Interview with Michael Gazzaniga

Abstract

Widely considered the father of the field of cognitive neuroscience, Professor Michael S. Gazzaniga is one of the world's premier neuroscientists. He founded the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California, Davis; the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College; the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute; Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience; and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. He is currently the director of the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Born on December 12, 1939 in Los Angeles and educated at Dartmouth College, he received his Ph.D. in psychobiology at the California Institute of Technology under the tutelage of Roger Sperry. As a graduate student, Professor Gazzaniga initiated the first lateralized testing of human split-brain patients, leading to a fundamental shift in our understanding of functional lateralization in the brain and how the cerebral hemispheres communicate with one another. His many scholarly publications and pioneering work during the last 50 years have produced significant contributions to our understanding of how the brain enables the mind. His landmark 1995 book for MIT Press, The Cognitive Neurosciences, now in its fourth edition, is recognized as the sourcebook for the field. He has also published many books accessible to a lay audience, including Mind Matters, Nature's Mind, and The Ethical Brain.