Cambridge Health Alliance : News

Harvard Medical School Teaching Affiliate

For Patients

For Providers

Academics

Careers

Services

Locations

How to Give

Join Our Media mailing list

Media Opportunity Consent Form

NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE

CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE TO CO-HOST REVOLUTIONARY SYMPOSIUM ON NEW SCIENCE OF SOCIAL RELATEDNESS

- This FREE Event explores science of human-to-human identification, understanding (mental and emotional), and bonding -

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA…. Can science tell us how babies learn to identify with their parents, and thus ultimately understand how we learn? Will exploration yield a road map of the brain's ability to empathize with others? Can we distill the essence of human bonding?

These questions lie at the heart of the Cambridge Health Alliance's (CHA) Department of Psychiatry and The Tavistock Clinic's ground-breaking academic symposium, Shared Subjectivities in Brain, Mind and Psychopathology, which will take place in Cambridge at Harvard University's Science Center Auditorium on Saturday, October 14, 2006.

The symposium will focus on the new science of social relatedness, which is forming at the intersection of four seeming unrelated academic fields - social neuroscience, developmental science, evolutionary theory, and the study of psychopathology.

A noted scientist from each field will explore ideas that are emerging at the crossroads of these diverse disciplines.

Sarah Hrdy, Ph.D., a Professor Emerita of anthropology at University of California at Davis, has uncovered that a line of apes is able to read the mental states of others just as humans do.

Jean Decety, Ph.D., Professor, Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Chicago, will discuss focus on the neuroscience behind empathy. Decety, who is mapping out neuron systems in the brain that allow people to identify with one another, has found that humans have "mirror neurons" that react when a person acts a certain way.

Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Ph.D., Director, Center for Bio-behavioral Family Studies, Cambridge Health Alliance; Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical school researches the child development before and after a child forms a bond with his/her parents. Her work has yielded specific discoveries related to the effect of maternal depression on children.

Peter Hobson, M.D., Ph.D., a Tavistock Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at University College in London takes a less biological approach to how people come to shared awareness. His work focuses in how a personality disorder in the mother affects the innate connection with her child. Hobson studies how infants with caregivers suffering from personality disorder or psychopathologies develop a lessened ability to communicate.

CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE
Cambridge Health Alliance is an innovative, award-winning health system that provides high quality care in Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Revere, and Boston’s Metro-North communities. It includes three hospitals, more than 20 primary care practices, the Cambridge Public Health Department, and the Network Health plan. With this unique model, the Alliance is able to offer the finest health services, a diverse working environment, and a premier training experience in community-based medicine.