Earl K. Miller

Earl Keith Miller (born November 30, 1962, Columbus Ohio) is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research focuses on neural mechanisms of cognitive, or executive, control.[4][1] Earl Miller is the Picower Professor of Neuroscience with the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[5][6][7] He is the Chief Scientist and co-founder of SplitSage.[8] and a co-founder of Neuradia Pharmaceuticals.

Earl Miller
Earl K. Miller 2015
Born
Earl Keith Miller

(1962-11-30) November 30, 1962
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Alma materKent State University (BS)
Princeton University (MS, PhD)
AwardsDoctor of Science (honoris causa)

Troland Research Award (2000)

Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience (2016)

Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017)

The George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
Cognitive science[1]
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisNeurophysiological investigations of inferior temporal cortex of the macaque (1990)
Doctoral advisorCharles G. Gross[2]
Notable students
Websiteekmillerlab.mit.edu/earl-miller/

Education

Earl Miller received a Bachelor of Arts degree (summa cum laude, with honors) in psychology from Kent State University in 1985, Master of Arts degree in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University in 1987, and a PhD in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University in 1990 for neurophysiological investigations of the inferior temporal cortex in the macaque supervised by Charles G. Gross.[2]

Career

From 1990–1995 he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of neuropsychology at the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1995 Earl Miller joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT as Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and quickly advanced the academic ranks. He received tenure in 1999 (two years ahead of schedule) and became a full Professor in 2002. He was appointed to the Picower chair at MIT in 2003. He was Associate Director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT from 2001 to 2009, and was Director of Graduate Studies in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He has delivered numerous lectures worldwide, serves as editor, and on the editorial boards of, major journals in neuroscience, and on international advisory boards. He served on the advisory boards of NeuroFocus, a Berkeley, California-based neuromarketing company.[9][10] Professor Miller is the co-founder and Chief Scientist of SplitSage.[8] and a co-founder of Neuradia Pharmaceuticals.

Research

Miller's research aims to understand how the prefrontal cortex, a neural system located in the frontal lobe of the brain, subserves cognitive control. Cognitive or executive control involves the higher-order processing that comes into play when our behavior has to be guided by plans, thoughts, and goals. This sort of behavior contrasts with the one that is primarily driven by external stimuli or by emotion, as well as with behavior that is stereotypical and automatic. Although the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has long been thought to mediate executive functions in the human brain, the mechanisms through which PFC regulates this goal-oriented, purposeful behavior were not clearly understood.

Research conducted in Earl Miller's laboratory has shown that such cognitive control is manifested in the neural activity in the primate PFC. The activation of PFC neurons reflect the abstract cognitive process that guides behavior during a control-demanding task. PFC neurons, thus, have been documented to represent top-down information such as abstract rules like "same vs. different",[3] to process the category[11] or quantity[12] of visual stimuli, and to guide the allocation of attentional resources.[13] PFC activity has also been shown to reflect the flexible remapping of stimulus-response associations.[14] These results have arisen through a combination of electrophysiological, psychophysical, and computational techniques. One of his chief contributions is demonstrating that cortical neurons can be multifunctional (i.e., show "mixed selectivity").[15] This has been a major advance beyond earlier theories that posited that each neuron has a specific function. This property gives the brain greater computational horsepower and endows flexibility, a hallmark of higher-level cognition.[16]

Miller has innovated techniques for recording from many neurons simultaneously in multiple brain areas. This is a departure from the classic single-neuron recording approach. It allows detailed and direct comparison of neuron properties between brain areas that are not confounded by extraneous factors and examination of the temporal dynamics of activity between neurons.[17] Miller's lab has used this approach to make a number of discoveries of how different brain areas collaborate to produce thought and action.[18] This includes recent discoveries that oscillating "brain waves" may control the timing of shifts of attention[19] and that different items simultaneously held in short-term memory line up on different phases of each brain wave.[20] The latter may explain why we can only think about a few things at the same time.[21]

The Miller Lab has also mounted evidence for an update to the oldest and most fundamental neural model of cognition: Working memory. For the past 50 years, working memory has been thought to rely on cortical neurons that fire continuous impulses that keep thoughts “online”.  New work from the Miller lab has revealed more complex dynamics.  The impulses fire sparsely and interact with brain waves of different frequencies.   Higher frequency brain waves carry the contents of working memory while lower frequency brain waves act as control signals that gate access to and clear out working memory.[22]

Miller's paper with Jonathan Cohen, An Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function,[23] has been designated a Current Classic as among the most cited papers in Neuroscience and Behavior.[24] It is the 5th most-cited paper in the history of Neuroscience.[25] His paper with Tim Buschman, Top-down versus Bottom-up Control of Attention in the Prefrontal and Posterior Parietal Cortices[26] was The Scientist's Hot Paper for October 2009.[27]

Selected Awards and Honors

Doctor of Science (honoris causa), Kent State University (2020).

The George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience (2019).

Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017)[28]

Paul and Lilah Newton Brain Science Award (2017)

Miller and Cohen (2001) identified as the 5th most-cited paper in the history of neuroscience (Yeung et al., 2017)

The Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience (2016)[29]

Kent State University Professional Achievement Award (2016).[30]

Elected to the Memory Disorders Research Society, 2016

Commencement Address at Kent State University (2015).[31]

Amar G. Bose Research Fellowship (2014),[32]

MERIT Award, National Institute of Mental Health (2010)

The Mathilde Solowey Award in Neurosciences (2007)

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005),

Picower Professorship at MIT (endowed chair (2003)

The Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award (2000)[33]

National Academy of SciencesTroland Research Award (2000)[34]

Tenured at MIT two years ahead of schedule (1999)

John Merck Scholar Award (1998),

McKnight Scholar Award (1996),

Pew Scholar Award (1996)[35]

Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (1996)

Phi Beta Kappa (1985)


Full list of awards and honors can be found here.

Media Appearances

Earl Miller has made frequent appearances in the popular press. He was profiled in Discover Magazine[36] and The New Yorker.[37] He wrote a guest column in Fortune.[38] Professor Miller has appeared on NBC's Today Show[39] and has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio and several talk radio shows. He has been quoted and/or his work profiled in the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Time,[40] ABC News, Slate, The Boston Globe, The Times of London, Forbes[41] etc. A list of media appearances is online.[42]

References
  1. Earl K. Miller publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. Miller, Earl Keith (1990). Neurophysiological investigations of inferior temporal cortex of the macaque. princeton.edu (PhD thesis). Princeton University. OCLC 84015941.
  3. Wallis, Jonathan D.; Anderson, Kathleen C.; Miller, Earl K. (2001). "Single neurons in prefrontal cortex encode abstract rules". Nature. 411 (6840): 953–956. doi:10.1038/35082081. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11418860. S2CID 4366539.
  4. "Miller Lab". Miller Lab.
  5. "Brain and Cognitive Sciences". bcs.mit.edu.
  6. http://web.mit.edu/picower/faculty/miller.html Miller's page at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
  7. Earl Miller Playlist Appearance on WMBR's Dinnertime Sampler radio show April 6, 2005
  8. "SplitSage". SplitSage.
  9. "Nexus of Neuroscience, Engineering, Marketing". NeuroFocus. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  10. "The Executive Brain and Decision-Making". YouTube. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  11. Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., and Miller, E.K. (2001) Categorical representation of visual stimuli in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science, 291:312–316.
  12. Nieder, A., Freedman, D.J., and Miller, E.K. (2002) Representation of the quantity of visual items in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science, 297:1708–1711.
  13. Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2007) Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science, 315: 1860–1862.
  14. Pasupathy, A. and Miller, E.K. (2005) Different time courses for learning-related activity in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. Nature, 433:873–876.
  15. Rigotti, Mattia; Barak, Omri; Warden, Melissa R.; Wang, Xiao-Jing; Daw, Nathaniel D.; Miller, Earl K.; Fusi, Stefano (May 2013). "The importance of mixed selectivity in complex cognitive tasks". Nature. 497 (7451): 585–590. doi:10.1038/nature12160. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 4412347. PMID 23685452.
  16. Fusi, Stefano; Miller, Earl K.; Rigotti, Mattia (April 1, 2016). "Why neurons mix: high dimensionality for higher cognition". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 37: 66–74. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2016.01.010. ISSN 0959-4388. PMID 26851755. S2CID 13897721.
  17. Miller, E.K., and Wilson, M.A. (2008) All my circuits: Using multiple-electrodes to understand functioning neural networks. Neuron 60:483–488
  18. Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2007) Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science. 315: 1860–1862, Pasupathy, A. and Miller, E.K. (2005) Different time courses for learning-related activity in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. Nature, 433:873–876., Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., and Miller, E.K (2003) A comparison of primate prefrontal and inferior temporal cortices during visual categorization. Journal of Neuroscience, 23(12):5235–5246.
  19. Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2009) Serial, covert, shifts of attention during visual search are reflected by the frontal eye fields and correlated with population oscillations. Neuron, 63: 386–396.Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2009) Serial, covert, shifts of attention during visual search are reflected by the frontal eye fields and correlated with population oscillations. Neuron, 63: 386–396.
  20. Siegel, M., Warden, M.R., and Miller, E.K. (2009) Phase-dependent neuronal coding of objects in short-term memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106: 21341-21346
  21. Vogel, E.K., Fukada, K. In mind and out of phase, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106:21017-21018
  22. Miller, Earl K.; Lundqvist, Mikael; Bastos, André M. (October 24, 2018). "Working Memory 2.0". Neuron. 100 (2): 463–475. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2018.09.023. ISSN 0896-6273. PMID 30359609.
  23. Miller, E.K. and Cohen, J.D. (2001) An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:167–202.
  24. "April 2008 – Current Classics". ScienceWatch.com. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  25. Yeung, Andy W. K.; Goto, Tazuko K.; Leung, W. Keung (September 11, 2018). "At the Leading Front of Neuroscience: A Bibliometric Study of the 100 Most-Cited Articles". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 11: 363. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00363. PMC 5520389. PMID 28785211.
  26. Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2007) Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science. 315: 1860–1862.
  27. Akst, Jef. "Cortical crosstalk – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences". The Scientist. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  28. "Eleven from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2017".
  29. "Earl Miller receives Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience".
  30. Kent State University Alumni Association (October 5, 2015). "2015 Professional Achievement Award - Earl Miller, '85" – via YouTube.
  31. Earl Miller (May 16, 2016). "Earl K. Miller's Commencement Address at Kent State 5-14-16" – via YouTube.
  32. "Bose grants reward risk".
  33. "404". www.sfn.org.
  34. http://www.nasonline.org, National Academy of Sciences -. "Troland Research Awards". www.nasonline.org.
  35. "Directory of Scholars". www.pewtrusts.org.
  36. Piore, Adam (October 2016). "Attention, Please: Earl Miller Wants to Make Us All Smarter". Discovery Magazine.
  37. "The Eureka Hunt".
  38. "Here's Why You Shouldn't Multitask, According to an MIT Neuroscientist". Fortune. December 2016.
  39. "This is your brain on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram other digital platforms".
  40. Heid, Markham (June 2017). "You Asked: How Can I Use More of My Brain?". Time.
  41. Stahl, Ashley (October 2017). "4 Ways To Be More Productive At Work". Forbes.
  42. "In the News". March 27, 2013.
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