Discovery! Thursdays

Michael Koenigs, psychiatry, explores, "Why Do People Behave the Way They Do?" through studies of brain-damaged patients who have undergone dramatic changes in personality. His studies have included patients with strokes, aneurysms and brain tumors, as well as Vietnam war veterans who suffered brain injuries during combat. Koenigs has identified an area of the brain — the ventromedial prefrontal cortex — critical for controlling emotion, decision making and social behavior.