William T. Newsome
Stanford University
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Primary Section: 28, Systems Neuroscience Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2000)
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Biosketch
Bill Newsome is the Harman Family Professor of Neurobiology and Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. He received a B.S. degree in physics from Stetson University and a Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Newsome is a leading investigator in systems and cognitive neuroscience. He has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying visual perception and simple forms of decision making. Among his honors are the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Dan David Prize of Tel Aviv University, the Karl Spencer Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society, and the Champalimaud Vision Award. His distinguished lectureships include the 13th Annual Marr Lecture at the University of Cambridge the 9th Annual Brenda Milner Lecture at McGill University, and the Distinguished Visiting Scholar lectures at the Kavli Institute of Brain and Mind, UCSD. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2000, and to the American Philosophical Society in 2011. Newsome co-chaired the NIH BRAIN working group, charged with forming a national plan for the coming decade of neuroscience research in the United States.
Research Interests
I study the neuronal processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior. My laboratory conducts parallel behavioral and physiological experiments in monkeys that are trained to perform selected perceptual or eye movement tasks. By recording the activity of cortical neurons during performance of such tasks, the laboratory gains initial insights into the relationship of neuronal activity to the animal's behavioral capacities. Hypotheses concerning this relationship are then tested by modifying neural activity within local cortical circuits to determine whether behavior is affected in a predictable manner. Computer modeling techniques can be used to develop more refined hypotheses concerning the relationship of brain to behavior that are both rigorous and testable. This combination of behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational techniques provides a realistic basis for neurophysiological investigation of such cognitive functions as perception, memory, and motor planning.
