Robert Desimone is an American neuroscientist who currently serves as the director of the

McGovern Institute for Brain Research The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The institute was founded in 2000 by Patrick McGover ...

and the Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. The McGovern Institute, established by

Patrick Joseph McGovern Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

and Lore Harp McGovern focuses on conducting basic reserarch on the mind and brain, as well as applying that knowledge to help those affected by brain disorders. Before joining the McGovern Institute in 2004, Robert Desimone held the position of director of intramural research at the

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...

. He is a member of the

US National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

and

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and is known for his research on the brain mechanisms that underlie

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the ...

, attention, and executive control. At the McGovern Institute, Desimone works on promoting the development of systems neuroscience, novel neuroscience technologies, and the translation of basic research findings into new treatments that improve human health, including new approaches to brain disorders such as autism and

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...

. From 2014-2019 and again in 2023, Desimone appeared as an international judge and team leader on ''

The Brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ i ...

'', a competition showing unique mental skills. He is married with two children.

Research

As a graduate student at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, Desimone and his thesis supervisor Charles Gross published the first data that neurons respond specifically to faces. While working at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), he studied the physiological properties of neurons in extrastriate visual cortex, and together with

Leslie Ungerleider Leslie G. Ungerleider (1946–2020) was an experimental psychologist and neuroscientist, previously Chief of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health. Ungerleider was known for introducing the concepts of ...

, he mapped the topographic organization and anatomical connections of many new cortical visual areas. In collaboration with Earl Miller, he discovered a physiological basis for recency memory (repetition suppression) and working memory in

inferior temporal cortex The inferior temporal gyrus is one of three gyri of the temporal lobe and is located below the middle temporal gyrus, connected behind with the inferior occipital gyrus; it also extends around the infero-lateral border on to the inferior surface ...

. He reported evidence for the role of attention in modulating the neuronal properties of areas in the ventral stream, and he and John Duncan proposed a Biased Competition Theory to explain many aspects of attention control. With John Reynolds, he proposed a quantitative model of biased competition to explain the effects of attention on neurons, which is formally a normalization model. With Pascal Fries, he described the effects of attention on synchronized activity in

extrastriate cortex The extrastriate cortex is the region of the occipital cortex of the mammalian brain located next to the primary visual cortex. Primary visual cortex (V1) is also named striate cortex because of its striped appearance in the microscope. The extra ...

, and he later found that synchronized activity between extrastriate cortex and

prefrontal cortex In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46 ...

is a mechanistic feature of selective attention

Education

Desimone received his BA from

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

in 1974 and his Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1979.

Awards

Golden Brain Award The Golden Brain Award is an international science award in the field of neuroscience. It is given by the Berkeley-based Minerva Foundation every year since 1985. The foundation specifically aims at fundamental contributions to research in visio ...

, 1994; * Troland Research Awards, 1990; * Goldman-Rakic Prize, 2020 * Ralph Gerard Prize of the Society for Neuroscience, 2021;

References

External links

McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

* ttp://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/anatomy-attention The Anatomy of Attention, Alan Lightman, The New Yorker, Oct 1, 2014
MIT Technology Review, A Turning Point. December 18, 2014

China-Japan Brain competition

video profile on MIT tech TV

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desimone, Robert Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American neuroscientists Living people Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Year of birth missing (living people) Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni