Ann Graybiel

Who is Ann Graybiel?

Ann Martin Graybiel is a neuroscientist at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. She is an Institute Professor and a faculty member in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. She is an expert on the basal ganglia, and her work is relevant to Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, obsessive–compulsive disorder, substance abuse and other disorders that affect the basal ganglia. She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and in 2001 she was awarded the President’s National Medal of Science "For her pioneering contributions to the understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the brain, including the structure, chemistry, and function of the pathways subserving thought and movement." In 2012 she was awarded the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, along with Cornelia Bargmann and Winfried Denk, "for elucidating basic neuronal mechanisms underlying perception and decision."

Read a short profile of Graybiel first published in MIT Technology Review.