514 761-6131 ext.: 3933 |
