Dalai Lama visits brain imaging facility

The Dalai Lama’s deep interest in scientific knowledge that intersects with the spiritual aspects of Buddhism brought him to campus this week to visit one of the world’s foremost centers on emotion research.

Included in his Madison visit was a tour May 21 of the W. M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, a new state-of-the-art facility at the Waisman Center that will focus exclusively on behavioral neuroscience research. It will serve as the nerve center for the HealthEmotions Research Institute, which will apply the brain imaging technologies to answer questions that may help prevent disease and promote better health.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, is on campus through May 22 for a conference organized by Richard Davidson, UW–Madison professor of psychology and psychiatry, and co-sponsored by the HealthEmotions Research Institute and the Mind and Life Institute of Boulder, Colo.

Titled “Transformations of Mind, Brain and Emotion,” the conference will examine how practices such as meditation influence brain function, emotions and physical health. The meeting brings together a small international group of scientists who are leaders in this field of research.

Davidson, co-principal scientist at the HealthEmotions Research Institute, says the conference will also focus on a brain imaging project with other volunteer monks. The Dalai Lama is deeply interested in the UW research, says Davidson, especially in new studies suggesting that people can change their emotional makeup to overcome depression and harmful emotions.

At the Madison conference, the Dalai Lama will be both observer and participant, interacting closely with the scientists who will give presentations. At last year’s meeting in Dharamsala, India, Davidson formally invited His Holiness to come to Wisconsin to see first-hand the university’s new brain imaging center. Davidson was surprised and pleased when the Dalai Lama accepted his invitation.

“He has a tremendous respect for science, and very much believes that science is the principal currency of modern culture,” says Davidson. “It is truly amazing that someone of his stature and world standing would commit to spending two days here.”

Meanwhile, the $10 million Keck Laboratory promises to give scientists better views of brain function that could reveal more about emotions, learning and mental disorders.

Linked with the Waisman Center and Medical School’s HealthEmotions Research Institute, the new laboratory builds on more than a decade of emotion research at the university.

The 17,000-square-foot facility comprises the first floor of a major addition to the Waisman Center, a national center for the study of development and developmental disabilities. The lab will include home offices for more than a dozen faculty and staff, while also being a resource for more than 50 neuroscience faculty.

Two new machines feature sophisticated, non-invasive medical imaging technology. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows different structures of the brain as it works, while positron emission tomography (PET) can help track biochemical activity.