Prof.  Chen  Lee
the NCI Clinical Research Foundation,  USA

Title: Dialectical Neuroscience: Principles of Centralized Dialectics and Their Application to Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract:

Psychiatric disorders are characterized by heterogeneous symptoms and complex brain abnormalities that have long resisted unifying explanations. In this talk, I will introduce dialectic neuroscience, a framework I developed based on the principle of centralized dialectics, which channels nonlinear and creative cognition into a scientifically rigorous endeavor and provides a general framework for investigating complex psychiatric phenomena. I will first present the core principles of centralized dialectics, emphasizing its internal coherence, scientific rigor, and recommended methodological format, as well as its close conceptual relevance to Bayesian frameworks. I will then demonstrate how this framework can be systematically applied to psychiatric disorders, showing how seemingly disparate clinical, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging features can be understood as convergent manifestations of core neuropathology rather than isolated regional deficits. Empirical support and verification of theories derived from dialectic neuroscience will be presented in parallel. Finally, I will contrast the orientation of dialectic neuroscience with prevailing descriptive and engineering-driven approaches in psychiatric brain research, and discuss how a core-pathology–guided framework may enable the field to move beyond largely unguided data accumulation toward a new era of hypothesis-driven investigation grounded in fundamental neuropathology.

Biography:

Dr. Chen Lee is affiliated with the NCI Clinical Research Foundation. He holds an MD in Psychiatry and a PhD in Neuroscience, with expertise in affective, systems, and translational neuroscience. He has extensive experience in neuroimaging as well as in both theoretical and translational brain science. His research integrates multimodal neuroimaging and advanced analytical approaches to investigate the principles of structural and functional brain organization and their disruption in psychiatric and neurological disorders. He has published extensively using EEG, structural MRI, diffusion imaging, functional MRI, and transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation. His theoretical work focuses on brain informatics and the development of dialectic neuroscience, which applies principles of centralized dialectics to psychiatric psychopathology and provides empirically grounded accounts of large-scale network dysfunction. In parallel, his translational research aims to rectify network-level abnormalities in neuropsychiatric illness through clinically oriented studies and the development of targeted transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation protocols.