Michael Gazzaniga | |
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Born | December 12, 1939 |
Residence | Santa Barbara, California |
Citizenship | United States |
Nationality | United States |
Fields | Psychology, neuroscience |
Institutions | University of California, Santa Barbara, SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College, California Institute of Technology |
Doctoral advisor | Roger Sperry |
Doctoral students | Joseph E. LeDoux |
Known for | Split-brain research, cerebral lateralization, cognitive neuroscience |
Notable awards | Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2011) |
Michael S. Gazzaniga (born December 12, 1939) is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, the study of the neural basis of mind. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences.
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In 1961, Gazzaniga graduated from Dartmouth College. In 1964, he received a Ph.D. in psychobiology from the California Institute of Technology, where he worked under the guidance of Roger Sperry, with primary responsibility for initiating human split-brain research. In his subsequent work he has made important advances in our understanding of functional lateralization in the brain and how the cerebral hemispheres communicate with one another.
Gazzaniga's publication career includes books for a general audience The Social Brain, Mind Matters, Nature's Mind and Who's in Charge?. He recently published The Cognitive Neurosciences III, from MIT Press, which features the work of nearly 200 scientists and is a sourcebook for the field. His book The Ethical Brain was published by the Dana Press in June 2005.
Gazzaniga founded the Centers for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California, Davis and at Dartmouth College, the Neuroscience Institute, and the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, of which he is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Gazzaniga is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics. He also is the Director of the Law and Neuroscience Project, a project to study the intersection of law and neuroscience.
Gazzaniga's work is referenced in the book Peace on Earth by Stanisław Lem.