Con preghiera di diffusione tra tutti i possibili interessati, scusandomi per invii multipli. Cordialmente, Giacomo Aletti

--------------

Nell'ambito dei Reading Group Seminars e del Seminario di Matematica Applicata, il giorno lunedì 26 Gennaio 2015, alle ore 14.30, nell'Aula Dottorato (primo piano) del Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Universita' degli Studi di Milano, Via C. Saldini, 50, Milano,

"A Bayesian model of pain perception and its modulation"

Davide ANCHISI, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Biologiche, Università di Udine

Abstract: While pain and pain modulation are most studied at the molecular and circuitry level, little is known about the logic and computational strategies underlying them. In the talk I'll describe a probabilistic model of pain inspired by those developed mainly in research on vision. The model can account for pain perception and for phenomena related to pain such as the placebo effect or the modulation of pain due to emotions, motivation and context. Moreover, the model makes novel predictions, confirmed by experimental findings. I will also discuss the relevance of a theoretical model not only in fitting the data and making new predictions but also for it's power to unveil what the nociceptive system is pursuing and why the modulation of pain occurs as it does (e.g. why there is a placebo effect)

=================

Reading Group Seminars: The Reading Group Seminars (RGS) are organized within an open community of researchers interested in applying up to date mathematical modeling and data analysis approaches to the study of biological systems. The RGS take place at the Math. Department in Milan (via Saldini). Initiatives and updates are published on the website: http://rgs.mat.unimi.it/.

-------------------------------

Giacomo Aletti, Associate Professor

ADAMSS Centre (ex MIRIAM) Advanced Applied Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Department of Mathematics (www.matematica.unimi.it) Via Saldini, 50 20133 Milano, Italy