Karl Friston | |
|---|---|
| Born | Karl John Friston (1959-07-12)12 July 1959 (age 65)[3] York, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA, 1980) |
| Known for | Statistical parametric mapping,voxel-based morphometry,dynamic causal modelling,free energy principle, active inference |
| Spouse | Ann Elisabeth Leonard[3] |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience,Mathematical and theoretical biology,Variational Bayesian methods |
| Institutions | University College London[2] |
| Website | www |
Karl John FristonFRSFMedSciFRSB (born 12 July 1959) is a Britishneuroscientist and theoretician atUniversity College London. He is an authority onbrain imaging andtheoretical neuroscience, especially the use of physics-inspired statistical methods to model neuroimaging data and other random dynamical systems.[2][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]Friston is a key architect of thefree energy principle andactive inference. In imaging neuroscience he is best known forstatistical parametric mapping anddynamic causal modelling. Friston also acts as a scientific advisor to numerous groups in industry.
Friston is one of the most highly cited living scientists[11] and in 2016 was ranked No. 1 bySemantic Scholar in the list of top 10 most influential neuroscientists.[12]
Karl Friston attended the Ellesmere Port Grammar School, later renamed Whitby Comprehensive, from 1970 to 1977. Friston studiednatural sciences (physics and psychology) at theUniversity of Cambridge in 1980, and completed his medical studies atKing's College Hospital, London.[3]
Friston subsequently qualified under theOxford University Rotational Training Scheme in Psychiatry, and is now a professor of neuroscience atUniversity College London.[13] He was a Wellcome Trust Principal Fellow and is currently Scientific Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging.[14] He also holds an honorary consultant post at theNational Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He inventedstatistical parametric mapping: SPM is an international standard for analysing imaging data and rests on thegeneral linear model andrandom field theory (developed with Keith Worsley). In 1994 his group developedvoxel-based morphometry.[15] 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 (withGerry Edelman). In 1995, this work was formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia (withChris Frith). In 2003, he inventeddynamic causal modelling (DCM), which is used to infer the architecture of distributed systems like the brain. Mathematical contributions include Variational Laplace[16] andGeneralized filtering, which usevariational Bayesian methods for time-series analysis. Friston is principally known for models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles that underlie neuronal interactions. His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a variationalfree energy principle[17] (Active inference in theBayesian brain[18]). According toGoogle Scholar, Friston'sh-index is 263.[2]
In 2020 he applieddynamic causal modelling as aSystems biology approach toEpidemiological modelling.[19] He subsequently became a member ofIndependent SAGE, an independent, public-facing alternative to theCOVID-19 pandemic government advisory bodyScientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
In 2024, Friston appeared on StarTalk, the podcast fromNeil deGrasse Tyson.
In 1996, Friston received the first Young Investigators Award in Human Brain Mapping, and was elected a Fellow of theAcademy of Medical Sciences (1999) in recognition of contributions to the bio-medical sciences. In 2000 he was President of the internationalOrganization for Human Brain Mapping. In 2003 he was awarded the MinervaGolden Brain Award and was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society in 2006 and received aCollège de France Medal in 2008. His nomination for theRoyal Society reads
Karl Friston pioneered and developed the single most powerful technique for analysing the results ofbrain imaging studies and unravelling the patterns ofcortical activity and the relationship of different cortical areas to one another. Currently over 90% of papers published in brain imaging use his method (SPM or Statistical Parametric Mapping) and this approach is now finding more diverse applications, for example, in the analysis ofEEG andMEG data. His method has revolutionised studies of the human brain and given us profound insights into its operations. None has had as major an influence as Friston on the development of human brain studies in the past twenty-five years.[1]
He became a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Biology in 2012, received theWeldon Memorial Prize and Medal in 2013 for contributions to mathematical biology and was elected as a member ofEMBO in 2014 and theAcademia Europaea in 2015. He was the 2016 recipient of the Charles Branch Award for unparalleled breakthroughs in Brain Research and the Glass Brain Award from theOrganization for Human Brain Mapping. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the universities of York, Zurich, Liège and Radboud University.
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