Research Program Summary

Dr. Read Montague’s work centers broadly on human social cognition, decision-making, and willful choice with a goal of understanding the detailed underlying neurobiology of these functions in health and disease. Montague’s work particularly focuses on computational neuroscience – the connection between physical mechanisms present in real neural tissue and the computational functions that these mechanisms embody. His laboratory uses theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches to these issues. In particular, the group now employs novel approaches to functional neuroimaging, new biomarkers for mental disease, spectroscopy, real-time voltammetry, and computational simulations. Montague also directs the Roanoke Brain Study, a project aimed at understanding decision-making through the lifespan and its relationship to brain development, function, and disease. Work in the laboratory is supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, The Kane Family Foundation, Autism Speaks, The MacArthur Foundation, The Dana Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust.

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Education and Training

• The Salk Institute: Postdoctoral fellowship
• Rockefeller University: Postdoctoral fellowship
• University of Alabama Birmingham: Ph.D., Biophysics

Previous Positions

• Baylor College of Medicine
  Brown Foundation Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry
  Director, Human Neuroimaging Lab
  Director, Computational Psychiatry Unit
  

Awards and Honors

• William R. and Irene D. Miller Lectureship, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2011–2012
• Network Member, The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, 2011, 2012
• Walter Gilbert Award, Auburn University, 2011
• Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship, 2011
• Kavli Fellow, U.S.-China Frontiers of Science, National Academy of Science, 2010
• Member, Institute for Advanced Study 2005–2006
• Michael E. DeBakey Excellence in Research Award, 1997, 2005

Selected Publications

• Xiang T, Lohrenz T, Montague PR. (2013). Computational Substrates of Norms and Their Violations during Social Exchange. J Neurosci, 33(3):1099-108.
• Bhatt MA, Lohrenz TM, Camerer CF, Montague PR. (2012). Distinct contributions of the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus to suspicion in a repeated bargaining game. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 109(22):8728-8733.
• Downar J, Bhatt M, Montague PR. (2011). Neural correlates of effective learning in experienced medical decision-makers. PLoS One, 6(11):e27768.
• Kirk U, Harvey A, Montague PR. (2011). Domain expertise insulates against judgment bias by monetary favors through a modulation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 108(25):10332-6.
• Bhatt MA, Lohrenz T, Camerer CF, Montague PR. (2010). Neural signatures of strategic types in a two-person bargaining game. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 107(46):19720-5.
• Kishida, KT, King-Casas, B, Montague PR. (2010). Neuroeconomic approaches to mental disorders. Neuron, 67(4):543-54.
• King-Casas, B, Sharp, C, Lomax, L, Lohrenz, T, Fonagy, P, Montague, PR. (2008). The rupture and repair of cooperation in borderline personality disorder. Science, 321:806-810.
• Tomlin, D, Kayali, MA, King-Casas, B, Anen, C, Camerer, CF, Quartz, SR, Montague, PR. (2006). Agent-specific responses in cingulate cortex during economic exchanges. Science, 312:1047-1050.
• King-Casas, B, Tomlin, D, Anen, C, Camerer, CF, Quartz, SR, Montague, PR. (2005). Getting to know you: Reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange. Science, 308:78-83.
• Montague, PR, Dayan, P, Person, C, Sejnowski, TJ. (1995). Bee foraging in uncertain environments using predictive Hebbian learning. Nature, 377:725-728.

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