My interest in understanding brain mechanisms of voluntary movement and motor learning began during graduate studies at the University of Rochester and continued during post-doctoral studies at the National Institute of Mental Health, working with Edward Evarts. I joined the Neuroscience enterprise at Brown in 1989, where I currently serve as Professor of Neuroscience and Director of MRI Research for Brown University. From 1997-2000, I directed the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory at Foundation Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy. I have served on numerous panels that have reviewed grant proposals, including the NIH, Wellcome Trust, Human Frontiers Program and the Italian Space Agency. I have or currently serve on the editorial boards of major neuroscience journals, including the Journal of Neuroscience, Neuroscience, NeuroImage and Experimental Brain Research. I have published 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals and other fora.
Murai SA, Mano T, Sanes JN, Watanabe T. "Atypical intrinsic neural timescale in the left angular gyrus in Alzheimer's disease." Brain communications, vol. 6, no. 4, 2024, pp. fcae199. |
Murai, Shota A., Mano, Tatsuo, Sanes, Jerome N., Watanabe, Takamitsu. "Atypical intrinsic neural timescale in the left angular gyrus in Alzheimer’s disease." [], 2023. |
Stroud, Laura R., Morningstar, Michele, Vergara-Lopez, Chrystal, Bublitz, Margaret H., Lee, Sharon Y., Sanes, Jerome N., Dahl, Ronald E., Silk, Jennifer S., Nelson, Eric E., Dickstein, Daniel P. "Neural activation to peer acceptance and rejection in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls." Biological Psychology, vol. 181, 2023, pp. 108618. |
Sabbah S, Worden MS, Laniado DD, Berson DM, Sanes JN. "Luxotonic signals in human prefrontal cortex as a possible substrate for effects of light on mood and cognition." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 119, no. 28, 2022, pp. e2118192119. |
Tung, Nathan, Sanes, Jerome, Upfal, Eli, Eloyan, Ani. "Brain Functional Connectivity Estimation Utilizing Diffusion Kernels on a Structural Connectivity Graph." 2021. |
Sanes JN. "Rhode Island COBRE Center for Central Nervous System Function: Progress and Perspectives." Rhode Island medical journal (2013), vol. 104, no. 3, 2021, pp. 36-40. |
Bédard, Patrick, Sanes, Jerome N. "Brain representations for acquiring and recalling visual–motor adaptations." NeuroImage, vol. 101, 2014, pp. 225-235. |
Gorrostieta C, Ombao H, Bédard P, Sanes JN. "Investigating brain connectivity using mixed effects vector autoregressive models." NeuroImage, vol. 59, no. 4, 2012, pp. 3347-55. |
Bédard P, Sanes JN. "Basal ganglia-dependent processes in recalling learned visual-motor adaptations." Exp Brain Res, vol. 209, no. 3, 2011, pp. 385-93. |
Bédard P, Wu M, Sanes JN. "Brain activation related to combinations of gaze position, visual input, and goal-directed hand movements." Cerebral Cortex, vol. 21, no. 6, 2011, pp. 1273-82. |
Böhm, Hilmar, Ombao, Hernando, von Sachs, Rainer, Sanes, Jerome. "Classification of multivariate non-stationary signals: The SLEX-shrinkage approach." Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, vol. 140, no. 12, 2010, pp. 3754-3763. |
Fiecas M, Ombao H, Linkletter C, Thompson W, Sanes J. "Functional connectivity: shrinkage estimation and randomization test." NeuroImage, vol. 49, no. 4, 2010, pp. 3005-14. |
Ombao, H, Boehm, H, von Sachs, R, Sanes, J. "Classification of Multi-Channel EEG: The SLEX-Shrinkage Approach." NeuroImage, vol. 47, 2009, pp. S80. |
Kang, H, Ombao, H, Blume, J, Bedard, P, Sanes, J. "Evaluating Evidence of Activation in fMRI via a Novel Likelihood Paradigm." NeuroImage, vol. 47, 2009, pp. S80. |
Sheinkopf SJ, Lester BM, Sanes JN, Eliassen JC, Hutchison ER, Seifer R, Lagasse LL, Durston S, Casey BJ. "Functional MRI and response inhibition in children exposed to cocaine in utero. Preliminary findings." Developmental Neuroscience, vol. 31, no. 1-2, 2009, pp. 159-66. |
Bédard P, Sanes JN. "Gaze and hand position effects on finger-movement-related human brain activation." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 101, no. 2, 2009, pp. 834-42. |
Bédard, P, Sanes, JN. "Learning and Recalling Movement Internal Models Use Different Brain Networks." NeuroImage, vol. 47, 2009, pp. S99. |
Bédard, P, Sanes, JN. "Memory and Visual Interactions for Combined Human Brain Representations for Gaze Position and Hand Movements." NeuroImage, vol. 47, 2009, pp. S149. |
Bédard P, Sanes JN. "On a basal ganglia role in learning and rehearsing visual-motor associations." NeuroImage, vol. 47, no. 4, 2009, pp. 1701-10. |
Thaut, Michael H., Demartin, Martina, Sanes, Jerome N. "Brain Networks for Integrative Rhythm Formation." PLoS ONE, vol. 3, no. 5, 2008, pp. e2312. |
Bédard P, Thangavel A, Sanes JN. "Gaze influences finger movement-related and visual-related activation across the human brain." Exp Brain Res, vol. 188, no. 1, 2008, pp. 63-75. |
Philip BA, Wu Y, Donoghue JP, Sanes JN. "Performance differences in visually and internally guided continuous manual tracking movements." Exp Brain Res, vol. 190, no. 4, 2008, pp. 475-91. |
Kim JA, Eliassen JC, Sanes JN. "Movement quantity and frequency coding in human motor areas." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 94, no. 4, 2005, pp. 2504-11. |
Eliassen JC, Souza T, Sanes JN. "Experience-dependent activation patterns in human brain during visual-motor associative learning." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 23, no. 33, 2003, pp. 10540-7. |
Sanes JN, Truccolo W. "Motor "binding:" do functional assemblies in primary motor cortex have a role?." Neuron, vol. 38, no. 1, 2003, pp. 3-5. |
Sanes JN. "Neocortical mechanisms in motor learning." Current opinion in neurobiology, vol. 13, no. 2, 2003, pp. 225-31. |
Acuna BD, Sanes JN, Donoghue JP. "Cognitive mechanisms of transitive inference." Exp Brain Res, vol. 146, no. 1, 2002, pp. 1-10. |
Acuna BD, Eliassen JC, Donoghue JP, Sanes JN. "Frontal and parietal lobe activation during transitive inference in humans." Cerebral Cortex, vol. 12, no. 12, 2002, pp. 1312-21. |
Hagberg GE, Indovina I, Sanes JN, Posse S. "Real-time quantification of T(2)(*) changes using multiecho planar imaging and numerical methods." Magnetic resonance in medicine : official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine / Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, vol. 48, no. 5, 2002, pp. 877-82. |
Indovina I, Sanes JN. "Combined visual attention and finger movement effects on human brain representations." Exp Brain Res, vol. 140, no. 3, 2001, pp. 265-79. |
Eliassen JC, Souza T, Sanes JN. "Human brain activation accompanying explicitly directed movement sequence learning." Exp Brain Res, vol. 141, no. 3, 2001, pp. 269-80. |
Hagberg GE, Zito G, Patria F, Sanes JN. "Improved detection of event-related functional MRI signals using probability functions." NeuroImage, vol. 14, no. 5, 2001, pp. 1193-205. |
Indovina I, Sanes JN. "On somatotopic representation centers for finger movements in human primary motor cortex and supplementary motor area." NeuroImage, vol. 13, no. 6 Pt 1, 2001, pp. 1027-34. |
Sanes JN, Schieber MH. "Orderly somatotopy in primary motor cortex: does it exist?." NeuroImage, vol. 13, no. 6 Pt 1, 2001, pp. 968-74. |
Galati G, Committeri G, Sanes JN, Pizzamiglio L. "Spatial coding of visual and somatic sensory information in body-centred coordinates." European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 14, no. 4, 2001, pp. 737-46. |
Sanes JN. "Motor cortex rules for learning and memory." Current Biology, vol. 10, no. 13, 2000, pp. R495-7. |
Sanes JN, Donoghue JP. "Plasticity and primary motor cortex." Annual Review of Neuroscience, vol. 23, 2000, pp. 393-415. |
Sanes JN. "The relation between human brain activity and hand movements." NeuroImage, vol. 11, no. 5 Pt 1, 2000, pp. 370-4. |
Baker JT, Donoghue JP, Sanes JN. "Gaze direction modulates finger movement activation patterns in human cerebral cortex." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 19, no. 22, 1999, pp. 10044-52. |
Maynard EM, Hatsopoulos NG, Ojakangas CL, Acuna BD, Sanes JN, Normann RA, Donoghue JP. "Neuronal interactions improve cortical population coding of movement direction." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 19, no. 18, 1999, pp. 8083-93. |
Bhat RB, Sanes JN. "Cognitive channels computing action distance and direction." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 18, no. 18, 1998, pp. 7566-80. |
Donoghue JP, Sanes JN, Hatsopoulos NG, Gaál G. "Neural discharge and local field potential oscillations in primate motor cortex during voluntary movements." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 79, no. 1, 1998, pp. 159-73. |
Marzi CA, Miniussi C, Maravita A, Bertolasi L, Zanette G, Rothwell JC, Sanes JN. "Transcranial magnetic stimulation selectively impairs interhemispheric transfer of visuo-motor information in humans." Exp Brain Res, vol. 118, no. 3, 1998, pp. 435-8. |
Sanes JN, Donoghue JP. "Static and dynamic organization of motor cortex." Advances in neurology, vol. 73, 1997, pp. 277-96. |
Schlaug G, Sanes JN, Thangaraj V, Darby DG, Jäncke L, Edelman RR, Warach S. "Cerebral activation covaries with movement rate." Neuroreport, vol. 7, no. 4, 1996, pp. 879-83. |
Friedman JH, Epstein M, Sanes JN, Lieberman P, Cullen K, Lindquist C, Daamen M. "Gamma knife pallidotomy in advanced Parkinson's disease." Annals of neurology, vol. 39, no. 4, 1996, pp. 535-8. |
Agostino R, Sanes JN, Hallett M. "Motor skill learning in Parkinson's disease." Journal of the Neurological Sciences, vol. 139, no. 2, 1996, pp. 218-26. |
Sanes JN, Shadmehr R. "Sense of muscular effort and somesthetic afferent information in humans." Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology, vol. 73, no. 2, 1995, pp. 223-33. |
Sanes JN, Donoghue JP, Thangaraj V, Edelman RR, Warach S. "Shared neural substrates controlling hand movements in human motor cortex." Science, vol. 268, no. 5218, 1995, pp. 1775-7. |
Donoghue JP, Sanes JN. "Motor areas of the cerebral cortex." Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society, vol. 11, no. 4, 1994, pp. 382-96. |
Labutta RJ, Miles RB, Sanes JN, Hallett M. "Motor program memory storage in Parkinson's disease patients tested with a delayed response task." Mov. Disord., vol. 9, no. 2, 1994, pp. 218-22. |
Sanes, Jerome N. "Neurophysiology of preparation, movement and imagery." Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 17, no. 02, 1994, pp. 221. |
Sanes JN, Donoghue JP. "Oscillations in local field potentials of the primate motor cortex during voluntary movement." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 90, no. 10, 1993, pp. 4470-4. |
Agostino R, Hallett M, Sanes JN. "Antagonist muscle inhibition before rapid voluntary movements of the human wrist." Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology, vol. 85, no. 3, 1992, pp. 190-6. |
Sanes JN, Wang J, Donoghue JP. "Immediate and delayed changes of rat motor cortical output representation with new forelimb configurations." Cerebral Cortex, vol. 2, no. 2, 1992, pp. 141-52. |
Donoghue JP, Leibovic S, Sanes JN. "Organization of the forelimb area in squirrel monkey motor cortex: representation of digit, wrist, and elbow muscles." Exp Brain Res, vol. 89, no. 1, 1992, pp. 1-19. |
Cohen LG, Meer J, Tarkka I, Bierner S, Leiderman DB, Dubinsky RM, Sanes JN, Jabbari B, Branscum B, Hallett M. "Congenital mirror movements. Abnormal organization of motor pathways in two patients." Brain, vol. 114 ( Pt 1B), 1991, pp. 381-403. |
Sanes JN, Suner S, Donoghue JP. "Dynamic organization of primary motor cortex output to target muscles in adult rats. I. Long-term patterns of reorganization following motor or mixed peripheral nerve lesions." Exp Brain Res, vol. 79, no. 3, 1990, pp. 479-91. |
Donoghue JP, Suner S, Sanes JN. "Dynamic organization of primary motor cortex output to target muscles in adult rats. II. Rapid reorganization following motor nerve lesions." Exp Brain Res, vol. 79, no. 3, 1990, pp. 492-503. |
Sanes JN, Hallett M. "Limb positioning and magnitude of essential tremor and other pathological tremors." Mov. Disord., vol. 5, no. 4, 1990, pp. 304-9. |
Sanes JN, Dimitrov B, Hallett M. "Motor learning in patients with cerebellar dysfunction." Brain, vol. 113 ( Pt 1), 1990, pp. 103-20. |
Pullman SL, Watts RL, Juncos JL, Sanes JN. "Movement amplitude choice reaction time performance in Parkinson's disease may be independent of dopaminergic status." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, vol. 53, no. 4, 1990, pp. 279-83. |
Dimitrov B, Hallett M, Sanes JN. "Differential influence of posture and intentional movement on human somatosensory evoked potentials evoked by different stimuli." Brain Research, vol. 496, no. 1-2, 1989, pp. 211-8. |
Pullman SL, Watts RL, Juncos JL, Chase TN, Sanes JN. "Dopaminergic effects on simple and choice reaction time performance in Parkinson's disease." Neurology, vol. 38, no. 2, 1988, pp. 249-54. |
Donoghue JP, Sanes JN. "Organization of adult motor cortex representation patterns following neonatal forelimb nerve injury in rats." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 8, no. 9, 1988, pp. 3221-32. |
Sanes JN, Suner S, Lando JF, Donoghue JP. "Rapid reorganization of adult rat motor cortex somatic representation patterns after motor nerve injury." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 85, no. 6, 1988, pp. 2003-7. |
Sanes JN, LeWitt PA, Mauritz KH. "Visual and mechanical control of postural and kinetic tremor in cerebellar system disorders." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, vol. 51, no. 7, 1988, pp. 934-43. |
Donoghue JP, Sanes JN. "Peripheral nerve injury in developing rats reorganizes representation pattern in motor cortex." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 84, no. 4, 1987, pp. 1123-6. |
Sanes JN. "Kinematics and end-point control of arm movements are modified by unexpected changes in viscous loading." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 6, no. 11, 1986, pp. 3120-7. |
Sanes JN. "Absence of enhanced physiological tremor in patients without muscle or cutaneous afferents." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, vol. 48, no. 7, 1985, pp. 645-9. |
Sanes JN, Colburn TR, Morgan NT. "Behavioral motor evaluation for neurotoxicity screening." Neurobehavioral toxicology and teratology, vol. 7, no. 4, 1985, pp. 329-37. |
Sanes JN. "Information processing deficits in Parkinson's disease during movement." Neuropsychologia, vol. 23, no. 3, 1985, pp. 381-92. |
Sanes JN, Mauritz KH, Dalakas MC, Evarts EV. "Motor control in humans with large-fiber sensory neuropathy." Human neurobiology, vol. 4, no. 2, 1985, pp. 101-14. |
Sanes JN, Jennings VA. "Centrally programmed patterns of muscle activity in voluntary motor behavior of humans." Exp Brain Res, vol. 54, no. 1, 1984, pp. 23-32. |
Sanes JN, Mauritz KH, Evarts EV, Dalakas MC, Chu A. "Motor deficits in patients with large-fiber sensory neuropathy." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 81, no. 3, 1984, pp. 979-82. |
Sanes JN, Evarts EV. "Motor psychophysics." Human neurobiology, vol. 2, no. 4, 1984, pp. 217-25. |
Sanes JN. "Voluntary movement and excitability of cutaneous eyeblink reflexes." Psychophysiology, vol. 21, no. 6, 1984, pp. 653-64. |
Sanes JN, Evarts EV. "Effects of perturbations on accuracy of arm movements." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 3, no. 5, 1983, pp. 977-86. |
Sanes JN, Ison JR. "Habituation and sensitization of components of the human eyeblink reflex." Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 97, no. 5, 1983, pp. 833-6. |
Ward CD, Sanes JN, Dambrosia JM, Calne DB. "Methods for evaluating treatment in Parkinson's disease." Advances in neurology, vol. 37, 1983, pp. 1-7. |
Sanes J, Evarts EV. "Regulatory role of proprioceptive input in motor control of phasic or maintained voluntary contractions in man." Advances in neurology, vol. 39, 1983, pp. 47-59. |
Sanes JN, Foss JA, Ison JR. "Conditions that affect the thresholds of the components of the eyeblink reflex in humans." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, vol. 45, no. 6, 1982, pp. 543-9. |
Morgan NT, Sanes JN, Stuart WK, Rasband WS. "A computerized system for determination of reaction time, movement time, and movement accuracy." Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology, vol. 51, no. 5, 1981, pp. 563-7. |
Gopinathan G, Teräväinen H, Dambrosia JM, Ward CD, Sanes JN, Stuart WK, Evarts EV, Calne DB. "Lisuride in parkinsonism." Neurology, vol. 31, no. 4, 1981, pp. 371-6. |
Sanes JN, Ison JR. "A silent period in orbicularis oculi muscles of humans." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, vol. 43, no. 6, 1980, pp. 504-9. |
Sanes JN, Ison JR. "Conditioning auditory stimuli and the cutaneous eyeblink reflex in humans: differential effects according to oligosynaptic or polysynaptic central pathways." Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology, vol. 47, no. 5, 1979, pp. 546-55. |
I studied brain mechanisms underlying motor control, motor learning and action intention. Several brain regions, including the frontal and parietal lobes, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum, have involvement in voluntary movements, and these areas become engaged when humans learn and then consolidate new motor skills and prepare and shift intentions. More recently, I changed my research focus from movement neuroscience to non-imaging forming visual pathways and their brain representations and influence on human behavior. Currently, we study these problems with magnetic resonance imaging and surface brain electrical recording technology that assesses focal changes in blood flow and brain currents, respectively.
Current Funding
"COBRE Center for Central Nervous System Function", National Institutes of Health (~$7.5 million total costs, Role: PI)
"Development of Quantum Magnetic Tunneling Junction Sensor Arrays for Brain Magnetoencephalography (MEG) under Natural Settings", National Institutes of Health (~$3 million total costs, Role: Co-PI. multiple PI mechanism)
"Center for Neurorestoration and Neurorehabilitation", US Veterans Administration (~$3.8 million direct costs, Role: Co-I)
Highlights of Past Funding (as Principal Investigator)
"Motor Intention", National Science Foundation, ($505,000 direct costs)
"Purchase of a 3T MRI system", National Science Foundation, ($2,000,000 direct costs)
"MRI System and Facility", US Department of Energy, ($962,000 direct costs)
"Visual Motor Integration", National Institutes of Health ($750,000 direct costs).
"Cognition and Action", National Institutes of Health (~$700,000)
"MEG Brain Computer Interface", DARPA (~$400,000)
"Neural Control of Human Voluntary Movements", National Institutes of Health, ($1,800,000 direct costs)
Murai, S. A., Mano, T., Sanes, J. N., & Watanabe, T. (2024). Atypical intrinsic neural timescale in the left angular gyrus in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Commun, 6(4), fcae199.
Stroud, L. R., Morningstar, M., Vergara-Lopez, C., Bublitz, M. H., Lee, S. Y., Sanes, J. N. et al. (2023). Neural activation to peer acceptance and rejection in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls. Biol Psychol, 181, 108618.
Sabbah S., Worden M. S., Laniado D. D., Berson D. M. and J. N. Sanes, (2022) Luxotonic signals in human prefrontal cortex as a possible substrate for effects of light on mood and cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A, 119: e2118192119.
Bédard P. and J. N. Sanes (2014) Brain representations of visual-motor adaptation learning and retention. Neuroimage, 101:225-235.
Gorrostieta C., Ombao H., Bédard P. and J. N. Sanes (2012) Investigating brain connectivity using mixed effects vector autoregressive models. Neuroimage, 59:3347–3355. PMID: 22001164
Bédard P. and J. N. Sanes (2011) Basal ganglia-dependent processes in short-term recall of visual-motor skills. Experimental Brain Research, 209:385-393.
Bédard P., M. Wu, and J. N. Sanes (2011) Brain activation related to combinations of gaze position, visual input and goal-directed hand movements. Cerebral Cortex, 21:1273-1282.
Bédard, P. and J. N. Sanes (2009) Gaze and hand position effects on finger-movement related human brain activation. Journal of Neurophysiology, 101: 834-842.
Bédard P. and J. N. Sanes (2009) On a basal ganglia role in learning and rehearsing visual-motor associations, NeuroImage, 47: 1701-1710.
Thaut, M, M. Demartin, and J. N. Sanes (2008) Brain networks for integrative rhythm formation. PLoS ONE, 3: e2312.
Philip B. A., Y. Wu, J. P. Donoghue, J. N. Sanes (2008) Computational predictions of performance differences in visually- and internally-guided continuous manual tracking movements. Experimental Brain Research 190:475-491.
Bédard, P., A. Thangavel, and J. N. Sanes (2008) Gaze influences finger movement-related and visual-related activation across the human brain. Experimental Brain Research, 188:63-75.
Kim J. A., J. C. Eliassen, and J. N. Sanes (2005) Movement quantity and frequency coding in human motor areas. Journal of Neurophysiology 94:2504-2511.
Eliassen, J. C., T. Souza and J. N. Sanes (2003) Experience-dependent activation patterns in human brain during visual-motor associative learning. Journal of Neuroscience, 23:10540-10547.
Fiecas M., H. Ombao, C. Linkletter, W. Thompson, and J. N. Sanes (2010) Functional connectivity: shrinkage estimation and randomization test. NeuroImage 49:3005–3014.
Year | Degree | Institution |
---|---|---|
1979 | PhD | University of Rochester |
1977 | MA | University of Rochester |
1974 | BA | State University of New York at Binghamton |
United States Public Health Service Trainee
Rush Rhees Fellow, University of Rochester
National Research Service Award
Honorary Master of Arts, Brown University
Name | Title |
---|---|
Eloyan, Ani | Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Vice Chair of Biostatistics |
Upfal, Eliezer | Rush C. Hawkins University Professor of Computer Science |
Xiao, Gang | Ford Foundation Professor of Physics, Professor of Engineering |
Director, Brown University MRI Research Facility
Principal Investigator : NIH COBRE Center for Central Nervous System Function
Researcher, Providence Veterans Administration Medical Center
NEUR 1930I - Neural Correlates of Consciousness |
NEUR 1940I - Neural Correlates of Consciousness |
NEUR 2060 - Advanced Systems Neuroscience |