Metacognition and freedom of choice in mental illness

Workshop organized by Lucie Charles (Postdoctoral Fellow, University College London) and Lucie Berkovitch (Psychiatrist, Centre Hospitalier Sainte Anne) with the support of University College London, Cities Partnerships Programme Funds 2019/2020, and the Paris Institute for Advanced Study.

Presentation

What do we know about the factors that influence our decisions? Are we aware of the true reasons of our choices? The question of what influences decisions and whether people can detect that they are being influenced emerged as a topical issue in the recent years, following scandals of manipulations in political campaigns and global increase in mistrust of the medias.
In extreme cases, feeling that we are manipulated or believing in conspiracy theories may be distressful and can constitute a symptom of mental illness. For instance, patients with schizophrenia experience delusions of control in which their actions seem to be driven by an external force, leading to persecution ideas. Such symptoms are also observed in patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), who report imposed thoughts that they try to ward off with repeated behaviours.
Recent progress in neuroscience has started to reveal the cognitive and cerebral mechanisms involved in introspection of decision-making, opening perspectives on understanding the subjective feeling of freedom over one’s choice.

The aim of the present workshop is to bring together neuroscientists and psychiatrists to discuss recent research on these topics, exploring preliminary behavioural and neuroimaging research on metacognition and freedom of choice in patients with mental illness.

Free admission upon registration at https://urlz.fr/aYu7

Program

9:30 - 10:00 Arrival coffee

10:00 - 12:00 Session 1: Altered decision making and metacognition in psychosis
Chair: Rick Adams (Department of Computer Science, University of College of London, England)

10:00 - 10:30 Alexandre Salvador, Service Hospitalo-Universitaire (SHU), Centre Hospitalier Sainte Anne, Paris, France
10:30 - 11:00 Lucie Berkovitch, Service Hospitalo-Universitaire (SHU), Centre Hospitalier Sainte Anne, Paris, France
11:00 - 11:30 Tore Erdmann, Cognitive neuroscience sector International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy
11:30 - 12:00 Panel Discussion

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch

13:00 - 13:30 Coffee break

13:00 - 15:00 Session 2: Metacognitive Bias in OCD and Anxiety disorders
Chair: Luc Mallet (Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moëlle, Paris, France)

13:00 - 13:30 Marion Rouault, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Computationnelles (LNC2), Institut Jean Nicod - EHESS - Département d’Etudes Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
13:30 - 14:00 Oliver Robinson, Neuroscience and Mental Health Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College of London (UCL), England
14:00 - 14:30 Karim N’Diaye, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moëlle (ICM), Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France    
14:30 - 15:00 Panel Discussion

15:00 - 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 - 17:30 Session3: Cognitive studies of metacognition and freedom of choice
Chair: Valérian Chambon (Departement d’Etudes Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France)               

15h30 - 16:00 Lucie Charles, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College of London (UCL), England
16:00 - 16:30 Nura Sidarus, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, England
16:30 - 17:00 Patrick Haggard, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College of London (UCL), England
17:00 - 17:30 Panel Discussion

Free admission upon registration at https://urlz.fr/aYu7