Rodolfo Llinás

Rodolfo Llinás
Born	1934 Bogotá, Colombia
Residence	New York City, New York, United States
Fields	Neuroscience
Institutions	NYU School of Medicine
Alma mater	Universidad Javeriana and Australian National University
Known for	Physiology of the cerebellum, the thalamus, Thalamocortical dysrhythmia as well as for his pioneering work on the inferior olive, on the squid giant synapse and on human magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Neuropsychology
Topics Brain-computer interface Traumatic brain injury Brain regions Clinical neuropsychology Cognitive neuroscience Dissociation Human brain Misconceptions Neuroanatomy Neurophysiology Optogenetics Phrenology
Brain functions Arousal Attention Consciousness Decision making Executive functions Natural language Learning Memory Motor coordination Perception Planning Problem solving Thought
People Arthur L. Benton David Bohm António Damásio Phineas Gage Norman Geschwind Elkhonon Goldberg Patricia Goldman Rakic Pasko Rakic Donald O. Hebb Kenneth Heilman Edith Kaplan Muriel Lezak Benjamin Libet Rodolfo Llinás Alexander Luria Brenda Milner Karl H. Pribram Oliver Sacks Mark Rosenzweig Roger W. Sperry H. M. K. C.
Tests Bender-Gestalt Test Benton Visual Retention Test Clinical Dementia Rating Continuous Performance Task Glasgow Coma Scale Hayling and Brixton tests Johari window Lexical decision task Mini-mental state examination Stroop effect Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Wisconsin card sorting
Mind and Brain Portal

Rodolfo R. Llinás PhD (b. Bogotá, Colombia in 1934) is a neuroscientist. He is presently the Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience and Chairman of the department of Physiology & Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine. He attended the Gimnasio Moderno school and received his MD from the Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá in 1959 and his PhD in 1965 from the Australian National University working under Sir John Eccles. Llinás has published over 500 scientific articles.

Work

He has studied the electrophysiology of single neurons in the cerebellum, the thalamus, the cerebral cortex, the entorhinal cortex, the hippocampus, the vestibular system, the inferior olive and the spinal cord. He has studied synaptic transmitter release in the squid giant synapse. He has studied human brain function using magnetoencephalography (MEG) on the basis of which he introduced the concept of Thalamocortical dysrhythmia.

Contributions

Llinás has written that the brain evolved because organisms needed to move around without running into other organisms or objects.

Further contributions include:

• Discovery of dendritic inhibition in central neurons (at the mammalian motoneuron).
• The functional organization of the cerebellar cortex neuronal circuits.
• Defining cerebellar function from an evolutionary perspective.
• First description of electrical coupling in the mammalian CNS ( mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus)
• First determination of presynaptic calcium current, under voltage clamp, at the squid giant synapse.
• Discovery that vertebrate neurons (cerebellar Purkinje cell) can generate calcium-dependent spikes .
• Discovery of the P-type calcium channel in the Purkinje cells.
• Discovery of low threshold spikes generated by low voltage activated calcium conductaces (presently known as due to T-type calcium channel) in inferior olive and thalamus neurons
• Asserting the law of no interchangeability of neurons, which it is known as Llinás' law.
• Direct demonstration of calcium concentration microdomains at the presynaptic active zone.
• Utilization of magnetoencephalography in clinical research.
• Discovery of subthreshold membrane potential oscillations in the inferior olive, thalamus and entorhinal cortex.
• The discovery of Thalamocortical dysrhythmia .
• Artificial olivo-cerebellar motor control system as part of the project BAUV (Undersea Vehicle) of the US Navy developed by P. Bandyopadhyay.

Memberships

Llinás is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1986), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996), American Philosophical Society (1996), the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (Spain) (1996) and the French Academy of Science (2002). Dr. Llinás has received Honorary Degrees from the following universities:

• Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) (1985)
• Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) (1993)
• National University of Colombia (1994)
• Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain (1997)
• Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, (1998)
• Toyama University, Toyama, Japan (2005)
• University of Pavia, Italy (2006)

He was also the chairman of NASA/Neurolab Science Working Group.

Selected bibliography

• Hubbard, J.I., Llinás, R. and Quastel, D.M.J. Electrophysiological Analysis of Synaptic Transmission. London: Edward Arnold Publishers 1969.
• Llinás, R. Editor. Neurobiology of Cerebellar Evolution and Development. (Chicago: Am. Med. Association, 1969)
• Llinás, R. I of the Vortex: From Neurons to Self (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2001). ISBN 0262621630
• Llinás, Rodolfo R. The Squid Giant Synapse : A Model for Chemical Transmission Oxford University Press, USA (December 15, 1999) ISBN 0195116526
• Llinás, Rodolfo R. and Churchland, Patricia S. Mind-Brain Continuum: Sensory Processes The MIT Press (September 9, 1996) ISBN 0262121980
• Llinás, Rodolfo R., and Steriade, Mircea. Bursting of thalamic neurons and states of vigilance. Invited Review J. Neurophysiol ,95:3297-3308, 2006.

External links

• http://www.med.nyu.edu/people/R.Llinas.html

Newspaper articles

• Enter the "I" of the Vortex The Science Network interview with Rodolfo Llinás
• In a Host of Ailments, Seeing a Brain Out of Rhythm The New York Times December 8, 2008
• New Way Of Looking At Diseases Of the Brain The New York Times October 26, 1999
• Listening to the Conversation of Neurons The New York Times May 27, 1997
• New York Times announcement of election to the [National Academy of Sciences]