William Newsome
Academic Appointments
- Professor, Neurobiology
- Member, Bio-X
- Professor (By courtesy), Social Sciences Cluster - Psychology
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Academic Offices
Personal Information Email Tel (650) 725-5814Alternate Contact Susan Matthews Administrative Assistant Email Tel Work 650-723-7109
Professional Overview
Administrative Appointments
- Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (2009 - present)
- McKnight Scholars Awards Selection Committee, McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience (2007 - present)
- Scientific Advisory Board, Riken Brain Sciences Institute, Tokyo (2003 - present)
- Correspondent, Committee on Human Rights, National Academy of Sciences (2001 - present)
Honors and Awards
- Champalimaud Vision Award, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon (2010)
- Karl Spencer Lashley Award, American Philosophical Society (2010)
- Dan David Prize, Dan David Foundation and Tel Aviv University (2004)
- Award for Outstanding Service to Graduate Students, Students, Stanford University School of Medicine (2003)
- Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (2002)
- Elected to membership, National Academy of Sciences, USA (2000)
Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations
Internet Links
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
The long-term goal of our research is to understand the neuronal processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior. To this end we are conducting parallel behavioral and physiological experiments in animals that are trained to perform selected perceptual or eye movement tasks. By recording the activity of cortical neurons during performance of such tasks, we gain initial insights into the relationship of neuronal activity to the animal's behavioral capacities. Hypotheses concerning this relationship are tested by modifying neural activity within local cortical circuits to determine whether behavior is effected in a predictable manner. Computer modelling techniques are then 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 cognitive functions such as perception, memory and motor planning.
Publications
- Dissociation of neuronal and psychophysical responses to local and global motion. Curr Biol. 2011; (23): 2023-8
- Integration of sensory and reward information during perceptual decision-making in lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) of the macaque monkey. PLoS One. 2010; (2): e9308
- Can monkeys choose optimally when faced with noisy stimuli and unequal rewards? PLoS Comput Biol. 2009; (2): e1000284
- Estimates of the contribution of single neurons to perception depend on timescale and noise correlation. J Neurosci. 2009; (20): 6635-48
- Context-dependent changes in functional circuitry in visual area MT. Neuron. 2008; (1): 162-73
- The temporal precision of reward prediction in dopamine neurons. Nat Neurosci. 2008
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