My lab uses direct intracranial recordings of neuromodulators (e.g., dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine), with sub-second temporal resolution, during awake conscious behavior to investigate how these key neurotransmitters affect choice behavior and subjective reports of phenomenal experience in humans. These investigations are guided by computational models, which involve both theoretical models of choice behavior and hypotheses about how specific signals may drive subjective phenomenal experience in humans. We also employ high-dimensional data science methods to characterize patterns and relationships in our data which are derived from multiple levels of investigation of human participants including: intracranial sub-second neurochemical fluctuations, non-invasive BOLD imaging (fMRI) data, dynamic behavioral tasks, and clinical characterizations (including present clinical profile and patient history). We are not clinical scientists, rather basic neuroscientists who study humans in clinical spaces where the full spectrum of human phenomenal experience and willful choice are enriched, but to date under-studied and uncharacterized. We hypothesize the existence of ‘computational phenotypes’, which we hypothesize will quantitatively characterize dynamic processes supported by neurobiological systems, which resulted from biological natural selection on evolutionary timescales, but ought to have a determinable underlying genetic and neural architecture.
Research vision /mission statement
Background: Philosophers have long contemplated the origins of their own first-person phenomenal experience and the origins of what feels like freely willed behavior. Neuroscientists have made tremendous progress explaining the neurobiological mechanisms linking sensory stimulation, cognitive processes, and behavior – to the point where some philosophers (and scientists) believe that the phenomenal experiences of being and choosing are ‘simply’ illusions. Nonetheless, phenomenal experience and choice (illusory or real) are fundamental phenomena – experiences that people that describe having – whose neurobiological mechanisms remain to be explained.
The significance of understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that give rise to phenomenal experience and what feels like freely willed behavior cannot be understated. Every aspect of being human is influenced by these two phenomena. This is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the medical context – particularly in psychiatric, neurologic, and neurosurgical medicine where disorders of phenomenal experience and loss of control are at the core of psychiatric and neurologic health conditions. Further, phenomenal experience and choice influence every aspect of being an individual human as well as how our families, communities, and societies interact and organize.
Disorders and trauma involving the human brain are a big deal! The U.S. government and U.S. healthcare industry funds trillions of dollars in research trying to develop treatments for a wide range of problems involving the human brain. Most of these funds go towards clinical trials and basic research aimed at testing potential interventions or understanding ‘what has gone wrong’ in brain disorder ‘X’. Lost in this race to develop the next cure or treatment is a focused effort to investigate and understand the basic mechanisms of human brain function, particularly those mechanisms supporting human phenomenal experience and processes that give rise to what (at least) feels like freely willed behavior.
Overarching hypothesis: My research program is founded on the overarching hypothesis that conscious phenomenal experience and willful choice behavior are evolutionarily derived products of natural selection that resulted in the full spectrum of human (phenomenal) experiences and (willful) behavior existing today. A corollary hypothesis is that phenomenal experience and willful choice must generate biological signals that have increased the genetic fitness of organisms that carried the biological substrates that supported them. If biological systems can generate and detect these signals and natural selection can act on them, then scientists should be able to as well. This means that we should be able to measure and characterize phenotypes and associated neural and genetic architectures that support phenomenal experience and willful choice in humans, as well as possible variants or components of these systems in non-human model organisms.
Training and Mentoring Approach:
I take a highly individualized approach to mentorship. I seek out diversity (racial, ethnic, cultural, and academic expertise/training) in my mentees. My approach is informed by my own experiences, which represents a non-traditional academic path from “at risk youth” to tenured associate professor at a major medical research institution. I identify as mixed-race, am a first-generation college student, and was raised by a single parent in in a very diverse community. I have witnessed friends and classmates enter the juvenile legal system in middle school and high school. I have experienced what is it like to struggle to find one’s way through academics without mentorship (nearly impossible, but for some luck) and the tremendous acceleration that is possible when one is fortunate enough to come across a caring and effective mentor. I continue to further develop my mentorship approach through coursework and workshops aimed at developing best practices in mentorship methods. Additionally, I seek direct feedback from my mentees and use this information to grow and adapt to my mentees needs.
At each major transition in my research and scientific training (undergraduate to graduate to postdoctoral to faculty) I changed my methodological focus. While I was always focused on a particular scientific question, I changed research methodology in order to pursue the level of investigation I believed would be most fruitful. I started with an interest in genetics and philosophy (of mind), transitioned to molecular and behavioral neurobiology (in rodents), and then again transitioned to computational neuroscience and human cognition.
Now, I use my highly collaborative and internationally recognized research program to promote my mentees and create professional networks for them to grow within and thrive scientifically and professionally.
At every stage, I have been challenged with learning very different ways of thinking and attacking problems (e.g., scientific, and personal/professional). This has given me a unique breadth of expertise that allows me to engage with mentees from many backgrounds and levels of expertise and meet them with an individualized mentorship approach. I also recognize that a mentee’s goals may change over time and so I regularly meet with mentees and adapt our mentorship/mentee-ship goals to ensure that we are maximizing our time together and preparing the mentee for the next stages of their career. I work side-by-side with my mentees (weekly meetings) to work through problems and challenges and try to create a space where we are learning together.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Activities:
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important to me. I have made efforts to support DEI throughout my career and at many levels including efforts within my own lab, and at departmental and institutional levels.
Within my own lab, I support diversity, equity, and inclusion by recruiting and hiring traditionally underrepresented individuals to my team. I support this through actively seeking out and recruiting underrepresented candidates through inclusive interviewing and recruitment methods and a mentorship approach that is individualized to each candidate and mentee.
I have served as my department’s Inclusion committee chair for over 2 years. In this role, I served on the “Culture” working group, one of six working groups with an overarching institutional “Racial Equity Task Force”. The Racial Equity Task Force was charged by the CEO and Dean with assessing the state of DEI efforts and failures at the institutional level (within Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest School of Medicine) and create an institution strategy for tangible and sustainable steps for racial equity.
I am a co-founder of the Asian American Pacific Islander Affinity Group at Wake Forest School of Medicine, which has recently merged with the Asian Heritage & Allies System Resource Group within the larger Atrium Health Network. The primary objectives of this group are to promote networking, education, and mentorship for the AHWFB community and supporters of DEI with a particular focus on Asian heritage in all its diversity.
I have served as an invited panelist on a townhall-style discussion and dialogue on the topic of “Anti-Asian Violence and Bias” that was held in the aftermath of the Atlanta shootings and anti-Asian violence that was amplified during the peak of the pandemic.
I have also participated in institutional “Courageous Conversations”, a series of institution-wide virtual discussions on a wide range of topics dealing with race, identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I have been invited and continue to participate as a mentor and discussion leader on “Inclusive Leadership”. This 2-hour discussion in one session in a series that provides participants with DEI training and a certificate that is recognized by our institution.
Dan Bang, Yi Luo, Leonardo S Barbosa, Seth R Batten, Beniamino Hadj-Amar, Thomas Twomey, Natalie Melville, Jason P White, Alexis Torres, Xavier Celaya, Priya Ramaiah, Samuel M McClure, Gene A Brewer, Robert W Bina, Terry Lohrenz, Brooks Casas, Pearl H Chiu, Marina Vannucci, Kenneth T Kishida, Mark R Witcher, P Read Montague
Brittany Nicole Liebenow, Thomas Wilson, Benjamin Maas, Emily Aladnani, Rosalyn J Moran, Jason White, Terry Lohrenz, Ihtsham ul Haq, Mustafa S Siddiqui, Adrian W Laxton, Stephen B Tatter, P Read Montague, Kenneth T Kishida
Brittany Liebenow, Angela Jiang, Emily DiMarco, Thomas Wilson, Mustafa S. Siddiqui, Ihtsham ul Haq, Adrian W. Laxton, Stephen B. Tatter, and Kenneth T. Kishida
Emily DiMarco, Renata Sadibolova, Angela Jiang, Brittany Nicole Liebenow, Rachel E Jones, Ihtsham ul Haq, Mustafa S Siddiqui, Devin B Terhune, Kenneth T Kishida
Brittany Liebenow, Rachel Jones, Emily DiMarco, Jonathan D Trattner, Joseph Humphries, L Paul Sands, Kasey P Spry, Christina K Johnson, Evelyn B Farkas, Angela Jiang, Kenneth T Kishida
Caitlin M Carroll, Molly Stanley, Ryan V Raut, Nicholas J Constantino, Riley E Irmen, Anish Mitra, J Andy Snipes, Marcus E Raichle, David M Holtzman, Robert W Gould, Kenneth T Kishida, Shannon L Macauley
Rosalyn J Moran, Kenneth T Kishida, Terry Lohrenz, Ignacio Saez, Adrian W Laxton, Mark R Witcher, Stephen B Tatter, Thomas L Ellis, Paul EM Phillips, Peter Dayan, P Read Montague
Kenneth T Kishida, Ignacio Saez, Terry Lohrenz, Mark R Witcher, Adrian W Laxton, Stephen B Tatter, Jason P White, Thomas L Ellis, Paul EM Phillips, P Read Montague
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (1), 200-205, 2016
Woo-Young Ahn, Kenneth T Kishida, Xiaosi Gu, Terry Lohrenz, Ann Harvey, John R Alford, Kevin B Smith, Gideon Yaffe, John R Hibbing, Peter Dayan, P Read Montague
Looking to volunteer as research study participant or want to learn more about the brain? Are you interested in joining the lab?
Use the contact form below or reach out to Dr.K @ kkishida@wakehealth.edu.