Education
University of California, Los Los Angeles Vassar College.
university professor neuroscientist
University of California, Los Los Angeles Vassar College.
Education and Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Goldman-Rakic earned her bachelor"s degree in neurobiology from Vassar in 1959, and her doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles in Developmental Psychology in 1963. After postdoctoral positions at University of California, Los Angeles and New York University, she worked at the National Institute of Mental Health in neuropsychology and ultimately as chief of developmental neurobiology. She moved to Yale School of Medicine in 1979 where she remained until her death.
She was The Eugene Higgins Professor of Neuroscience in the neurobiology department with joint appointments in the departments of psychiatry, neurology, and psychology.
Research
Goldman-Rakic was the first to discover and describe the circuitry of the prefrontal cortex and its relationship to working memory. Before Goldman-Rakic, scientists thought that the higher cognitive functions of the prefrontal cortex were beyond the scope of scientific study.
Goldman-Rakic"s research showed that methods employed to study the sensory cortices could be adapted to the highest order prefrontal cortical areas, revealing the circuit basis for higher cognitive function. Because of Goldman-Rakic, scientists began to better understand the neurobiological basis of higher cognitive function, and of such disorders as schizophrenia, Alzheimer"s, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), cerebral palsy, Parkinson"s disease, and dementia.
She used a multidisciplinary approach, applying biochemical, electrophysiological, pharmacological, anatomical and behavioral techniques to study working memory.
She pioneered the first studies of dopamine influences on prefrontal cortical function, research that is critical to our understanding of schizophrenia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Parkinson"s disease. A review of her life"s work, including her special role mentoring women scientists, can be found in the journal Neuron. Early on in her career, Goldman-Rakic"s studied the capacity of the brain to repair itself in early development, and was one of the first to use radioactive tracers to examine this phenomenon.
On July 29, 2003, Goldman-Rakic was struck by a car while crossing a street in Hamden, Connecticut.
She died two days later, on July 31 at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Goldman-Rakic was 66 years old.
She is buried in Grove Street Cemetery.
National Academy of Sciences.