Jonathan Dostrovsky Award in Neuroscience

Throughout his career Dr. Dostrovsky has made significant advances in our understanding of the neurophysiological basis of pain perception, somatosensory information processing, brain plasticity and basal-ganglia related movement disorders. A hallmark of these studies is the elegant combination of experiments executed in various animal models and in humans. For example, data from the Dostrovsky lab shed light on how thermal and noxious information is processed at the level of the thalamus in humans and in a rat model of allodynia. In a publication in Nature, Dr. Dostrovsky demonstrated how thalamic networks could contribute to phantom sensations in amputees. He also studied this question in animal models, where the plasticity of the sensory map in thalamic networks was demonstrated in rats after the removal of the hind-limb input. In a series of elegant studies he has unveiled the relationship between movement disorders and altered basal ganglia oscillatory activity. These studies have significantly contributed to our current understanding of central physiological mechanisms in the somatosensory and motor networks which underlie our perception of tactile, thermal and painful stimuli and the pathophysiological alterations that occur following certain traumatic or disease-induced injuries to the nervous system.

Dr. Dostrovsky was also very actively involved in neuroscience education at the University at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels, and has served on many committees at all levels. In particular he served as Director of CPIN from 1993 to 2008, and as the President /Vice President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience from 2003 to 2007.