Michael Frank
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences
Michael J. Frank’s computer models show how different areas of the brain interact to support learning and decision making.
“The computer part is what really drives the framework; it's the backbone of what I do,” Frank said. His neural network models simulate systems-level interactions between multiple brain areas, primarily basal ganglia and frontal cortex, including modulation by dopamine and other neuromodulators.
“The other half is experimenting with people” — from Parkinson’s patients, whose dopamine centers are damaged, to healthy people — using techniques from neuropsychology, pharmacology, genetics and neuroimaging.
“The computer models link the mechanisms in the brain to how they produce cognitive functions,” Frank said, “so the experiments then test whether these specific mechanisms, as proposed in the models, alter the way people learn and make decisions.”
In the model, Frank can simulate the effects of Parkinson’s, a drug, or genes and show that it produces changes in the decisions the brain makes. Data from human experiments allows Frank to refine the model’s accuracy. “It’s an interactive process,” he said.
By combining computational modeling and experimental work, Frank’s lab at the University of Arizona has sought to understand the neural mechanisms behind reinforcement learning, decision making and working memory.
In January, Frank will join Brown’s faculty as an assistant professor in the departments of Psychology and Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences.
“[Frank] will bring to Brown new expertise in computational modeling of the brain at the level of neural circuits,” said William Warren, professor and chair of Brown’s Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences. “His work can shed light on how disruptions of these circuits lead to deficits in cognitive function.”
Parkinson’s most externally visible symptoms are the tremors and difficulty with movement. “What's less appreciated,” Frank said, “are the changes to cognitive function and memory.
“Some of it is caused by the medication, not the disease," he continued. “Treatments including medication and deep brain stimulation, a surgical procedure that is essentially a pacemaker in the brain, can improve some of these cognitive symptoms. But they can worsen others, causing problems with quality of life such as impulsive decision making.”
Frank also runs pharmacological studies about decision making in healthy people who may or may not have a certain gene. “We collect their DNA and do the same experiments as on Parkinson’s patients,” he said. “We look at a few genes, but most of them are related to the dopamine system, so that we can relate them to the same brain functions that are altered in Parkinson’s.”