New and Unique Speaker Experience for 2012 featuring
Steven Kotler *More Details to Come

STEVEN KOTLER is a New York Times best-selling author and award-winning journalist. His books include the non-fiction works “Abundance,” “A Small Furry Prayer” and “West of Jesus” and the novel “The Angle Quickest for Flight.” His articles have appeared in over 60 publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Forbes, GQ, National Geographic, Popular Science and Discover. He also writes Far Frontiers, a blog about disruptive technology, guerilla neuroscience and adrenaline sport for Forbes.com; and The Playing Field, a blog about the science of sport and culture for PsychologyToday.com.

Mr. Kotler is the cofounder and Director of Research for the Flow Genome Project, an international organization dedicated to putting flow state research onto a hard science footing, and the cofounder of the Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary. He received a degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a MA in creative writing from The Johns Hopkins University.

Don't miss Steven Kotler in the Friday night Featured Speaker Experience. Limited space with required pre-purchased registration. This function has a minimal additional charge and tickets are required for entry.

Keynote Speakers   &   Invited Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Mark P. Jensen, PhD

Mark P. Jensen, PhD, is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Jensen’s research program focuses on the development and evaluation of psychosocial pain interventions.  He has been awarded a number of grants from the National Institutes of Health and other funding sources to test and extend biopsychosocial models of chronic pain.  He is the author or co-author of over 300 articles and book chapters, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pain.  Current research projects include:  (1) clinical trials of hypnotic analgesia for chronic pain conditions; (2) research to understand the effects of psychosocial interventions on pain-related brain activity; and (3) the development and evaluation of neuromodulatory interventions for chronic pain management.

Erik Peper, PhD

Erik Peper, Ph.D. is an international authority on biofeedback and self-regulation. He is Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for Holistic Healing Studies, Department of Health Education. He is President of the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe (2005) and past President of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. He holds Senior Fellow certification from the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America. He received the 2004 California Governor's Safety Award for his work on Healthy Computing. He has served as behavioral scientist (sport psychologist) for the United States Rhythmic Gymnastic team. He is also an author of numerous scientific articles and books. His most recent co-authored books include Healthy Computing with Muscle Biofeedback, Make Health Happen: Training Yourself to Create Wellness and De Computermens (Dutch). He is also the co-producer of weekly Healthy Computing Email Tips. His research interests focus on psychophysiology of healing, voluntary self-regulation, holistic health, healthy computing, respiratory psychophysiology and optimizing health with biofedback.

Mario Beauregard, PhD

Mario Beauregard, PhD., is currently Associate Research Professor at the University of Montreal (Departments of Psychology and Radiology, Neuroscience Research Center). He is the author of more than 100 publications in neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry. Because of his research into the neuroscience of consciousness, he was selected (2000) by the World Media Net to be among the "One Hundred Pioneers of the 21st Century." Dr. Beauregard is the co-author and editor of Consciousness, Emotional Self-Regulation and the Brain. His groundbreaking work on the neurobiology of emotion and spiritual experience has received international media coverage. In 2006, he received the Joel F. Lubar Award for his contribution to the field of neurofeedback. The National Film Board of Canada has produced a documentary film about his work titled The Mystical Brain (2007).  On September 11 2008, he was invited to participate in a symposium (titled Beyond the Mind-Body Problem: New Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness) held at the United Nations. In 2010, Dr. Beauregard was decorated with the prestigious Spectrum Award by The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. He has published a few books including The Spiritual Brain and Brain Wars.

Israel Liberzon, MD

IsIsrael Liberzon, MD, is a Theophile Raphael Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Michigan.  After graduating from Sacklers Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Dr. Liberzon completed his post-doctoral training in physiology at Rappaport Institute, Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa.  He then completed the Psychiatry Residence Program at the University of Michigan, and, since 1992, has been faculty in the University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience program.  In 1992, Dr. Liberzon established the PTSD program at the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor VAMC, a program that has since grown and remained on the forefront of biological research of PTSD worldwide.  Dr. Liberzon co-founded the Trauma, Stress, and Anxiety Research Group (TSARG) at the University of Michigan, which includes the Psychiatric Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, a basic science (wet bench) laboratory, a MiRRR genetic repository and a clinical research group.  

Dr. Liberzon’s primary research interest centers on emotions, stress and stress related disorders like PTSD, particularly in the regulation and dysregulation of stress response systems.  His work integrates cognitive, functional neuroimaging, neuroendocrinological and genetic approaches to study stress, emotions, cognitive-emotion interactions and the effects of emotions on decision making.  In the last 15 years, under Dr. Liberzon’s leadership, the TSARG had be continuously funded with multiple NIMH RO1 grants, VA Career development and NIH K awards, VA merit awards, Army and DoD grants, and more.  Currently there are over 10 active federally funded grants of various kinds awarded to Trauma Stress and Anxiety Research Group members.  Dr. Liberzon has mentored 11 doctoral candidates, 17 post doctoral research fellows and 9 junior faculty members, has published over 100 articles, and has authored and edited several book chapters and reviews including: Brain Imaging Studies of PTSD in the International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma published by AC. Plenum Publishing in 2000 and the forthcoming Neuroimaging in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Post Traumatic Stress Disorders by Taylor & Francis.  Until recently Dr. Liberzon served as a Chief of Mental Health Service at the Ann Arbor VA Health System, and currently he is an Associate Chair for Academic Development, and the Director of the Psychiatric Residency Research Track at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan.  He is a Fellow of American College of Neuropsychpharmacology, served as a president of Psychiatric Research Society, an editorial Board member for Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology journals, and is a member of NIMH study section.  In 2008 he was named Theophile Raphael Collegiate Professor of Neuroscience.

Invited Speakers

C. Shawn Green, PhD

C. Shawn Green received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences all at the University of Rochester under the supervision of Daphne Bavelier. His work there focused on the effects of playing one particular sub-genre of video game (so-called “action” video games) on perception and perceptual decision-making. Unlike much of the literature on perceptual training, which has demonstrated a strong tendency toward learning that is highly specific to the trained task, his work demonstrated that action video games produce benefits on tasks that seem to share little in common with the game environments. 

Green then completed a post-doc at the University of Minnesota focused on human & machine learning and computational vision under the supervision of Daniel Kersten and Paul Schrater.  Because video games are incredibly complex, projects there focused on understanding the roles of small components of full video games (e.g. the role of variety of input/task, of reward, etc).

Currently Green is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and an affiliate faculty member in the Games Learning Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  One of the main areas of focus in his lab is the attempt to understand the effects of video games at more computational and neural levels.  One possibility that the lab is currently testing is the idea that what games really teach is not myriad individual cognitive skills, but is instead the ability to quickly and efficiently learn to perform new skills (i.e. “learn to learn”).

David Cantor, PhD

Dr. Cantor received his Bachelors Degree with Distinction in Psychology from the University of Connecticut.  His honors work was in the field of neurophysiological correlates of attention deficit disorders.  He went on to get his Masters and Doctorates in Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and continued his interest in attention deficits and his later published work on Autism. He has a Post-Doctoral Masters of Science Degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Clinical Psychopharmacology. He worked for several years under a USDA grant with the Applied Neuroscience Institute to study the relationships of environmental toxins on brain-behavior development in children and has been involved in large scale forensic cases with a focus on toxin exposure on brain and behavior across the life span.  He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Academy of Learning and Developmental Disorders, and the American College of Forensic Examiners. Dr. Cantor has been the recipient of several grants in the development of diagnostic tools or in the field of developing new therapeutic techniques with identified populations of brain dysfunction and has published articles and book chapters in these areas. He has been accepted for special fellowships including Congressional Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the State of New York Intercampus Fellow in the area of Brain Research.  He has been a member of several national and international professional societies and is past president of the EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society. He is currently licensed as a psychologist in the States of Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.  Dr. Cantor is on the Speaker's Bureau for the American Psychological Association and he has made numerous public appearances including radio and television appearances for his work. Currently, he is the President of the Psychological Sciences Institute, PC, based out of Johns Creek, GA and is the co-founder and President of the Innovative Health Foundation, a non-profit company.

Christine Moravec, PhD