A researcher with interests in both finance and brain & cognitive science has shown that there are connections between certain neural activity and risk-taking behavior in financial decision-making. Camelia Kuhnen, an assistant professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, will talk about "The Neural Basis of Financial Risk Taking" at 6 p.m. on Wednesday (Nov. 15) in Samson-Talbot Hall, Room 212. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Kuhnen earned two bachelor of science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one in brain/cognitive sciences and one in finance in June 2001. She also earned her doctorate in finance from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in June 2006.

Kuhnen uses brain-imaging techniques to study activity in different regions of the brain during financial decision-making processes. She and Brian Knutson, her research partner, have characterized two types of deviations from the optimal investment strategy of a rational "risk-neutral" agent. Some subjects could be characterized as making "risk-seeking" decisions and others as "risk-aversion" decisions. Two different patterns of brain activity were found linking anticipatory effects to these different types of financial choices.

Kuhnen was given the Massachusetts Institute of Technology award for outstanding research in the department of brain and cognitive sciences in 2001. In 2006, her entry was named as the Best Paper in Financial Institutions and Regulation at the Midwest Finance Association Meeting in Chicago. The Financial Research Association named her paper as best Ph.D. student paper in 2005.

The neuroscience program (an interdisciplinary major) and the Mellon Foundation are sponsoring this lecture.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville --- Researcher Camelia M. Kuhnen speaking on "The Neural Basis of Financial Risk Taking"; 6 p.m., Wednesday (Nov. 15), Samson Talbot Hall, Room 212 (350 Ridge Road). Free and open to the public. Contact 740-587-6338 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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