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Barry E. Stein the Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he is also Professor of Neurology. ^[1] He is also director of the joint Cognitive Neuroscience PhD Program between Wake Forest University and the University of Bologna in Italy. ^[2]

His research objectives are to understand the neural basis by which the brain is able to integrate information from multiple senses and how the process develops during early life. ^[3] This process of multisensory integration is highly adaptive. It knits together information from different sensory modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, somatosensory) to allow the brain to associate related environmental cues. It also enhances minimal signals and reduces environmental ambiguity so that events are better detected, localized, and identified. These are essential functions for humans' and animals' normal interaction with the environment.

One practical research objective has been to understand how the physiological properties of individual multisensory neurons and the networks in which they are embedded develop these capabilities as a result of early experience. ^[4] To this end multidisciplinary anatomical, physiological, behavioral and perceptual approaches are utilized to explore how early experience crafts the underlying neural circuits.

One of the long-term objectives of Dr. Stein's research is to develop rehabilitative strategies to treat disorders of sensory processing. These include not only Sensory processing disorder; Autism; Attention Deficit Disorders; and Dyslexia, which are diagnosed in thousands of children every year, but also disorders induced by trauma and disease that can occur at any age. Many of these disorders share common problems in the ability to use the senses cooperatively and in segregating and aggregating environmental cues in meaningful ways.

Dr. Stein is a Fellow of the AAAS and has been a visiting scholar at the Rockefeller University. He has long been considered by researchers as one of the "founders" of the field of multisensory integration, and a number of his publications are seminal works in that area. In addition to early papers in Science and other highly regarded journals, his publications include three widely read books on multisensory processes: "The Merging of the Senses, ^[5] " with M. Alex Meredith, "The Handbook of Multisensory Processes, ^[6] " co-edited with Gemma Calvert and Charles Spence, and "The New Handbook of Multisensory Processes. ^[7] "

He attended Forest Hills High School in New York City, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology at Queens College of the City University of New York, and earned his PhD in neuropsychology at the City University of New York. ^[8] He was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Anatomy and the Brain Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. He then joined the faculty of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Medical College of Virginia, where he achieved the rank of full professor and also served as interim chairman.

Publications

Stein BE, Magalhaes-Castro B, and Kruger L Superior colliculus: visuotopic-somatotopic overlap. Science 189:224-226, 1975.

Gaither NS and Stein BE Reptiles and mammals use similar sensory organizations in the midbrain. Science 205:595-598, 1979

Stein BE, Clamann HP, and Goldberg SJ Superior colliculus: control of eye movements in neonatal kittens. Science 210:78-80, 1980.

Meredith MA and Stein BE Interactions among converging sensory inputs in the superior colliculus. Science 221:389-391, 1983.

Meredith MA and Stein BE Descending efferents from the superior colliculus relay integrated multisensory information. Science 227:657-659, 1985.

Jiang H, Stein BE, and McHaffie JG Opposing basal ganglia processes shape midbrain visuomotor activity bilaterally. Nature 423:982-986, 2003.

Wallace MT, Ramachandran R, and Stein BE A new view of sensory cortical parcellation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101:2167-2172, 2004.

Alvarado JC, Stanford TR, Vaughan JW, and Stein BE Cortex mediates multisensory but not unisensory integration in superior colliculus. Journal of Neuroscience 27:12775-12786, 2007.

Stein BE and Stanford TR Multisensory integration: current issues from the perspective of the single neuron. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9:255-266, 2008.

Alvarado JC, Stanford TR, Rowland BA, Vaughan JW, and Stein BE Multisensory integration in the superior colliculus requires synergy among corticocollicular inputs. Journal of Neuroscience 29:6580-6592, 2009.

Yu L, Stein BE, and Rowland BA Adult plasticity in multisensory neurons: Short-term experience-dependent changes in the superior colliculus. Journal of Neuroscience 29:15910-15922, 2009.

Yu L, Rowland BA, and Stein BE Initiating the development of multisensory integration by manipulating sensory experience. Journal of Neuroscience 30:4904-4913, 2010.

Cuppini C, Stein BE, Rowland BA, Magosso E, and Ursino M A computational study of multisensory maturation in the superior colliculus (SC). Experimental Brain Research 213:341-349, 2011.

Stein BE and Rowland BA Organization and plasticity in multisensory integration: early and late experience affects its governing principles. Progress in Brain Research 191:145-163, 2011.

Related Research Articles

A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a vertebrate's body. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 14–16 billion neurons, and the estimated number of neurons in the cerebellum is 55–70 billion. Each neuron is connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons. These neurons typically communicate with one another by means of long fibers called axons, which carry trains of signal pulses called action potentials to distant parts of the brain or body targeting specific recipient cells.

The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all parts of the bodies of bilaterally symmetric and triploblastic animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and diploblasts. It is a structure composed of nervous tissue positioned along the rostral to caudal axis of the body and may have an enlarged section at the rostral end which is a brain. Only arthropods, cephalopods and vertebrates have a true brain.

Nociception is the sensory nervous system's process of encoding noxious stimuli. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an organism to receive a painful stimulus, convert it to a molecular signal, and recognize and characterize the signal in order to trigger an appropriate defense response.

The brainstem is the posterior stalk-like part of the brain that connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem is composed of the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. The midbrain is continuous with the thalamus of the diencephalon through the tentorial notch, and sometimes the diencephalon is included in the brainstem.

The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus.

The midbrain or mesencephalon is the forward-most portion of the brainstem and is associated with vision, hearing, motor control, sleep and wakefulness, arousal (alertness), and temperature regulation. The name comes from the Greek mesos, "middle", and enkephalos, "brain".

The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing. It includes both the sensory organs and the auditory parts of the sensory system.

In neuroanatomy, the superior colliculus is a structure lying on the roof of the mammalian midbrain. In non-mammalian vertebrates, the homologous structure is known as the optic tectum, or optic lobe. The adjective form tectal is commonly used for both structures.

The inferior colliculus (IC) is the principal midbrain nucleus of the auditory pathway and receives input from several peripheral brainstem nuclei in the auditory pathway, as well as inputs from the auditory cortex. The inferior colliculus has three subdivisions: the central nucleus, a dorsal cortex by which it is surrounded, and an external cortex which is located laterally. Its bimodal neurons are implicated in auditory-somatosensory interaction, receiving projections from somatosensory nuclei. This multisensory integration may underlie a filtering of self-effected sounds from vocalization, chewing, or respiration activities.

In neuroanatomy, the pretectal area, or pretectum, is a midbrain structure composed of seven nuclei and comprises part of the subcortical visual system. Through reciprocal bilateral projections from the retina, it is involved primarily in mediating behavioral responses to acute changes in ambient light such as the pupillary light reflex, the optokinetic reflex, and temporary changes to the circadian rhythm. In addition to the pretectum's role in the visual system, the anterior pretectal nucleus has been found to mediate somatosensory and nociceptive information.

Multisensory integration, also known as multimodal integration, is the study of how information from the different sensory modalities may be integrated by the nervous system. A coherent representation of objects combining modalities enables animals to have meaningful perceptual experiences. Indeed, multisensory integration is central to adaptive behavior because it allows animals to perceive a world of coherent perceptual entities. Multisensory integration also deals with how different sensory modalities interact with one another and alter each other's processing.

Sensory processing is the process that organizes sensation from one's own body and the environment, thus making it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. Specifically, it deals with how the brain processes multiple sensory modality inputs, such as proprioception, vision, auditory system, tactile, olfactory, vestibular system, interoception, and taste into usable functional outputs.

Hemianopsia, or hemianopia, is a loss of vision or blindness (anopsia) in half the visual field, usually on one side of the vertical midline. The most common causes of this damage are stroke, brain tumor, and trauma.

Eric Knudsen is a professor of neurobiology at Stanford University. He is best known for his discovery, along with Masakazu Konishi, of a brain map of sound location in two dimensions in the barn owl, tyto alba. His work has contributed to the understanding of information processing in the auditory system of the barn owl, the plasticity of the auditory space map in developing and adult barn owls, the influence of auditory and visual experience on the space map, and more recently, mechanisms of attention and learning. He is a recipient of the Lashley Award, the Gruber Prize in Neuroscience, and the Newcomb Cleveland prize and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sensory integration therapy (SIT) was originally developed by occupational therapist A. Jean Ayres in the 1970s to help children with sensory-processing difficulties. It was specifically designed to treat Sensory Processing Disorder. Sensory Integration Therapy is based on A. Jean Ayres's Sensory Integration Theory, which proposes that sensory-processing is linked to emotional regulation, learning, behavior, and participation in daily life. Sensory integration is the process of organizing sensations from the body and from environmental stimuli.

Ann Martin Graybiel is an Institute Professor and a faculty member in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. She is an expert on the basal ganglia and the neurophysiology of habit formation, implicit learning, and her work is relevant to Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, obsessive–compulsive disorder, substance abuse and other disorders that affect the basal ganglia.

Sensory processing disorder is a condition in which multisensory input is not adequately processed in order to provide appropriate responses to the demands of the environment. Sensory processing disorder is present in many people with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Individuals with SPD may inadequately process visual, auditory, olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), tactile (touch), vestibular (balance), proprioception, and interoception sensory stimuli.

Medial pulvinar nucleus is one of four traditionally anatomically distinguished nuclei of the pulvinar of the thalamus. The other three nuclei of the pulvinar are called lateral, inferior and anterior pulvinar nuclei.

Multisensory learning is the assumption that individuals learn better if they are taught using more than one sense (modality). The senses usually employed in multisensory learning are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile – VAKT. Other senses might include smell, taste and balance.

Nadine Gogolla is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany as well as an Associate Faculty of the Graduate School for Systemic Neuroscience. Gogolla investigates the neural circuits underlying emotion to understand how the brain integrates external cues, feeling states, and emotions to make calculated behavioral decisions. Gogolla is known for her discovery using machine learning and two-photon microscopy to classify mouse facial expressions into emotion-like categories and correlate these facial expressions with neural activity in the insular cortex.

References