The Douglas Hospital Research Centre

Much of our current understanding of stress-related disorders – including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), phobias, panic attack, and generalized anxiety – comes from studying how the brain processes fear. 

Jorge Armony, PhD conducts research on how the brain detects stimuli in the environment that may signal threat or danger, and how this mechanism interacts with other processes, such as consciousness, attention, and memory. 

In his quest for answers, Jorge Armony uses several state-of-the-art research techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), behavioral and physiological measures (i.e. skin conductance and heart rate), as well as computational modeling. 

He has made significant contributions toward the understanding of psychiatric disorders involving dysfunctions of the fear system. For example, Jorge Armony recently found behavioural and anatomical correlates for the modulation of spatial attention by emotion using a fear conditioning paradigm. These findings further characterized the role of the amygdala in fear processing, as well as defining selective roles for the frontal, parietal, and lateral orbitofrontal cortices in spatial attention.

Jorge Armony Laboratory

The lab uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural bases of human emotional processing.

The lab's members look at how the detection of environmental stimuli (that signal impending danger) may interact with other brain processes, such as attention, memory and awareness. 

This research should be particularly relevant for the understanding of certain anxiety disorders, especially PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Research Projects

• Neural bases of emotion-attention interactions in humans
  J. Armony
• A neurocognitive investigation of the recovery process in PTSD
  J. Armony, A. Brunet
• Perception of emotional non-speech vocalizations
  J. Armony, P. Belin, S. Fecteau
• Influence of emotional expression on memory for faces
  J. Armony, M. Lepage, K. Sergerie
• Processing of “unseen” emotional stimuli in hemispherectomized patients
  J. Armony, S. Leh, A. Ptito
• Computational models of emotion
  J. Armony, E. Law, D. Precup