Anne Churchland

Anne K. Churchland is a neuroscientist at University of California, Los Angeles. Her laboratory studies the function of the posterior parietal cortex in cognitive processes such as decision-making and multisensory integration. One of her discoveries is that individual neurons in rodent posterior parietal cortex can multitask i.e. play a role in multiple behaviors.[1] Another discovery is that rodents are similar to humans in their ability to perform multisensory integration, i.e. to integrate stimuli from two different modalities such as vision and hearing.[2]

Anne Churchland
NationalityCanadian, American
EducationB.A., Wellesley College; PhD, UCSF
Known forNeural circuits underlying perceptual decision making and multisensory integration
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Doctoral advisorStephen Lisberger
Other academic advisorsMichael Shadlen

Churchland is an advocate of using rodents to study these cognitive processes, and together with scientists Zachary Mainen and Anthony Zador at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory she has made substantial advances in bringing to these species the advanced behavioral techniques previously available only in primates.[3][4]

Churchland is a founding member of the International Brain Laboratory[5][6] and an advisor to the Allen Institute for Brain Science.[7]

She is the founder of Anneslist, a website which promotes equality in representation across genders in scientific meetings.[8] Her parents are the philosophers Patricia Churchland and Paul Churchland and her brother is neuroscientist Mark Churchland.[9][10]

Family

She is the daughter of analytical philosopher Patricia Churchland and philosopher Paul Churchland. Her brother, Mark Churchland, is also a neuroscientist working as assistant professor at Columbia University.[11]

Research

Anne Churchland worked on the science behind movement, specifically fidgeting, and its relation to the process of thinking. One hypothesis they developed is that fidgeting may the instrument or way in which we begin and continue the process of thinking. This research, Churchland believes, may offer useful insight as to why people with ADHD when compared to average people, may require more movement to concentrate.[12]

Selected awards

McKnight Scholar Award (2012) [13][14]

Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts (2014) [15][16]

Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in the Neurosciences from the Simons Foundation and the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund (2014) [17][18]

References
  1. "Some neurons can multitask, raising questions about importance of specialization". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  2. "Rats match humans in decision-making that involves combining different sensory cues". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  3. Abbott, Alison (2010-05-19). "Neuroscience: The rat pack". Nature News. 465 (7296): 282–283. doi:10.1038/465282a. PMID 20485409.
  4. Carandini, Matteo; Churchland, Anne K (2013). "Probing perceptual decisions in rodents". Nature Neuroscience. 16 (7): 824–831. doi:10.1038/nn.3410. ISSN 1546-1726. PMC 4105200. PMID 23799475.
  5. "How does your brain impact decision-making?". Salon. 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  6. Sample, Ian (2017-09-19). "Ambitious neuroscience project to probe how the brain makes decisions". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  7. "Anne K. Churchland". Allen Institute. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  8. Apoorva Mandavilli (2016-09-05). "Female Scientists Turn to Data to Fight Lack of Representation on Panels". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  9. "Patricia Churchland Personal Page". Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  10. Larissa MacFarquhar (2007-02-12). "Two Heads:A marriage devoted to the mind-body problem". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  11. "Mark Churchland Laboratory | Columbia Neuroscience". churchlandlab.neuroscience.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  12. PhD, Julianna LeMieux (2019-09-25). "Fidgeting May Help Mice Complete Their Tasks". GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  13. Bashyam, Hema (17 May 2012). "CSHL Assistant Professor Anne Churchland receives 2012 McKnight Scholar Award". CSHL.edu. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  14. "Awardees". McKnight Foundation. Archived from the original on 2018-08-10.
  15. Jansen, Jaclyn (24 June 2014). "CSHL's Anne Churchland named Pew Scholar and Klingenstein-Simons Fellow". CSHL.edu. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  16. "Pew Grants 22 Young Scientists Support for Biomedical Research". Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  17. Jansen, Jaclyn (24 June 2014). "CSHL's Anne Churchland named Pew Scholar and Klingenstein-Simons Fellow". CSHL.edu. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  18. "Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences". SimonsFoundation.org.
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