Biosketch
Nikolaos (Nikos) K. Logothetis is currently the Director of the International Center for Primate Brain Research (ICPBR) in Shanghai, China. He is also Emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (MPI-BC) in Tübingen, Germany and Emeritus at the University of Manchester in the UK. His additional academic affiliations include Honorary Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Tübingen, Adjunct Professor at the Medical University in Athens, Greece, and Salk Institute, San Diego California.
He received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in mathematics from the University of Athens (1976) and a B.S. in biology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1980). He was also admitted to the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens in 1969, where he studied piano under the guidance of the legendary Georgios Platon (principal Pianist at the Greek National Opera in Athens), as well as music theory related to time signatures, music and rhythmic notations. In 1976, he passed his final examination for the 3rd course of the Higher Piano School.
In 1985, he received his Ph.D. in human neurobiology from the Ludwig-Maximillian’s University in Munich, and subsequently he moved to the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at M.I.T, where he first worked as a postdoctoral fellow and was later promoted to Research Scientist. In 1990 he joined the faculty of the Division of Neuroscience at the Baylor College of Medicine. Seven years later, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics as Director to continue his research, which includes studies of the physiological mechanisms of visual object recognition, generative perception, and multisensory integration, as well as investigations of plasticity and neuromodulation. Parallel to this ongoing basic research, he has been developing a number of multidisciplinary methods—such as technologies combining electrophysiology, direct electrical or optical stimulation and pharmacology with structural and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging—that enable temporally and spatially multiscale studies of neural networks in non-human primates and rodents.
Research Interests
Research in my laboratory concentrates on the neural mechanisms of perception and object recognition. Although our basic research revolves around vision, a number of independent collaborators are also investigating the relationship between neural activity and perception using other sensory modalities. I firmly believe that such scientific questions require a multimodal methodological approach that integrates information obtained from single units with that derived from mass action potentials as well as from a number of activity-related, surrogate signals such as those monitored during noninvasive experiments. Parallel to our ongoing research, therefore, we are also working to develop methodologies that will permit us to study neural networks in the context of behavioral paradigms. We have already designed and implemented two high-field magnetic resonance imaging systems for functional, anatomical and spectroscopic imaging. The systems are endowed with all the necessary hard- and software to conduct simultaneous imaging and recordings, and they are being used to study the function, connectivity, and neurochemistry of the non-human primate brain. Furthermore, while continuing to exploit traditional neuroimaging in our experiments, we are also investigating the relationship of neural activity to the MR-measurable hemodynamic responses and experimenting with methods that do not rely on hemodynamic responses at all. In the context of the last-named project, a group of synthetic and coordination chemists in my laboratory are attempting to synthesize and evaluate MR-detectable smart probes that change magnetic properties as a function of the concentration of ions and molecules involved in neural signaling. Smart contrast agents, if designed and tested appropriately, promise to revolutionize invasive neuroimaging and would represent a quantum leap forward in signal-to-noise ratio, spatial detail and specificity, while affording unprecedented temporal resolution.
Membership Type
International Member
Election Year
2009
Primary Section
Section 28: Systems Neuroscience