Josef P. Rauschecker studied at TUM and LMU Munich (Electrical Engineering and Medicine) and at the Universities of Sussex and Cambridge, England (Artificial Intelligence and Physiology). He received his Ph.D. (Dr.-Ing.) from TUM in 1980 for work performed at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Psychiatry in Munich and habilitated in 1985 at Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen. After working as a staff scientist at the MPI for Biological Cybernetics from 1981-1989, he joined the National Institute of Mental Health (USA) as a senior investigator in the Laboratories of Neuropsychology and Neurophysiology in 1989. Since 1995, he has been a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Neurology, and Neuroscience at Georgetown University, where he has also served on the university’s Executive Council from 2006-2009 and on its Steering Committee from 2009-2012. Josef Rauschecker is the director of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition (LINC) as well as of Georgetown University and Howard University’s international education and research program in Cognitive and Computational Systems (PICCS), which includes partnerships with nine institutions in four countries.
Josef P. Rauschecker has 35 years of experience in systems and cognitive neuroscience, >25 years of experience in animal electrophysiology, and >15 years of experience with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). At Georgetown University Medical Center, he helped create the first human fMRI research facility and participated in the implementation of the first 7-Tesla small-animal MRI. He has numerous pertinent publications in peer-reviewed journals and has been the mentor of >30 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Josef P. Rauschecker’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (USA) and the National Science Foundation (USA). He has also held visiting appointments at several institutions, including Harvard Medical School, Rockefeller University, The Salk Institute, and Helsinki University of Technology.
Selected Awards
Honours and Awards
2013, Hans Fischer Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, TUM
2008-2013, Finland Distinguished Professor, Academy of Finland
2008, Friedrich-Merz-Foundation Professor, Frankfurt, Germany
2002, Humboldt Research Award, Federal Republic of Germany
1986, International C. & F. Demuth Young Investigator Award in Neuroscience, Swiss Medical Research Foundation
1986, Fellow in Residence, The Neurosciences Institute of the Neuroscience Research Program, Rockefeller University, New York
1976-1978, Pre-doctoral Fellowships, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and Max Planck Society
1973, Member, Darwin College, University of Cambridge, UK
1971-1978, Scholarship, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
1970-1971, Scholarship, Cusanuswerk
1970, Valedictorian, Humanistisches Ignaz-Günther-Gymnasium Rosenheim, Nomination for Stiftung Maximilianeum
Keynote Lectures
2014, XIth International Tinnitus Seminar, Berlin, Germany
2013, BRAHE Lecture, Aalto and Helsinki Universities, Helsinki, Finland
2013, International Multisensory Forum, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
2012, Guest of Honor, 19th Annual Conference on Management of Tinnitus, University of Iowa
2011, International Multisensory Forum, Fukuoka, Japan
Research Interests
Central Nervous System
Brain
Cerebral Cortex
Sensory Systems
Plasticity
Cognitive Control
Language and Music
Tinnitus
Frontal Cortex
Limbic System
Selected Publications
Ahveninen, Jyrki; Huang, Samantha; Nummenmaa, Aapo; Belliveau, John W.; Hung, An-Yi; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Rossi, Stephanie; Tiitinen, Hannu; Raij, Tommi: Evidence for distinct human auditory cortex regions for sound location versus identity processing. Nature Communications 4, 2013.
Tian, B.; Kusmierek, P.; Rauschecker, J. P.: Analogues of simple and complex cells in rhesus monkey auditory cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (19), 2013, 7892-7897.
DeWitt, I.; Rauschecker, J. P.: Phoneme and word recognition in the auditory ventral stream. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (8), 2012, E505-E514.
Leaver, Amber M.; Renier, Laurent; Chevillet, Mark A.; Morgan, Susan; Kim, Hung J.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Dysregulation of Limbic and Auditory Networks in Tinnitus. Neuron 69 (1), 2011, 33-43.
Renier, Laurent A.; Anurova, Irina; De Volder, Anne G.; Carlson, Synnöve; VanMeter, John; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Preserved Functional Specialization for Spatial Processing in the Middle Occipital Gyrus of the Early Blind. Neuron 68 (1), 2010, 138-148.
Leaver, A. M.; Rauschecker, J. P.: Cortical Representation of Natural Complex Sounds: Effects of Acoustic Features and Auditory Object Category. Journal of Neuroscience 30 (22), 2010, 7604-7612.
Rauschecker, Josef P.; Leaver, Amber M.; Mühlau, Mark: Tuning Out the Noise: Limbic-Auditory Interactions in Tinnitus. Neuron 66 (6), 2010, 819-826.
Rauschecker, Josef P; Scott, Sophie K: Maps and streams in the auditory cortex: nonhuman primates illuminate human speech processing. Nature Neuroscience 12 (6), 2009, 718-724.
Leaver, A. M.; Van Lare, J.; Zielinski, B.; Halpern, A. R.; Rauschecker, J. P.: Brain Activation during Anticipation of Sound Sequences. Journal of Neuroscience 29 (8), 2009, 2477-2485.
Micheyl, Christophe; Tian, Biao; Carlyon, Robert P.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Perceptual Organization of Tone Sequences in the Auditory Cortex of Awake Macaques. Neuron 48 (1), 2005, 139-148.
Warren, Jason D.; Zielinski, Brandon A.; Green, Gary G.R.; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Griffiths, Timothy D.: Perception of Sound-Source Motion by the Human Brain. Neuron 34 (1), 2002, 139-148.
Rauschecker, J. P.: Sending Sound to the Brain. Science 295 (5557), 2002, 1025-1029.
Rauschecker, J. P.; Tian, B.: Mechanisms and streams for processing of "what" and "where" in auditory cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97 (22), 2000, 11800-11806.
Weeks, R.; Horwitz, B.; Aziz-Sultan A.; Tian, B.; Wessinger, C.M.; Cohen, L.; Hallett, M.; Rauschecker, J.P.: A positron emission tomographic study of auditory localization in the congenitally blind. The Journal of Neuroscience 20, 2000, 2664-2672.
Romanski, L. M.; Tian, B.; Fritz, J.; Mishkin, M.; Goldman-Rakic, P. S.; Rauschecker, J. P.: Dual streams of auditory afferents target multiple domains in the primate prefrontal cortex. Nat. Neurosci. 2 (12), 1999, 1131-1136.
Rauschecker, Josef P.: Auditory cortical plasticity: a comparison with other sensory systems. Trends in Neurosciences 22 (2), 1999, 74-80.
Rauschecker, J.; Tian, B; Hauser, M: Processing of complex sounds in the macaque nonprimary auditory cortex. Science 268 (5207), 1995, 111-114.
Rauschecker, Josef P.: Compensatory plasticity and sensory substitution in the cerebral cortex. Trends in Neurosciences 18 (1), 1995, 36-43.
Lappe, Markus; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Heading detection from optic flow. Nature 369 (6483), 1994, 712-713.
Rauschecker, J.P.; Korte, M.: Auditory compensation for early blindness in cat cerebral cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience 13, 1993, 4538-4548.
Rauschecker, J.P.; Tian, B.; Korte, M.; Egert, U.: Crossmodal changes in the somatosensory vibrissa/barrel system of visually deprived animals. PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 89, 1992, 5063-5067.
Rauschecker, Josef P.; Hahn, Sabine: Ketamine—xylazine anaesthesia blocks consolidation of ocular dominance changes in kitten visual cortex. Nature 326 (6109), 1987, 183-185.
RAUSCHECKER, J. P.; SINGER, W.: Changes in the circuitry of the kitten visual cortex are gated by postsynaptic activity. Nature 280 (5717), 1979, 58-60.
RAUSCHECKER, JOSEF P. J.; CAMPBELL, FERGUS W.; ATKINSON, JANETTE: Colour Opponent Neurones in the Human Visual System. Nature 245 (5419), 1973, 42-43.
Anurova, Irina; Carlson, Synnöve; Rauschecker, Josef P: Overlapping Anatomical Networks Convey Cross-Modal Suppression in the Sighted and Coactivation of “Visual” and Auditory Cortex in the Blind. Cerebral Cortex, 2019 more…BibTeX
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2018
Green, Brannon; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.; Sams, Mikko; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Distinct brain areas process novel and repeating tone sequences. Brain and Language 187, 2018, 104-114 more…BibTeX
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Jiang, Xiong; Chevillet, Mark A.; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Riesenhuber, Maximilian: Training Humans to Categorize Monkey Calls: Auditory Feature- and Category-Selective Neural Tuning Changes. Neuron 98 (2), 2018, 405-416.e4 more…BibTeX
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Nieberler, M.; Reuning, U.; Kessler, H.; Reichart, F.; Weirich, G.; Wolff, K.-D.: Fluorescence imaging of invasive head and neck carcinoma cells with integrin αvβ6-targeting RGD-peptides: an approach to a fluorescence-assisted intraoperative cytological assessment of bony resection margins. British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 56 (10), 2018, 972-978 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, Josef P: Where did language come from? Precursor mechanisms in nonhuman primates. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 21, 2018, 195-204 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, Josef P.: Where, When, and How: Are they all sensorimotor? Towards a unified view of the dorsal pathway in vision and audition. Cortex 98, 2018, 262-268 more…BibTeX
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van der Heijden, Kiki; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Formisano, Elia; Valente, Giancarlo; de Gelder, Beatrice: Active Sound Localization Sharpens Spatial Tuning in Human Primary Auditory Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience 38 (40), 2018, 8574-8587 more…BibTeX
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2017
Ortiz-Rios, Michael; Azevedo, Frederico A.C.; Kuśmierek, Paweł; Balla, Dávid Z.; Munk, Matthias H.; Keliris, Georgios A.; Logothetis, Nikos K.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Widespread and Opponent fMRI Signals Represent Sound Location in Macaque Auditory Cortex. Neuron 93 (4), 2017, 971-983.e4 more…BibTeX
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Probst, Thomas; Pryss, Rüdiger C.; Langguth, Berthold; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Schobel, Johannes; Reichert, Manfred; Spiliopoulou, Myra; Schlee, Winfried; Zimmermann, Johannes: Does Tinnitus Depend on Time-of-Day? An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study with the “TrackYourTinnitus” Application. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 9, 2017 more…BibTeX
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Ramsier, Marissa A.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Primate Audition: Reception, Perception, and Ecology. In: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research. Springer International Publishing, 2017 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, J.P.: The Evolution of Auditory Cortex in Humans. In: Evolution of Nervous Systems. Elsevier, 2017 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, Josef: Dual stream models of auditory vocal communication. In: S. Frühholz and P. Belin (Ed.): Oxford Handbook of Voice Perception. Oxford University Press, 2017 more…BibTeX
2016
Alho, Jussi; Green, Brannon M.; May, Patrick J.C.; Sams, Mikko; Tiitinen, Hannu; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.: Early-latency categorical speech sound representations in the left inferior frontal gyrus. NeuroImage 129, 2016, 214-223 more…BibTeX
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DeWitt, Iain; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Convergent evidence for the causal involvement of anterior superior temporal gyrus in auditory single-word comprehension. Cortex 77, 2016, 164-166 more…BibTeX
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Erickson, Laura C.; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Turkeltaub, Peter E.: Meta-analytic connectivity modeling of the human superior temporal sulcus. Brain Structure and Function 222 (1), 2016, 267-285 more…BibTeX
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Leaver, A. M.; Rauschecker, J. P.: Functional Topography of Human Auditory Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 36 (4), 2016, 1416-1428 more…BibTeX
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Leaver, Amber M.; Seydell-Greenwald, Anna; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Auditory–limbic interactions in chronic tinnitus: Challenges for neuroimaging research. Hearing Research 334, 2016, 49-57 more…BibTeX
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Leaver, Amber M.; Turesky, Ted K.; Seydell-Greenwald, Anna; Morgan, Susan; Kim, Hung J.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Intrinsic network activity in tinnitus investigated using functional MRI. Human Brain Mapping 37 (8), 2016, 2717-2735 more…BibTeX
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2015
Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Small, Steven L.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Neurobiological roots of language in primate audition: common computational properties. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19 (3), 2015, 142-150 more…BibTeX
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Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Small, Steven L.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Response to Skeide and Friederici: the myth of the uniquely human ‘direct’ dorsal pathway. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19 (9), 2015, 484-485 more…BibTeX
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Boucard, Christine C.; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Neufang, Susanne; Berthele, Achim; Doll, Anselm; Manoliu, Andrej; Riedl, Valentin; Sorg, Christian; Wohlschläger, Afra; Mühlau, Mark: Visual imagery and functional connectivity in blindness: a single-case study. Brain Structure and Function 221 (4), 2015, 2367-2374 more…BibTeX
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Ortiz-Rios, Michael; KuÅ›mierek, PaweÅ‚; DeWitt, Iain; Archakov, Denis; Azevedo, Frederico A. C.; Sams, Mikko; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.; Keliris, Georgios A.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Functional MRI of the vocalization-processing network in the macaque brain. Frontiers in Neuroscience 9, 2015 more…BibTeX
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Petkov, Christopher I.; Kikuchi, Yukiko; Milne, Alice E.; Mishkin, Mortimer; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Logothetis, Nikos K.: Different forms of effective connectivity in primate frontotemporal pathways. Nature Communications 6, 2015, 6000 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, Josef P.: Auditory and visual cortex of primates: a comparison of two sensory systems. European Journal of Neuroscience 41 (5), 2015, 579-585 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, Josef P.; May, Elisabeth S.; Maudoux, Audrey; Ploner, Markus: Frontostriatal Gating of Tinnitus and Chronic Pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19 (10), 2015, 567-578 more…BibTeX
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Riedl, Valentin; Utz, Lukas; Castrillón, Gabriel; Grimmer, Timo; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Ploner, Markus; Friston, Karl J.; Drzezga, Alexander; Sorg, Christian: Metabolic connectivity mapping reveals effective connectivity in the resting human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (2), 2015, 428-433 more…BibTeX
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2014
Anurova, Irina; Renier, Laurent A.; De Volder, Anne G.; Carlson, Synnöve; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Relationship Between Cortical Thickness and Functional Activation in the Early Blind. Cerebral Cortex 25 (8), 2014, 2035-2048 more…BibTeX
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Erickson, Laura C.; Heeg, Elizabeth; Rauschecker, Josef P.; Turkeltaub, Peter E.: An ALE meta-analysis on the audiovisual integration of speech signals. Human Brain Mapping 35 (11), 2014, 5587-5605 more…BibTeX
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Erickson, Laura C.; Zielinski, Brandon A.; Zielinski, Jennifer E. V.; Liu, Guoying; Turkeltaub, Peter E.; Leaver, Amber M.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Distinct cortical locations for integration of audiovisual speech and the McGurk effect. Frontiers in Psychology 5, 2014 more…BibTeX
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Rauschecker, Josef P.: Is there a tape recorder in your head? How the brain stores and retrieves musical melodies. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 8, 2014 more…BibTeX
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Renier, Laurent; De Volder, Anne G.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Cortical plasticity and preserved function in early blindness. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 41, 2014, 53-63 more…BibTeX
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Seydell-Greenwald, Anna; Raven, Erika P.; Leaver, Amber M.; Turesky, Ted K.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Diffusion Imaging of Auditory and Auditory-Limbic Connectivity in Tinnitus: Preliminary Evidence and Methodological Challenges. Neural Plasticity 2014, 2014, 1-16 more…BibTeX
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2013
Seydell-Greenwald, Anna; Greenberg, Adam S.; Rauschecker, Josef P.: Are you listening? Brain activation associated with sustained nonspatial auditory attention in the presence and absence of stimulation. Human Brain Mapping 35 (5), 2013, 2233-2252 more…BibTeX
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