Leah Krubitzer facts for kids

Leah Krubitzer is an American neuroscientist. She is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. She also leads the Laboratory of Evolutionary Neurobiology. Her work focuses on how complex brains, like human brains, developed from simpler ones.

She studies how different parts of the brain are connected. She also looks at how brain cells, called neurons, work in the neocortex. The neocortex is the part of the brain that helps with thinking, learning, and remembering. By comparing the brains of different mammals, she finds out which brain features are common to all mammals. She also discovers how new brain features have appeared over time. This helps her understand how the brain has changed through evolution. Her research explains why mammals have so many different behaviors and abilities.

Early Life and Education

Leah Krubitzer earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science, from Pennsylvania State University. Later, she went to Vanderbilt University for graduate school. There, she earned her PhD in Physiological Psychology.

After finishing her PhD, Krubitzer moved to Australia. She spent six years studying at the University of Queensland. During this time, she learned about the brains of different mammals. She often studied monotremes, which are unique egg-laying mammals. These included the spiny anteater and the duckbilled platypus. Krubitzer is very interested in how the neocortex has changed over time. She also studies how it is organized in different types of mammals.

Brain Research and Discoveries

Professor Krubitzer and her team study mammal brains. They look at how different parts of the neocortex are connected. They also examine how brain cells work. The neocortex is a very important part of the brain. It helps with learning, memory, cognition (thinking), and perception (how we understand the world).

Krubitzer's lab explores two main areas. They study how the neocortex has changed and grown over time. They also focus on a specific brain area called the parietal cortex.

How the Neocortex Evolves

The neocortex can change and adapt over time. This ability is important for an animal's survival. It helps the brain coordinate movements needed for its environment. Krubitzer and her team tested their ideas using different rodents and squirrels. They thought that how organized the brain's outer layer was would depend on the animal's environment. They found differences between lab animals and wild animals, as expected.

Krubitzer also changed how much sensory information young animals received. For example, she changed the vision of an opossum early in its life. Her research showed that if an animal loses its vision early, other senses can take over that brain area. The brain then reorganizes itself to make up for the lost sense. This shows how flexible the brain can be.

Understanding the Parietal Cortex

The parietal cortex is another area Krubitzer studies. This part of the brain helps us coordinate movements between our eyes and hands. It allows for smooth reaching and grasping actions. Scientists have studied this area in monkeys and humans. They found similar brain patterns, but how much these pathways are used depends on how the parietal cortex is organized.

Humans have an opposable thumb. This means we can grip and reach for objects much better than monkeys. Because of this, the connections in the human parietal cortex are more complex. Krubitzer's team investigated different parts of the parietal cortex. They wanted to find out which part controls which movement.

Krubitzer discovered that if one area of the cortex is damaged, the rest of the cortex can reorganize itself. This helps to make up for the loss. This finding shows how the parietal cortex can "rewire" itself. This helps to keep motor abilities working. Currently, her lab is testing a microchip. This chip could be placed in the posterior parietal cortex to temporarily turn off certain areas. This technique helps them see how deactivating a part of the cortex affects grasping and reaching in monkeys. They do this while the monkeys are performing tasks.

Awards and Recognition

Leah Krubitzer has received many awards for her important research. In 1996, she won the Herrick Award. This award came from the American Association of Anatomists. In 1998, she became a part of the MacArthur Fellows Program. This program recognizes people with great creativity in their fields.

In 1999, Krubitzer gave a Special Lecture for the Society for Neuroscience Meeting. She also received the James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Fellowship in 2002–2003. Vanderbilt University, where she studied, gave her the Distinguished Alumni Award. This was for her work on the changing neocortex in mammals. In 2012, she received the Dean's Innovation Award from the University of California Davis.

Works

• "Arealization of the Neocortex in Mammals: Genetic and Epigenetic Contributions to the Phenotype", Brain, Behavior and Evolution, Leah Krubitzer, Kelly J. Huffman
• "Reversible Deactivation of Motor Cortex Reveals Functional Connectivity with Posterior Parietal Cortex in the Prosimian Galago (Otolemur garnettii) Dylan F. Cooke1, Iwona Stepniewska2, Daniel J. Miller2, Jon H. Kaas2, and Leah Krubitzer1