Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory

Director

Dr. Itzhak Fried, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Fried is Professor of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA.  He is Director of the Adult Epilepsy Surgery Program there, and is also Co-Director of the Seizure Disorder Center.  Concurrently, he is a Professor of Neurosurgery at Tel-Aviv University in Israel.  After obtaining a degree in physics at Tel-Aviv University, Dr. Fried completed his Ph.D. at UCLA, and went on to a medical degree at Stanford and neurosurgery training, specializing in epilepsy surgery, at Yale University.  He heads the Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, which is centered on the opportunities to study the human brain afforded by the epilepsy surgery program at UCLA.  A small number of these patients have depth electrodes inserted in order to evaluate their seizures for subsequent surgery.  It is this opportunity that is used to record the responses of single neurons while the patient performs cognitive tasks. Some aspects of brain function that he and his collaborators have studied, particularly in the medial temporal lobe, are visual perception, memory, navigation, imagery, and motor function.

Background & Achievements

Clinical & Postdoctoral Fellow
1990-1991
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

Residency
1986-1990
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT

M.D.
1985
Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA

Postdoctoral Fellow
1981-1982
Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Ph.D.
1981
University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

B.Sc.
1971
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

February 19, 2015

Special invited lecture, Nobel Assembly, Karolinska Institute

2014

Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Paris

October, 2013

Finalist, Global B.R.A.I.N prize, IBT

June, 2013

Tsubokawa Award, World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery

November, 2001

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,

Fellow of the American College of Surgeons

April, 1996

Merritt-Putnam International Visiting Professorship awarded by the Epilepsy Foundation of America, for Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, China

October, 1994

First Place Award, Poster Presentation, Congress of Neurological Surgeons Meetings, Chicago. “Microdialysis Sampling in Human Hippocampus, Amygdala and Entorhinal Cortex,”

1981

Kurnitz Award in Creative Writing, University of California

2007-present
Professor of Surgery/Neurosurgery,
Tel-Aviv Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine
Tel-Aviv University, Israel

2003-present
Professor of Neurosurgery and
Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

2000-2006
Associate Professor of Surgery/Neurosurgery,
Tel-Aviv Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine
Tel-Aviv University, Israel

1998-2003
Associate Professor of Surgery/Neurosurgery and
Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

1992-present
Director, Epilepsy Surgery,
Department of Neurosurgery,
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

1992-present
Co-Director, Seizure Disorder Center,
UCLA Ronald Regan Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

1992-1998
Assistant Professor of Surgery/Neurosurgery and
Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

1991-1992
Attending Neurosurgeon
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT