GREGORY S. BERNS
Curriculum Vitae

Revised: 1/14/2010

OFFICE ADDRESS
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Emory University School of Medicine
101 Woodruff Circle , Suite 4000
Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: (404) 727-2556
Fax: (404) 727-3233

CURRENT TITLES & AFFILIATIONS

Academic Appointments

Clinical Appointments:

PREVIOUS ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

LICENSURES:

PA Medical License MD-059626-L (issued 1995, inactive since 1998)
GA Medical License 045173 (issued 1998)

SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION:

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology: Psychiatry (2000)

EDUCATION

1986 A.B. Princeton University Physics
1990 Ph.D. University of California, Davis  Biomedical Engineering
1994 M.D. University of California, San Diego Medicine

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

1990-1994 Research Assistant / Postdoctoral Fellow
Salk Institute of Biological Studies
Mentor: Terrence J. Sejnowksi, Ph.D.

1994-1995 General Psychiatry and Medicine Internship
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

1995-1998 Adult Psychiatry Residency
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS

National and International

Institutional

MANUSCRIPT REVIEWER

HONORS & AWARDS

SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS

ORGANIZATION OF NATIONAL CONFERENCES

RESEARCH FOCUS

My research is aimed at understanding the neurobiological basis for individual preferences and how the biology places constraints on the decisions people make -- a field now known as neuroeconomics. To achieve this goal, we use functional MRI to measure the activity in key parts of the brain involved in decision making. We then link these activity traces to various phenotypes of decision making. For example, we have linked the pattern of activity in the striatum with the receipt of unexpected, salient information with the tendency to alter one's behavior. More recently, we have used the timecourse of activity as a proxy for experiential utility, in the process, bridging the gap between experience and choice. Ongoing research projects are developing these methods to probe decision-making in adolescents as well as group decision-making and the influence of peer pressure at the neurobiological level. We also study the neurobiological basis of ideological decision making.

GRANT SUPPORT

Active

Federally Funded:

Previous Support

FORMAL TEACHING

Full Courses

Miscellaneous Educational Lectures

SUPERVISORY TEACHING

Graduate Students

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Graduate students who have rotated through the lab

Other students, fellows, and faculty who have trained in the lab

LECTURESHIPS AND SEMINAR INVITATIONS

  1. Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego & Salk Institute (1995). "The Basal Ganglia: Local Memory and Automatic Sequencing."
  2. Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego & Salk Institute (1997). "PET mapping of subconscious novelty detection mechanisms in humans."
  3. School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology (1997). "Cortico-Striatal Function in Sequence Learning."
  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Alabama, Birmingham (1998). Grand Rounds, "Imaging Cortico-Striatal Function Using Cognitive Probes."
  5. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh (1998). Ground Rounds, "Common Neurobiology of ADHD and Substance Abuse."
  6. Division of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine (1998). "Computational Neuroscience Driving Neuroimaging: Studies of Basal Ganglia Function."
  7. Division of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine (2000). "Beyond Phrenology: Using fMRI to Study Brain Dynamics."
  8. Psychology Department, Princeton University (2000). "Beyond Phrenology: Using fMRI to Study Brain Dynamics."
  9. Princeton Workshop on Neural Economics (2000). "Neural Responses to Predictability and Uncertainty."
  10. Biomedical Engineering Dept., University of California, San Diego (2001), "Neuroinformatics: Computational Approaches to fMRI Design."
  11. Brain Mapping Center, UCLA (2001), "Neuroinformatics: Computational Approaches to fMRI Design."
  12. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Grand Rounds, Emory University School of Medicine (2001)
  13. Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Weill Medical College, Cornell University (2002).
  14. Department of Psychiatry and Neurology Grand Rounds, Tulane Medical School (2003).
  15. Division of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Opening of Human Neuroimaging Laboratory (2003).
  16. Economics Department, Sloan School MIT (2003).
  17. Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis (2004).
  18. Psychology and Economics Departments, New York University (2004).
  19. Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina (2006).
  20. Major Speakers in Neuroeconomics Series, Duke University (2006).
  21. Distinguished Lecture Series, Georgia State University (2007)
  22. Department of Neurology Grand Rounds, Emory University (2007)
  23. Seminar Series in Computation and Neural Systems, Caltech (2007)
  24. Series of Lectures, Economics Dept, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan (2007)
  25. Psychology Department Colloqium, Emory University (2007)
  26. Economics Department, Emory University (2008)
  27. Economics Department, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan (2008)
  28. Rotman Institute, University of Toronto (2009)
  29. Frank Shobe Lecture, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University (2010)

INVITATIONS TO NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

  1. Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting (1998). "Modeling Basal Ganglia Function: Implications for Drug Abuse and Parkinson’s Disease."
  2. American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (1998).  Workshop on "Mechanisms of Drug Craving."
  3. American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (1999).  Teaching Day.  "Beyond Phrenology: Using Functional MRI to Study Brain Dynamics."
  4. American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (1999).  Workshop on "Mapping the functional anatomy of the anterior limbic areas: Integrating behavior, neurochemistry and anatomy in psychiatric pathophysiology."
  5. European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Munich (2000). Invited symposium on "Cognition, fMRI, and Psychopharmacology."
  6. Biodynamics III -- Nonlinear Approaches in the Health Sciences (2000). Invited presentation on fMRI and brain dynamics.
  7. NIDA (2000). Invited presentation for workshop, "Computational Models: Applications to Drug Abuse."
  8. American Neuropsychiatric Association (2002). Invited presentation on, "Hyperscan: The biology of human interaction using web-linked fMRI."
  9. Future Leaders in Psychiatry (2002). Invited presentation.
  10. NIDA satellite symposium on reward (2002). Invited presentation.
  11. Future Leaders in Psychiatry (2003). Invited presentation.
  12. Society for Neuroscience, Symposium on Decision-Making (2003). Invited presentation.
  13. World Economic Forum (2004)
  14. International Meeting of the Economic Science Association (2004). Plenary talk on neuroeconomics.
  15. Future Leaders in Psychiatry (2005). Invited presentation.
  16. NIDA Symposium on Obesity and Addiction (2005). Invited presentation or reward & saliency.
  17. NIDA workshop on adolescent reward and decision-making (2006). Invited presentation.
  18. Future Leaders in Psychiatry (2006). Invited presentation.
  19. American Psychological Association (2006). Invited presentation on conformity.
  20. Legg Mason Thought Leaders Forum (2006). Invited presentation on neuroeconomics.
  21. NIDA Conference on Drug Abuse and Risky Behaviors (2007). Invited presentation on neuroeconomics.
  22. Future Leaders in Psychiatry (2007). Invited presentation.
  23. Defining a Cognitive Battery for Drug Abuse, NIDA (2007)
  24. Social Neuroscience Symposium, NIDA (2007). Invited presentation.
  25. Neurofinance symposium, Zurich (2007). Invited presentation.
  26. American Psychological Association (2008). Invited presentation on neuroeconomics.
  27. World Economic Forum (2009)
  28. Summer workshop on decision science, University of Michigan (2009)
  29. Global Economic Symposium, Hamburg, Germany (2009)\
  30. Global Economic Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey (2010)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Research Articles

  1. Berns MW, Aist J, Edwards J, Strahs K, Girton J, McNeill P, Rattner JB, Kitzes M, Hammer-Wilson M, Liaw L-H, Siemens A, Koonce M, Peterson S, Brenner S, Burt J, Walter R, Bryant PJ, van Dyk D, Coulombe J, Cahill T, Berns GS: Laser microsurgery in cell and developmental biology. Science 213:505-513, 1981.
  2. Berns GS and Berns MW: Computer-based tracking of living cells. Exp. Cell Res. 142:103-109, 1982.
  3. Berns MW, Berns GS, Coffey J, Wile AG: Exposure (dose) tables for hematoporphyrin derivative photoradiation therapy. Lasers in Surgery & Med. 4:107-131, 1984.
  4. Berns GS, Hull ML, Patterson HA: Implementation of a five degree of freedom automated system to determine knee flexibility in vitro. J. Biomech. Eng. 112:392-400, 1990.
  5. Howell SM, Berns GS, Farley TE: Unimpinged and impinged anterior cruciate ligament grafts: MR signal intensity measurements. Radiology 179:639-643, 1991.
  6. Berns GS, Hull ML, Patterson HA: Strain in the anteromedial bundle of the anterior cruciate ligament under combination loading. J. Orthop. Res. 10:167-176, 1992.
  7. Berns GS, Howell SM, Farley TE: The accuracy of signal intensity measurements in magnetic resonance imaging as evaluated within the knee. Magn. Reson. Imag. 10:573-578, 1992.
  8. Berns GS and Howell SM: Roofplasty requirements in vitro for different tibial hole placements in anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions. Am. J. Sports Med. 21:292-298, 1993.
  9. Berns GS, Dayan P, Sejnowski TJ: A correlational model for the development of disparity selectivity in visual cortex that depends on prenatal and postnatal phases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:8277-8281, 1993. PDF.
  10. Hull ML, Berns GS, Varma H, Patterson HA: Strain in the medial collateral ligament of the human knee under single and combined loads. J. Biomech. 29:199-206, 1996.
  11. Berns GS, Cohen JD, Mintun MA: Brain regions responsive to novelty in the absence of awareness. Science, 276:1272-1275, 1997. PDF
  12. Berns GS and Sejnowski TJ: A computational model of how the basal ganglia produce sequences. J. Cogn. Neurosci., 10:108-121, 1998. PDF.
  13. Nemeroff CB, Kilts CD, Berns GS:  Functional brain imaging: Twenty-first century phrenology or psychobiological advance for the millennium? Am. J. Psychiatry 156:671-673, 1999.
  14. Berns GS, Song AW, Mao H:  Continuous functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals dynamic nonlinearities in "dose-response" curves for finger opposition. J. Neurosci. 19:RC17:1-6, 1999. PDF.
  15. Bischoff-Grethe A, Proper SM, Mao H, Daniels KA, Berns GS: Conscious and unconscious processing of nonverbal predictability in Wernicke's area.  J. Neurosci. 20(5):1975-1981, 2000. PDF.
  16. Berns GS, McClure SM, Pagnoni G, Montague PR: Predictability modulates human brain response to reward. J. Neurosci., 21:2793-2798, 2001. PDF.
  17. Bischoff-Grethe A, Martin M, Mao H, Berns GS: The context of uncertainty modulates the subcortical response to predictability. J. Cogn. Neurosci., 13:986-993, 2001. PDF.
  18. Berns GS, Martin M, Proper S: Limbic hyperreactivity in bipolar II disorder. Am. J. Psychiatry, 159:304-306, 2002. PDF.
  19. Pagnoni G, Zink CF, Montague PR, Berns GS: Activity in human ventral striatum locked to errors of reward prediction. Nat. Neurosci., 5:97-98, 2002. PDF.
  20. Dhamala M, Pagnoni G, Wiesenfeld K, Berns GS: Measurements of brain activity complexity for varying mental loads. Phys. Rev. E., 65:041917(7), 2002. PDF.
  21. Rilling JK, Gutman DA, Zeh TR, Pagnoni G, Berns GS, Kilts CD: A neural basis for social cooperation. Neuron, 35:395-405, 2002. PDF.
  22. Montague PR, Berns GS, Cohen JD, McClure SM, Pagnoni G, Dhamala M, Wiest M, Karpov I, King RD, Apple N, Fisher RE: Hyperscanning: Simultaneous fMRI during linked social interactions, Neuroimage 16:1159-1164, 2002. PDF.
  23. McClure SM, Berns GS, Montague PR: Temporal prediction errors in a passive learning task activate human striatum. Neuron 38: 339-346, 2003. PDF.
  24. Dhamala M, Pagnoni G, Wiesenfeld K, Zink CF, Martin M, Berns GS: Neural correlates of the complexity of rhythmic finger tapping. Neuroimage 20:918-926, 2003. PDF.
  25. Zink CF, Pagnoni G, Martin ME, Dhamala M, Berns GS: Human striatal response to salient non-rewarding stimuli. J. Neurosci. 23:8092-8097, 2003. PDF. Accompanying editorial.
  26. Zink CF, Pagnoni G, Martin-Skurski ME, Chappelow JC, Berns GS: Human striatal response to monetary reward depends on saliency. Neuron 42:509-517, 2004. PDF.
  27. Capuron L, Pagnoni G, Demetrashvili M, Woolwine BJ, Nemeroff CB, Berns GS, Miller AH: Anterior cingulate activation and error processing during interferon-alpha treatment. Biol. Psychiatry 58:190-196, 2005. PDF.
  28. Berns GS, Chappelow JC, Zink CF, Pagnoni G, Martin-Skurski ME, Richards R: Neurobiological correlates of social conformity and independence during mental rotation. Biol. Psychiatry 58:245-253, 2005. PDF.
  29. Zink CF, Pagnoni G, Chappelow JC, Martin-Skurski ME, Berns GS: Human striatal activation reflects degree of stimulus saliency. Neuroimage 29:977-983, 2006. PDF.
  30. Berns GS, Chappelow J, Cekic M, Zink CF, Pagnoni G, Martin-Skurski ME: Neurobiologic substrates of dread. Science, 312:754-758, 2006. PDF. Supporting Materials.
  31. Capuron L, Pagnoni G, Demetrashvili MF, Lawson DH, Fornwalt FB, Woolwine B, Berns GS, Nemeroff CB, Miller AH: Basal ganglia hypermetabolism and symptoms of fatigue during interferon-alpha therapy. Neuropsychopharmacology 32:2394-2392 , 2007.
  32. Berns GS, Capra CM, Moore S, Noussair C: A shocking experiment: new evidence on probability weighting and common ratio violations. Judgment & Decision Making 2:234-242, 2007. PDF.
  33. Chandrasekhar PVS, Capra CM, Moore S, Noussair C, Berns GS: Neurobiological regret and rejoice functions for aversive outcomes. Neuroimage 39:1472-1484 (epub Nov 2007). PDF.
  34. Berns GS, Capra CM, Chappelow J, Moore S, Noussair C: Nonlinear neurobiological probability weighting functions for aversive outcomes. Neuroimage 39:2047-2057, 2008 (epub Nov 2007). PDF.
  35. Engelmann JB, Capra CM, Noussair C, Berns GS: Expert financial advice neurobiologically "offloads" financial decision-making under risk. PLoS One 4:e4957, 2009. Link. PDF.
  36. Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM: Adolescent engagement in dangerous behaviors is associated with increased white matter maturity of frontal cortex. PLoS One 4(8):e6773, 2009. Link. PDF.
  37. Berns GS, Capra CM, Moore S, Noussair C: Neural mechanisms of the influence of popularity on adolescent ratings of music. Neuroimage 49:2687-2696, 2010.

Review Articles

  1. Berns GS: Functional neuroimaging.  Life Sci 65:2531-2540, 1999. PDF.
  2. Berns GS and Nemeroff CB:  Extreme measures. The neurobiology of bipolar disorder.  Odyssey 5:36-41, 1999.
  3. Mao H and Berns GS: MRI in the study of brain functions: clinical perspectives. Medicamundi 46:28-38, 2002. PDF.
  4. Montague PR and Berns GS: Neural economics and the biological substrates of valuation. Neuron 36:265-284, 2002. PDF.
  5. Berns GS and Nemeroff CB: The neurobiology of bipolar disorder. Am. J. Med. Genet C 123C:76-84, 2003. PDF.
  6. Berns GS: Neural game theory and the search for rational agents in the brain. Behav. Brain Sci. 26:155-156, 2003.
  7. Berns GS: Something funny happened to reward. Trends Cogn. Sci. 8:193-194, 2004. PDF.
  8. Berns GS: Price, placebo, and the brain. J. Marketing Res. XLII:399-400, 2005. PDF.
  9. Berns GS, Capra CM, Noussair C: Receptor theory and biological constraints on value. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1104:301-309, 2007. PDF.
  10. Berns GS, Laibson D, Loewenstein G: Intertemporal choice -- toward an integrated framework, Trends Cogn. Sci., 11:482-488, 2007. PDF.
  11. Ariely D and Berns GS: Neuromarketing: The hope and hype of neuoroimaging in business. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, in press.

Books

  1. Berns GS: Satisfaction. The Science of Finding True Fulfillment. Henry Holt & Co., 2005. Foreign editions: German, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Romanian.
  2. Berns GS: Iconoclast. A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently. Harvard Business School Press, 2008. Foreign editions: Korean, Portugese, Thai.

Book Chapters

  1. Berns GS and Sejnowski TJ: How the basal ganglia make decisions. The Neurobiology of Decision-Making. A Damasio, H Damasio, Y Christen eds, Springer-Verlag, 1996, pp. 101-113.
  2. Berns GS: Cognitive neuroscience. Encyclopedia of Psychology and Neuroscience, WE Craighead and CB Nemeroff eds. John Wiley & Sons, 2000, pp. 314-315.
  3. Montague PR, Eagleman DM, McClure SM, Berns GS: Reinforcement learning. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. L Nadel ed. Macmillan Reference, 2003.
  4. Pagnoni, G and Berns GS: Brain imaging in psychopharmacology. Textbook of Psychopharmacology, Third Edition. AF Schatzberg and CB Nemeroff eds. American Psychiatric Publishing, 2004, pp. 163-172.

Book Reviews

  1. Berns GS and Nemeroff CB: Book Review of "The Neuropsychiatry of Limbic and Subcortical Disorders." J Psych Neurosci 24:251-252, 1999.

Other Publications

  1. Berns GS: Force distribution patterns in the foot during running. A.B. Thesis, Dept. of Physics, Princeton University, 1986.
  2. Berns GS: Strain within the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments of the human knee under combination loading. Ph.D. Dissertation, Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, 1990.

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