Fundamentals of Health Neuroscience

Health Neuroscience is a new interdisciplinary field encompassing research from cognitive, affective, and social neuroscience, health psychology, physical and mental health, and science of behavior change. This new field addresses the longstanding gap among neuroscience, health and behavior change within the context of health promotion. Fundamentals of Health Neuroscience explores key topics and research, including basic principles, psychological and neural processes, brain and body interaction, and gene x brain x environment interactions. This book will also cover prevention and intervention strategies for health decisions and promotion across the lifespan. Chapters will integrate the latest research findings and explore several key topics, such as: How does the brain serve both as a predictor and an outcome of health? How can people improve self-control and achieve physical and mental health? What does brain plasticity and resilience tell us about learning and development throughout our life? How is the sense of meaning in life affected by dopamine and reward systems in the brain?• Introduces a new interdisciplinary field of Health Neuroscience including its basic and translational research and applications• Reviews current research on biomarkers of brain health and aging• Discusses brain-body connection and health behavior change

Dr. Tang has an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural background, experience, and expertise in the areas of human neuroscience (e.g., cognitive, affective, social, cultural, and behavioral), health psychology, health science, prevention, and intervention science. His research mainly focuses on how environment or experience (stress, learning, training, culture) affects self-control, emotion regulation, stress resilience, and decision-making and their interaction with genes to influence health and well-being. Additionally, he investigates both conscious and unconscious changes in healthy behavior, habits, and lifestyles. His translational research focuses on the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions to prevent and ameliorate behavioral problems and mental disorders such as ADHD, learning disabilities, substance use, mood disorders, and stress-related disorders over the lifespan. Dr. Tang's interdisciplinary research has received support from NIH, the Office of Naval Research/Department of Defense, and private foundations including the John Templeton Foundation and James Bower Foundation. He has published 9 books and over 360 peer-reviewed articles in different academic journals, including Nature Reviews Neuroscience (NRN), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Trends in Cognitive Sciences (TiCS), Neuroimage, and Human Brain Mapping.