Maurice Ptito (born June 11, 1946 in Casablanca, Morocco) is Professor of

Visual Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the visual system of the human body, mainly located in the brain's visual cortex. The main goal of visual neuroscience is to understand how neural activity results in visual percepti ...

at the School of Optometry (Université de Montréal). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute (McGill University) and Guest Professor at the Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance (University of Copenhagen). He currently holds the Harland Sanders Research Chair in Vision Science.

Education

Dr Ptito obtained his Ph.D. in Experimental Neuropsychology from

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...

and a doctorat in Health Sciences (Doctor Medicinae) from the

University of Aarhus Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

(Denmark). He trained as post-doctoral fellow in Neurophysiology at

Stanford University Medical School Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

(California) under the mentorship of Professor

Karl H. Pribram Karl H. Pribram (; ; February 25, 1919 – January 19, 2015) was a professor at Georgetown University, in the United States, an emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at Stanford University and distinguished professor at Radford Univers ...

Career

Dr Ptito has authored more than 150 scientific publications and has received several awards and prizes, including the

Sir John William Dawson Medal The Sir John William Dawson Medal is an award of the Royal Society of Canada(RSC), established in 1985 and named after the society's first president: John William Dawson. The medal was endowed by McGill Graduates Society (founded by Sir William in ...

of the Royal Society of Canada and the Henry and Karla Hensen Prize (Denmark). He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

, the

Canadian Psychological Association The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is the primary organization representing psychologists throughout Canada. It was organized in 1939 and incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act, Part II, in May 1950. Its objectives are to imp ...

, the

American Academy of Optometry The American Academy of Optometry (AAO) is an organization of optometrists based in Orlando, Florida. Its goal is to maintain and enhance excellence in optometric practice, by both promoting research and the dissemination of knowledge. The AAO hold ...

, and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Maurice Ptito is a specialist in the study of Development and

Plasticity Plasticity may refer to: Science * Plasticity (physics), in engineering and physics, the propensity of a solid material to undergo permanent deformation under load * Neuroplasticity, in neuroscience, how entire brain structures, and the brain it ...

of the visual system in various species including Man. The major goal of his research is the understanding of the mechanisms involved in Visual Plasticity in normal developing individuals, as well as those who were born without vision or lost their vision later in life. His laboratory has been using a wide variety of techniques including anatomy (

diffusion tensor imaging Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI or DW-MRI) is the use of specific MRI sequences as well as software that generates images from the resulting data that uses the diffusion of water molecules to generate contrast in MR images. It ...

voxel-based morphometry Voxel-based morphometry is a computational approach to neuroanatomy that measures differences in local concentrations of brain tissue, through a voxel-wise comparison of multiple brain images. In traditional morphometry, volume of the whole brai ...

), physiology (

visually evoked potentials An evoked potential or evoked response is an electrical potential in a specific pattern recorded from a specific part of the nervous system, especially the brain, of a human or other animals following presentation of a stimulus such as a light fla ...

positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in Metabolism, metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including bl ...

(PET),

functional magnetic resonance imaging Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

(fMRI),

transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...

(TMS) and

psychophysics Psychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, m ...

to study human blindness. With colleague, Dr Ron Kupers (University of Copenhagen), he used a sensory substitution device coined the Tongue Display Unit (TDU) that converts visual images into electrotactile pulses applied to the tongue via a grid made out of tiny electrodes. He demonstrated the presence of cross-modal

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

processes that enable the blind to "see" using the tongue as a portal to the visual cortex. This approach holds great promise for the blind in improving their quality of life, helping them to navigate freely in their environment.

Honours

In 2013, he was made a Knight of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Gove ...

Personal

Maurice Ptito lives in Montreal (Qc, Canada) and in Copenhagen (Denmark). He has four daughters and seven grandchildren: Zoe, Zachary, Noa, Maïka, Manou, Maël and Lilly. He is married to Sara Normann Thordsen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ptito, Maurice 1946 births Living people Canadian neuroscientists Knights of the National Order of Quebec