Joaquin Fuster, M.D.


Work Titles
UCLA Senate Emeritus Distinguished Professor , Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Emeritus Member, Brain Research Institute Member, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Member, Neuroengineering Training Program
Education:
Degrees:
M.D., Universidad de Barcelona, 1953
Internship:
1953 - 1954 Universidad de Barcelona
Residency:
1954 - 1955 Universitat Innsbruck

Contact Information:

Work Phone Number:

(310) 825-9989

310-825-0247

Mailing Address:

Mailing
760 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095


Work Address:

Work/Office
760 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095


Detailed Biography:

Dr. Joaquin M. Fuster (b.1930 Barcelona, Spain) studied medicine at the University of Barcelona (M.D. 1953). In 1957 he emigrated to the United States to initiate a career in neuroscience at the UCLA. During 1962-64, he worked as a visiting scientist at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. After receiving his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Granada, Spain, Dr. Fuster has been Professor of Psychiatry and a member of the Brain Research Institute and the Semel Institute at the UCLA's School of Medicine.

Dr. Fuster's major recent honors and awards include: Member of Honor of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine; Signoret Prize (University Sorbonne, Paris); Fyssen International Science Prize; Doctor Honoris Causa, University Miguel Hernández, Alicante, Spain; Goldman-Rakic Prize for Cognitive Neuroscience (NARSAD); and the George Miller Prize of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. His group has made significant contributions in cognitive neuroscience:

  1. Showed that brain-stem reticular activation facilitates visual (tachistoscopic) attention
  2. Pioneered intracellular records from the brain, showing a psychophysical power-function between visual stimulus intensity and synaptic potential amplitude in visual system.
  3. Showed reversible working-memory deficits by selective temporary cooling of cortical areas
  4. With one of the earliest microelectrode drives developed by him for the behaving animal he discovered the first “memory cells” in the prefrontal cortex of the monkey in working memory
  5. Discovered the first memory cells in inferotemporal (IT) cortex
  6. Showed functional interactions between IT and prefrontal cells in visual working memory
  7. Found tactile memory cells in parietal cortex
  8. By using working-memory tasks of different modalities, showed the distributed and associative nature of cortical networks in working memory.

Fuster is the author of over one-hundred peer-reviewed articles and three books: The Prefrontal Cortex, Memory in the Cerebral Cortex, and Cortex and Mind.

Publications:

A selected list of publications:

Zhou Yong-Di, Ardestani Allen, Fuster Joaquín M   Distributed and associative working memory Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2007; 17 Suppl 1: i77-87.
Fuster Joaquin M   Jackson and the frontal executive hierarchy International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 2007; 64(1): 106-7.
Fuster Joaquín M   The cognit: a network model of cortical representation International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 2006; 60(2): 125-32.
Deco Gustavo, Ledberg Anders, Almeida Rita, Fuster Joaquín   Neural dynamics of cross-modal and cross-temporal associations Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale, 2005; 166(3-4): 325-36.
Fuster Joaquín, Guiou Michael, Ardestani Allen, Cannestra Andrew, Sheth Sameer, Zhou Yong-Di, Toga Arthur, Bodner Mark   Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in cognitive neuroscience of the primate brain NeuroImage, 2005; 26(1): 215-20.
Fuster Joaquin M   The cortical substrate of general intelligence Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 2005; 41(2): 228-9.
Fuster Joaquín M   Patricia Shoer Goldman-Rakic (1937-2003) The American psychologist, 2004; 59(6): 559-60.
Zhou Yong-Di, Fuster Joaquín M   Somatosensory cell response to an auditory cue in a haptic memory task Behavioural brain research, 2004; 153(2): 573-8.
Fuster Joaquín M   Frontal lobe and cognitive development Journal of neurocytology, 2004; 31(3-5): 373-85.
DeFelipe Javier, Elston Guy N, Fujita Ichiro, Fuster Joaquín, Harrison Kimberly H, Hof Patrick R, Kawaguchi Yasuo, Martin Kevan A C, Rockland Kathleen S, Thomson Alex M, Wang Samuel S-H, White Edward L, Yuste Rafael   Neocortical circuits: evolutionary aspects and specificity versus non-specificity of synaptic connections. Remarks, main conclusions and general comments and discussion Journal of neurocytology, 2004; 31(3-5): 387-416.
Fuster Joaquín M   Upper processing stages of the perception-action cycle Trends in cognitive sciences, 2004; 8(4): 143-5.
Fuster, J.M.   Prefrontal cortex and memory in primates, Learning & Memory, 2003; 2nd Edition: 535-538.
Fuster, J.M.   Prefrontal Cortex in Temporal Organization of Action, : The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Network, 2002; Second Edition: 905-910.
Fuster, JM   The prefrontal cortex--an update: time is of the essence Neuron. , 2001; 30(2): 319-33.
Fuster, JM Bodner, M Kroger, JK   Cross-modal and cross-temporal association in neurons of frontal cortex Nature. , 2000; 405(6784): 347-51.
Fuster, J.M.   The Prefrontal Cortex, , 1997; .
Fuster, J.M.   Memory in the Cerebral Cortex, , 1995; .

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