The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) at Clarivate has selected Okihide Hikosaka, NEI Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, as a 2024 citation laureate.
Okihide Hikosaka, M.D., Ph.D., distinguished Investigator, NEI Neuronal Networks Section.
Each year, the ISI identifies a short list of Nobel-class scientists based on volume of citations in trusted journals, their barometer of what the global scientific community regards as groundbreaking research.
Hikosaka was recognized "for physiological studies of the basal ganglia, central to motor control and behavior including learning," along with Ann M. Graybiel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wofram Schultz, University of Cambridge.
The basal ganglia are regions of the brain involved in a variety of functions including movement and learning. Dysfunction of the basal ganglia has been tied to disorders such as Parkinson's disease.
Over his career, Hikosaka has discovered complex neural pathways through the basal ganglia that play crucial roles in processing visual information and in governing movement, including eye movement.