Omar Ayad

M.Sc. Graduate Student

Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, Ottawa

What does neuroscience have to say about the way we face the realities of life–those realities that are sometimes harsh and sometimes rewarding. What happens inside our brains when we have to face fearful or rewarding situations? And how do our psychological attributes such as personal traits and history modulate the brain’s interaction with these situations? I try to find pieces to these puzzles using brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to investigate the biochemical and neural basis of reward-related regions in the brain. Also interested in philosophical issues of the “ideal self”.