Research

Research Priorities: Neurobiology, visual cognition, neuromodulation

Nikos K. Logothetis is a neurobiologist. His core research focuses on visual cognition, auditory perception, and multisensory integration.

Nikos Logothetis studies the physiological mechanisms of visual cognition, auditory perception, and multisensory integration. His particular focus is on the brain’s plasticity and neuromodulation. Thanks to the imagining methods developed by his department parallel to their research, it is possible to simultaneously measure complete brain activity using magnetic resonance imaging as well as the activity of single nerve cells via cell recording in the cerebral cortex. Logothetis thus simultaneously researches the relationship between imaging processes and the corresponding activities of neurons.

Career

• since 2021 Co-Director, International Center for Primate Brain Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai, China
• since 1996 Director and Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (MPIK), Tübingen, Germany
• since 1995 Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, USA
• since 1992 Adjunct Professor of Neurobiology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, USA
• 1990-1996 Member, Department of Neuroscience, BCM, Houston, USA
• 1985-1990 Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
• 1985 PhD in Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

Projects

• since 2013 Subproject “Causal relations among system states and behaviour in primate memory: a tACS perturbation approach”, Priority Programme 1665 “Resolving and manipulating neuronal networks in the mammalian brain – from correlative to causal analysis”, German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany
• 2007-2019 Cluster of Excellence 307 “Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN)”, DFG, Germany
• 2003-2009 Subproject “Methods to study neuronal circuits that mediate primate cognitive functions: a connectivity study in vivo with MRI-techniques (A09)”, Collaborative Research Centre 550 “Recognizing, Localizing, Acting: Neurocognitive Mechanisms and their Flexibility”, DFG, Germany

Honours and Memberships

• 2016 Award for Excellence in Science, Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece
• since 2009 Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 2008 W. Alden Spencer Award, The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Department of Neuroscience and The Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, USA
• since 2008 International Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA
• 2007 Neuronal Plasticity Prize, IPSEN Foundation, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
• since 2005 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
• 2004 Klaus Joachim Zülch Prize, Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany
• 2003 Louis Jeantet Prize, Louis Jeantet Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland
• 1999 Golden Brain Award, Minerva Foundation, University of California, Berkeley, USA