Christos Constantinidis, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University (1997) Assistant Professor The main objective of my work is to understand how neuronal activity in the primate cerebral cortex gives rise to higher cognitive functions. My research in recent years has focused on the posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, two parts of a broader network involved with spatial perception, selective attention and working memory. Although the overall anatomy and the physiological properties of neurons in these areas have been extensively studied, their functional organization at the level of neuronal circuits is largely unknown. My main experimental approach consists of simultaneous neuronal recordings from multiple micro-electrodes during performance of cognitive tasks. Computational and modeling approaches are then employed to characterize the neural circuits that mediate complex functions such as selective representation of an attended stimulus or its maintenance in memory. Recent Publications: T. Meyer, X.-L. Qi and C. Constantinidis. Persistent discharges in the prefrontal cortex of monkeys naive to working memory tasks. Cerebral Cortex (2007), 17:i70-76 [Abstract]   J.M. Burkhardt, C. Constantinidis, K.K. Anstrom, D.C. Roberts and D.J. Woodward. Synchronous oscillations and phase reorganization in the basal ganglia during akinesia induced by high-dose haloperidol. Eur. J. Neurosci. (2007), 26:1912-24 [Abstract]   F. C. Joelving, A. Compte and C. Constantinidis. Temporal properties of posterior parietal neuron discharges during working memory and passive viewing. J Neurophysiol. (2007), 97:2254-2266 [Abstract]    C. Constantinidis. Posterior parietal mechanisms of visual attention. Rev. Neurosci. (2006), 17:415-427. [Abstract]   C. Constantinidis and M. A. Steinmetz. Posterior parietal cortex automatically encodes the location of salient stimuli. J. Neuroscience (2005), 25:233-238. [Abstract]   T. Meyer and C. Constantinidis. A software solution for the control of visual behavioral experimentation. J. Neuroscience Methods (2005), 142:27-34. [Abstract] [Website]   C. Constantinidis and X. J. Wang. A Neural Circuit Basis for Spatial Working Memory. Neuroscientist (2004), 10:553-565. [Abstract] C. Constantinidis and E. Procyk. The primate working memory networks. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience (2004) 4:444-465. [Article] [PDF] [Special Issue]   X. J. Wang , J. Tegner, C. Constantinidis, P. S. Goldman-Rakic. Division of labor among distinct inhibitory neurons in a cortical microcircuit of working memory. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2004), 101: 1368-1373. [Abstract] E-mail  Lab website