肯尼斯-卡塔尼亚 神经生物学家

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Kenneth Catania
Neurobiologist | Class of 2006
Investigating the central nervous systems of unusual animals to generate new insights into the mammalian cortex—how it evolves, develops, and responds to changing conditions.

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Title
Neurobiologist
Affiliation
Vanderbilt University
Location
Nashville, Tennessee
Age
40 at time of award
Area of Focus
Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Published September 1, 2006
ABOUT KENNETH'S WORK
Kenneth Catania is a neuroscientist whose investigations of mammalian insectivores, particularly the star-nosed mole, provide fundamental insights into the organization of the sensory cortex. The star-nosed mole, a near-blind, wetlands-dwelling rodent, relies on fleshy tactile tendrils surrounding its nose to locate and identify prey underground. In his early work, Catania showed that the somatosensory cortex of these animals is organized in spatial maps corresponding to the sensory organ itself; this discovery represents a correspondence to the organization of the visual cortex in most other mammals. By investigating natural variations in the number of sensory tendrils, he was able to show that the somatosensory maps reorganize according to the morphology of the organ, implying that the sensory inputs themselves shape the cortical organization during development. Recently, Catania used foraging theory to show that the star-nosed mole approaches the theoretical maximum speed for locating and consuming food; he postulates that the remarkably fast neural processing of sensory input represents a necessary adaptation to the ecological niche of this insectivorous mole species. Through his integrative approach to understanding an unusual animal model, Catania generates new insights into the mammalian cortex — how it evolves, how it develops, and how it responds to changing conditions.

BIOGRAPHY
Kenneth Catania received a B.S. (1991) in zoology from the University of Maryland, College Park and a Ph.D. (1997) in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University (1997-1998) and served as an assistant professor (1998-2006) in Vanderbilt’s Department of Biological Sciences, prior to being named an associate professor in 2006. Catania’s articles have appeared in such journals as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and Nature Neuroscience.



肯尼斯-卡塔尼亚
神经生物学家 | 2006级
研究不寻常的动物的中枢神经系统，以产生对哺乳动物大脑皮层的新见解--它是如何进化、发展和对不断变化的条件作出反应。

肯尼斯-卡塔尼亚的肖像
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标题
神经生物学家
工作单位
范德比尔特大学
工作地点
田纳西州，纳什维尔
年龄
获奖时40岁
重点领域
神经科学和神经生物学
发表于2006年9月1日
关于肯尼思的工作
肯尼斯-卡塔尼亚是一位神经科学家，他对哺乳动物中的食虫动物，特别是星鼻鼹鼠的研究，为感官皮层的组织提供了基本的见解。星鼻鼹鼠是一种近乎盲目的、居住在湿地的啮齿动物，它依靠鼻子周围的肉质触觉卷须来定位和识别地下的猎物。在他的早期工作中，卡塔尼亚表明这些动物的体感皮层被组织在与感觉器官本身相对应的空间图中；这一发现代表了与大多数其他哺乳动物的视觉皮层组织的对应关系。通过研究感觉卷须数量的自然变化，他能够表明，体感图谱根据器官的形态而重组，这意味着感觉输入本身在发育过程中塑造了皮质组织。最近，卡塔尼亚利用觅食理论表明，星鼻鼹鼠接近理论上定位和消耗食物的最大速度；他推测，感觉输入的明显快速的神经处理代表了对这种食虫鼹鼠物种的生态位的必要适应。通过他的综合方法来理解一个不寻常的动物模型，卡塔尼亚对哺乳动物的大脑皮层产生了新的见解--它是如何进化的，如何发展的，以及如何对不断变化的条件作出反应。

个人简历
肯尼斯-卡塔尼亚在马里兰大学学院公园分校获得动物学学士学位（1991年），在加州大学圣地亚哥分校获得神经科学博士学位（1997年）。他是范德比尔特大学的博士后研究员（1997-1998），并在范德比尔特大学生物科学系担任助理教授（1998-2006），2006年被任命为副教授。卡塔尼亚的文章发表在《自然》、《美国国家科学院院刊》和《自然神经科学》等杂志上。