I would like to develop experimental paradigms and computational models to provide behavioral assessment tools and computational explanation of how emotions (e.g. depression, anxiety) may influence our behavior.
What inspired me in this direction:
"Depression is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. Especially when long-lasting and with moderate or severe intensity, depression may become a serious health condition. It can cause the affected person to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school and in the family." -World Health Organization, 2012.
It's a topic in which I can apply what I can do to what I care. With advanced approaches in machine learning, we could recover the underlying computational principles to explain if and how our emotions affect our actions in daily life.
Questions I would like to address in this direction:
How does depression influence decision-making (under uncertainty) and motor-control (for example, driving)?
- can we find effective behavioral paradigm to study those problems (e.g. decision-making in driving tasks)?
- can we provide quantitative explanations?
- can we use facial expression to measure their real-time emotions and predict their behavior (through advanced emotion-detection tools)?
In particular, with computational tools, I would like to examine:
- how does depression/anxiety affect decision-making under uncertainty? (do they have different prior, learning rate, and different belief-update process?)
- how does anhedonia influence reward-processing (how are they different in approach-avoidance choices)?
- how does psychomotor disturbance influence motor-skills (can they perform necessary actions if they want to)?
In addition, I would like to explore:
Why do depressed individuals lack the motivation to seek pleasure and take actions to change current situation?
Why can't they experience the happiness from the same activities they experienced before?
Why do they suffer from slowed motor reaction and become less flexible to unexpected environmental change?
How does medication influence their daily behavior?
Can we use facial expression as a way to monitor their daily mood?
...
What inspired me in this direction:
"Depression is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. Especially when long-lasting and with moderate or severe intensity, depression may become a serious health condition. It can cause the affected person to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school and in the family." -World Health Organization, 2012.
It's a topic in which I can apply what I can do to what I care. With advanced approaches in machine learning, we could recover the underlying computational principles to explain if and how our emotions affect our actions in daily life.
Questions I would like to address in this direction:
How does depression influence decision-making (under uncertainty) and motor-control (for example, driving)?
- can we find effective behavioral paradigm to study those problems (e.g. decision-making in driving tasks)?
- can we provide quantitative explanations?
- can we use facial expression to measure their real-time emotions and predict their behavior (through advanced emotion-detection tools)?
In particular, with computational tools, I would like to examine:
- how does depression/anxiety affect decision-making under uncertainty? (do they have different prior, learning rate, and different belief-update process?)
- how does anhedonia influence reward-processing (how are they different in approach-avoidance choices)?
- how does psychomotor disturbance influence motor-skills (can they perform necessary actions if they want to)?
In addition, I would like to explore:
Why do depressed individuals lack the motivation to seek pleasure and take actions to change current situation?
Why can't they experience the happiness from the same activities they experienced before?
Why do they suffer from slowed motor reaction and become less flexible to unexpected environmental change?
How does medication influence their daily behavior?
Can we use facial expression as a way to monitor their daily mood?
...