Tirin Moore, professor of neurobiology in the School of Medicine, is the recipient of the 2021 Pradel Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The Pradel Research Award recognizes mid-career neuroscientists for their work in understanding our nervous system.

Tirin Moore (Image credit: Courtesy Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute)

“It’s wonderful to be in the company of previous awardees,” said Moore of the award. Previous Pradel recipients include Stanford neuroscientist Liqun Luo, who received the award in 2019.

The NAS award citation highlights Moore’s contributions to the study of visual attention: “By showing how neural activity in motor regions of prefrontal cortex influences visual representations in the brain, he established a causal link between motor control signals and the neural circuits of visual perception and attention.” Moore’s work is fundamentally and clinically important and applies to attention disorders, such as ADHD.

The Moore lab studies the activity of single neurons and populations of neurons in areas of the brain that relate to visual and motor functions. They explore the consequences of changes in that activity, including how these changes affect neurons in other brain structures as well as the effects on perception and behavior.

“Identifying mechanisms that bring about complex mental functions is a tremendous challenge, and so it’s exhilarating to make any real and lasting progress,” said Moore, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

The Pradel Research Award is presented with a $50,000 research award to support neuroscience research at an institution chosen by the recipient.

Moore is also a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI), and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.