Spring General Meeting
Eric Knudsen

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2008 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to Eric Knudsen. The citation read “in recognition of his comprehensive study of visual and auditory perception in the owl and for his elucidation of how the auditory map is calibrated by the visual system during development.” The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior. At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida. Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown”. Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

Eric Knudsen received a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, and following a postdoctoral fellowship at Cal Tech joined the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine where he is currently Professor of Neurobiology. In his postdoctoral work, Dr. Knudsen discovered a map of auditory space in the barn owl’s brain. This map consists of neurons that respond only to sounds coming from particular directions. Because space is not topographically mapped in the cochlea, the map of auditory space must be centrally synthesized. After Knudsen established his laboratory at Stanford, he studied the relationships between the maps of auditory and visual space. He quickly found that the auditory space map projects to the optic tectum to give rise to a bimodal map in which each neuron responds to both auditory and visual stimuli located in the same spatial coordinates (receptive field). Thus, the brain creates an auditory space map by computation in order to conform to the same coordinate system that the visual system uses. He cleverly used the bimodal map to explore the mechanisms by which the auditory map is calibrated during ontogeny. In his most incisive experiment, he let young owls wear a pair of distorted glasses to show how the auditory receptive fields of bimodal neurons become aligned with the displaced visual receptive fields. He and his students have identified the site of plasticity for this process. His group has made seminal contributions to two other aspects of sound localization; one is the discovery of a motor map for the control of head turning and the other concerns the role of the forebrain in sound localization. His recent studies of the role of attention in sound localization have opened up a new frontier to explore.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chairman), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Research Career Scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Autumn General Meeting
James L. McGaugh

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2009 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to James L. McGaugh. The citation read: “in recognition of his comprehensive study of the biological processes that modulate the formation and consolidation of memory.”  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.

Dr. McGaugh received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1964 joined the faculty at University of California, Irvine, as the founding chair of the Department of Psychobiology.  He continues at UC Irvine today as Founding Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and also Research Professor of Psychobiology and Pharmacology.  He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1989 and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences since 1992 and has held the presidency of both the American Psychological Society and the Western Psychological Association.  Across more than 40 years of experimental work, James McGaugh has investigated the organization of memory and the processes that affect memory.  He introduced the technique of post-trial treatment with drugs in order to separate effects on sensory or motor processes from effects on memory.  His work has shown that processes operating immediately after a learning event are decisive for determining how well the event is later remembered. In biological studies, he worked out in detail the pathway by which effects that occur after training modulate retention.  The pathway begins with release of peripheral hormones from the adrenal medulla and ends at the amygdala.  The amygdala is the key structure by which emotion and arousal modulate the strength of memory.  This work has elucidated the concept of memory consolidation and the neurobiological processes that regulate consolidation.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis.  His famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience. The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Research Career Scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor in the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at the Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Spring General Meeting
William T. Newsome

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2010 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to William T. Newsome. The citation read: “in recognition of his pioneering studies of the primate visual system demonstrating the relation between perception and the activity of individual neurons.”  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.

William Newsome has provided the most compelling evidence for the relationship between the activity of individual neurons in the brain and visual perception. In studies of motion-sensitive neurons in the primate cerebral cortex, he combined sophisticated behavioral paradigms and precise physiological analysis to reveal the causal relationships between cortical neurons and the perception of visual motion. He showed that the firing of a small cluster of neurons correlated with the ability to report the direction of visual motion, that activating the neurons with microstimulation biased the monkey’s judgment of the direction of motion, and that discrete lesions reduced the ability to make these motion judgments. Based on these experiments, Newsome has developed and tested new hypotheses about how neuronal signals in the brain give rise to perception and perceptual decisions.

Dr. Newsome received his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology.  He is currently Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida.  Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original.  His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown.”  Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The selection committee consisted of chair Larry R. Squire, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor at the Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences in the Neuroscience Program at the University of Southern California.

Spring General Meeting
Joseph E. LeDoux

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2011 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to Joseph E. LeDoux. The citation read: “in recognition of his seminal studies of the neural mechanisms of emotional learning, particularly fear learning and fear memory.”  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Clyde F. Barker, Donald Guthrie Professor, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph LeDoux has carried out pioneering and comprehensive studies of the neuroscience of fear learning and fear memory.  In an animal model, he traced the fear processing circuit from sensory systems to the amygdala, identified the lateral nucleus of the amygdala as a key sensory region and a site for synaptic plasticity, and showed that the connections from the lateral to the central nucleus are essential for processing fear responses.  He has also elucidated the phenomenon of extinction, related extinction to the medial prefrontal cortex, and shown how medial prefrontal cortex interacts with the amygdala in extinction.  His work has substantial clinical relevance for the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Dr. LeDoux is currently the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science and University Professor at the Center for Neural Science at New York University.  He is also the director of the Center for the Neuroscience of Fear and Anxiety, a multi-university Center in New York City.  He received his Ph.D. in 1977 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida.  Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original.  His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown.” Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The Lashley Award Selection Committee consisted of chair Larry R. Squire, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and Research Career Scientist at VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor in the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences in the Neuroscience Program at University of Southern California.

2012 Spring General Meeting
Eve Marder

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2012 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to Eve Marder. The citation read: "in recognition of her comprehensive work with a small nervous system, demonstrating general principles by which neuromodulatory substances reconfigure the operation of neuronal networks."  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Clyde F. Barker, Donald Guthrie Professor, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Eve Marder has carried out pioneering work with a small nervous system, the stomatogastric ganglion of a decapod crustacean. She showed that a single neural circuit can produce a number of different outputs depending on the presence of specific neuromodulators. In addition, she has combined experimental and computational studies to identify the neurons and synapses in the circuit, to understand how the circuit works, and to explore broader issues such as how networks maintain stability across time.

Eve Marder's primary interest is in the intrinsic properties of individual neurons and their synaptic connections. She has carried out pioneering work elucidating the various mechanisms by which a similar circuit outputs can be produced both in multiple individual animals and in the same animal over time, and how, exactly, these networks can remain stable despite the continuing changes of a living organism. She has published seminal studies in neuronal homeostasis, rhythm generation, neuromodulation, computational neuroscience, and dynamic clamp technique. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Marder is currently the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Neuroscience at Brandeis University. She received her Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego in 1974.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida.  Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original.  His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown.”  Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The Lashley Award Selection Committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and Research Career Scientist at VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; William T. Newsome, Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor, Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University.

Autumn General Meeting
J. Anthony Movshon

The 2013 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Karl Spencer Lashley Award is J. Anthony Movshon “in recognition of his studies of how neurons in the cerebral cortex process visual information and how cortical information processing enables seeing.” J. Anthony Movshon is currently Director of the Center for Neural Science, University Professor, Silver Professor, Professor of Neural Science, and Professor of Psychology at New York University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1975.

J. Anthony Movshon has carried out pioneering work on the neuroscience of vision, focusing on the organization and function of area V1, the first region of cerebral cortex to receive visual information from the external world. He developed the leading quantitative descriptions of V1 neuronal activity, characterized the linear and nonlinear properties of visual signals, and developed quantitative descriptions of how neurons in higher cortical areas combine inputs from lower cortical levels to support the perception of global motion patterns. His work has shed light on the neural basis of amblyopia - the most common form of blindness - and how the effects of amblyopia might be mitigated through early intervention.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis. Dr. Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience, and the Lashley Award recognizes innovative work that continues exploration in the field.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology, UCSD School of Medicine, Research Career Scientist, VA Medical Center, San Diego; John Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences, Harvard University; William T. Newsome III, Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor, Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University; and Carla J. Shatz, Director, BioX, Stanford University.

2014 Autumn General Meeting

Edvard and May-Britt Moser

The American Philosophical Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2014 Karl Spencer Lashley Award are Edvard and May-Britt Moser "in recognition of their discovery of grid cells in entorhinal cortex, and their pioneering physiological studies of hippocampus, which have transformed understanding of the neural computations underlying spatial memory." Professor Edvard Moser leads the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and May-Britt Moser is Director of the Centre for Neural Computation, both at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The award was presented to the Mosers on November 9, 2014, at the Society's annual Autumn General Meeting.

Edvard and May-Britt Moser have carried out pioneering studies of the neural circuitry in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, structures of the brain long known to be involved in memory. They discovered a new cell type in entorhinal cortex, grid cells, illuminated how information is represented in place cells of the hippocampus, and identified separate operations for its CA1 and CA3 fields. Grid cells are neurons in the entorhinal cortex that provide a map of the spatial environment. Unlike place cells, which fire when the animal is at a single location, grid cells have multiple firing fields which form a periodic triangular matrix tiling the entire environment. Their work has transformed understanding of how these structures operate to support spatial processing and memory.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis. Dr. Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience, and the Lashley Award recognizes innovative work that continues exploration in the field.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology, UCSD School of Medicine, Research Career Scientist, VA Medical Center, San Diego; John Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences, Harvard University; William T. Newsome III, Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor, Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University; and Carla J. Shatz, Director, BioX, Stanford University.

2015 Spring General Meeting

David W. Tank

The American Philosophical Society is pleased to award the 2015 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to David W. Tank in recognition of his pioneering application of intracellular recording and two-photon microscopy in awake animals, which has revealed new insights into the neural circuits underlying cognition.

David Tank pioneered the application of intracellular recording and two-photon microscopy in awake animals working in virtual-reality environments. These techniques have revealed information at the cellular and circuit levels about neural integration, place coding in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, and about the neural circuitry underlying decisions during spatial navigation. His work has provided key tests of computational models of how neural circuits operate.

Dr. Tank is Henry L. Hillman Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and Co-Director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. He received a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University. For almost two decades he served on the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, including as director of the Biological Computation Research Department, and remains a consultant. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 2001 as a professor of molecular biology and physics.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis. Dr. Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience, and the Lashley Award recognizes innovative work that continues exploration in the field.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology, UCSD School of Medicine, Research Career Scientist, VA Medical Center, San Diego; John Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences, Harvard University; John G. Hildebrand, Regents Professor of Neuroscience, University of Arizona, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Sciences; and William T. Newsome III, Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.