Michael D. Fox is an American

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and Professor of Neurology at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

where he holds the Raymond D. Adams Distinguished Chair in Neurology and directs the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at

Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...

. His research has focused on resting state brain

fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

which uses spontaneous fluctuations in blood oxygenation to map brain networks including the

default mode network In neuroscience, the default mode network (DMN), also known as the default network, default state network, or anatomically the medial frontoparietal network (M-FPN), is a large-scale brain network primarily composed of the dorsal medial prefro ...

. He developed the technique lesion network mapping to study the connectivity patterns of brain lesions to help understand the neuroanatomy of a diverse range of processes including addiction, criminality, blindsight, free will and religiosity. Fox has been considered among the "World's Most Influential Scientific Minds" by Thomson Reuters since 2014.

Education and Early Career

Fox received his Bachelor of Science in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 2001. He then pursued his MD and PhD in

Systems Neuroscience Systems neuroscience is a subdiscipline of neuroscience and systems biology that studies the structure and function of various neural circuits and systems that make up the central nervous system of an organism. Systems neuroscience encompasses a n ...

from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

, completing both degrees in 2008. He completed his residency in Neurology at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

and

Brigham and Women’s Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...

in 2012, followed by a fellowship in

Movement Disorders Movement disorders are clinical syndromes with either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and involuntary movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. Movement disorders present with extrapyramidal symptoms and are caused by basal ...

and

Deep Brain Stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a type of neurostimulation therapy in which an implantable pulse generator is stereotactic surgery, surgically implanted subcutaneous tissue, below the skin of the chest and connected by Lead (electronics), leads ...

in 2013.

Professional Positions and Roles

Fox has held various academic and clinical positions. Since 2023, he has been a full Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He founded the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at

in 2020, where he also holds the Steven and Judy Kaye Directorship in Psychiatric Brain Stimulation. His previous roles include Associate Editor for

Annals of Neurology ''Annals of Neurology'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal publishing articles of "broad interest in neurology, particularly those with high impact in understanding the mechanisms and treatment of diseases of the human nervous system." The journal ...

, Associate Professor of Neurology and leadership in the Deep Brain Stimulation program at

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and one of the founding members of Beth Israel Lahey Health. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital (f ...

Research Contributions

Fox is known for his pioneering work in brain circuit mapping and

neuromodulation Neuromodulation is the physiological process by which a given neuron uses one or more chemicals to regulate diverse populations of neurons. Neuromodulators typically bind to metabotropic, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to initiate a sec ...

. He co-developed resting state functional connectivity MRI, a technique to map human brain circuits by analyzing spontaneous fluctuations in blood oxygenation levels. His research has explored how brain lesions correlate with specific brain circuits, providing insights into various neurological and psychiatric conditions such as

Parkinson’s disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become more prevalen ...

, depression,

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...

, and

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

. He and his team developed methods such as lesion network mapping, DBS network mapping and TMS network mapping. He has also applied these findings to therapeutic interventions, including

deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a type of neurostimulation therapy in which an implantable pulse generator is stereotactic surgery, surgically implanted subcutaneous tissue, below the skin of the chest and connected by Lead (electronics), leads ...

and

transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive neurostimulation technique in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current in a targeted area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. A device called a st ...

Selected Honors and Awards

* Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021): Recognized among the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide. * Trailblazer Prize (2018): Awarded by the Foundation for the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

for translational research. * Inaugural International Brain Stimulation Early Career Award (2021): Awarded by

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

for contributions to brain stimulation research. * Raymond D. Adams Distinguished Chair in Neurology (2020): Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Selected Publications

Some of Fox’s most cited works include foundational studies on brain connectivity using rs-fcMRI, such as his 2005 PNAS paper on intrinsic brain networks or his review on lesion network mapping. His publications span top-tier journals like ''

The New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Founded in 1812, the journal is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals. Its 2023 impact factor w ...

'', ''

Nature Reviews Neuroscience ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed review journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was established in 2000. The editor-in-chief is Darran Yates. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: *PubMed/ ...

'', and ''

''. * Fox MD. Mapping Symptoms to Brain Networks with the Human Connectome. ''N Engl J Med''. 2018;379(23):2237-2245. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1706158 * Fox MDM, Snyder AZA, Vincent JLJ, Corbetta MM, Van Essen DCD, Raichle MEM. The human brain is intrinsically organized into dynamic, anticorrelated functional networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005;102(27):9673-9678. doi:10.1073/pnas.0504136102 * Fox MD, Buckner RL, Liu H, Chakravarty MM, Lozano AM, Pascual-Leone A. Resting-state networks link invasive and noninvasive brain stimulation across diverse psychiatric and neurological diseases. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences''. 2014;111(41):E4367-75. doi:10.1073/pnas.1405003111 * Joutsa J, Moussawi K, Siddiqi SH, Abdolahi A, Drew W, Cohen AL, Ross TJ, Deshpande HU, Wang HZ, Bruss J, Stein EA, Volkow ND, Grafman JH, van Wijngaarden E, Boes AD, Fox MD. Brain lesions disrupting addiction map to a common human brain circuit. Nat Med. 2022;28(6):1249-1255. doi:10.1038/s41591-022-01834-y

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Michael D. Harvard Medical School faculty American neurologists Living people Physicians from Ohio Year of birth missing (living people) Washington University School of Medicine alumni Ohio State University College of Engineering alumni