Overview

This webinar panel will highlight two NIH-funded researchers and one NIH intramural Senior Investigator whose work demonstrates how discoveries in the fundamental mechanisms of human behavior can advance health and well-being. On topics ranging from errors of visual perception to the modulation of pain experience to the role of health messaging in behavior change, the panelists will illustrate the relevance of foundational discoveries in the basic behavioral and social sciences for health outcomes. 

• Lauren Atlas, Ph.D., Senior Investigator at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), will present on the psychological modulation of pain, including how social factors shape pain, expectations about pain, and pain assessment.
• Emily Falk, Ph.D., Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, will provide perspectives from communication and neuroscience on processes associated with successful health messaging and how this information can facilitate behavior change.
• Jeremy Wolfe, Ph.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, will describe the cognitive mechanisms behind “look but fail to see errors,” in which we commonly miss visual cues in plain sight, with implications for radiology and beyond.

This is the final webinar in the 2026 NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (BSSR) Festival Webinar Series.

Reasonable Accommodation

Closed captioning will be provided. If you need additional accommodations, please contact Mark Dennis at [email protected] at least 5 days before the event.

Additional Information

This webinar is free and open to the public. A live Q&A session will follow the presentations.