Nationality British | Name Karl Friston Spouse Ann Elisabeth Leonard | |
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Patrons Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (BA, 1980) Known for Statistical parametric mapping, Voxel-based morphometry, Dynamic causal modelling, Free energy principle Notable awards Golden Brain Award (2003)FRS (2006)FMedSciFSB | ||
Karl John Friston FRS, FMedSci, FRSB, is a British neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging.
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Education
Friston studied Natural Sciences (physics and psychology) at the University of Cambridge and went on to complete his medical studies at King's College Hospital, London.
Career
Friston subsequently qualified under the Oxford University Rotational Training Scheme in Psychiatry, and is now a Professor of Neuroscience at University College London. He is currently a Wellcome Trust Principal Fellow and Scientific Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. He also holds an honorary consultant post at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He invented statistical parametric mapping: SPM is an international standard for analysing imaging data and rests on the general linear model and random field theory (developed with Keith Worsley). In 1994 his group developed voxel-based morphometry. VBM detects differences in neuroanatomy and is used clinically and as a surrogate in genetic studies. These technical contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning (with Gerry Edelman). In 1995, this work was formulated as the disconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia (with Chris Frith). In 2003, he invented dynamic causal modelling (DCM), which is used to infer the architecture of distributed systems like the brain. Mathematical contributions include variational (generalised) filtering and dynamic expectation maximisation (DEM), which are Variational Bayesian methods for time-series analysis. Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles that underlie neuronal interactions. His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a variational Free energy principle (active inference in the Bayesian brain). According to Google Scholar Karl Friston's h-index is 194.
Awards and achievements
In 1996, Friston received the first Young Investigators Award in Human Brain Mapping, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999) in recognition of contributions to the bio-medical sciences. In 2000 he was President of the international Organization for Human Brain Mapping. In 2003 he was awarded the Minerva Golden Brain Award and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006 and received a Collège de France Medal in 2008. In 2011 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York and became a Fellow of the Society of Biology. His nomination for the Royal Society reads
In 2016 he was ranked No. 1 by Semantic Scholar in the list of top 10 most influential neuroscientists.