Leveraging Brain-Based Predictive Modelling to Study Sex, Gender, and Behaviour

Speaker: Dr. Elvisha Dhamala, Assistant Professor, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Director, Brain-Based Predictive Modeling Laboratory

Elvisha Dhamala, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Behavioral Sciences at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and the Zucker Hillside Hospital at Northwell Health and the director of the Brain-Based Predictive Modeling Laboratory. She earned her BSc in Neuroscience in 2017 from McGill University, and her PhD in Neuroscience from Weill Cornell Medicine in 2021 in the CoCo (Computational Connectomics) Lab. She completed her postdoctoral training as the inaugural Kavli Institute for Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellow for Academic Diversity in the Holmes Lab at Yale University. Her research program seeks to characterize the neurobiological correlates of human behaviour, with an emphasis on understanding the extent to which these brain-behaviour relationships are shared or unique across males and females in healthy and psychiatric populations. This research focus is largely motivated by the search for sex- and gender- specific neural underpinnings of complex behaviours, which may underlie distinct manifestations of affective and psychotic psychopathology in males and females.

Talk summary:

A fundamental question across neuroscience and psychology is the extent to which males and females differ from one another in terms of brain, behaviour, and brain-behaviour relationships. In this talk, I will provide an overview of how machine learning predictive modelling approaches can be leveraged to study the neurobiological correlates of sex, gender, and distinct behaviours across healthy and clinical populations. I will then present findings from a series of studies evaluating whether shared or unique neural correlates underlie cognitive abilities, mental health traits, and psychiatric diagnoses in males and females. Finally, I will argue that these predictive modelling approaches can provide us with clinically-relevant insights that can subsequently inform the development of personalised early intervention and diagnostic strategies for psychiatric illnesses.

Mentorship opportunity: 

Immediately following Dr. Dhamala's presentation, audience members will have the opportunity to hear more about Dr. Dhamala's career. This is an excellent opportunity for trainees to ask questions and learn more about careers in women's health. 

Agenda:

9-9:45 : Speaker presentation

9:45-10:00: Question and answer period

10-10:30: Mentorship session

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