CNS 2025 | The 30th Annual George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience (GAM)

Congratulations to Ken Paller, our 2025 Annual George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience Awardee. Dr. Paller will accept this prestigious award and deliver his lecture in Boston, Massachussettes, March 30, 2025  in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

The Hidden Benefits of Sleep and Potential Pathways for Amplifying Them

Ken Paller, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University
Sunday, March 30, 2025, 4:00PM -5:00PM (EDT), Grand Ballroom

Many people don’t appreciate the full range of sleep’s benefits (beyond that its nice not to be sleepy). From the first-person perspective, it may even feel like your brain is switched off during sleep, resting in a dormant state punctuated only by the occasional dream. In fact, brain activity continues through all sleep stages. Why is the sleeping brain so active? One critical overnight function is to move memory consolidation forward. This happens when newly acquired information is gradually integrated within existing storage networks. The memories accessed also change in various ways. A rich body of evidence now supports the view that memories are reactivated and changed during sleep without any first-person awareness of that happening. This hidden work of overnight memory reactivation can also enhance creativity and problem-solving. A related idea with important clinical implications is that sleep-based memory reactivation may influence the extent to which a night of sleep improves or degrades psychological well-being. Contemporary research in this area now seeks to both understand and potentially amplify the various cognitive benefits of sleep. Supplementing standard recommendations for sleep hygiene, there may be many tactics for nudging sleep physiology in positive directions, including some that can be engaged in the home using wearable technology. Applying a cognitive neuroscience approach to investigating sleep, including dreaming and other cognitive dimensions of sleep, can thus inspire the development of valuable strategies to help people gain more from — and genuinely appreciate — their slumber.

About

Ken A. Paller is an American neuroscientist who is a professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.^[4] He holds the James Padilla Chair in Arts & Sciences and serves as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program in the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences at Northwestern. He directs the Training Program in the Neuroscience of Human Cognition at Northwestern,^[5] with support from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.^[6] His work in cognitive neuroscience focuses on human memory, consciousness, sleep, dreaming, and related topics.^[7][8]

Paller has published over 200 scientific articles, reviews, and book chapters.^[9] His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation,^[10] the National Institutes of Health.^[6] the Mind Science Foundation,^[11] the Mind and Life Institute,^[5] the McKnight Foundation^[12][13] and the Alzheimer's Association,^[14][15] among others. Paller served as Editor for the Memory Section of the journal Neuropsychologia^[15] from 2008 to 2016, and remains on the Editorial Advisory Board.^[16] From 2011 to 2015 he served on the Annual Meeting Program Committee for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, chairing the committee for 2014 and 2015.^[15][17][18] He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science^[19] and a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute.^[20]

Source: Wikipedia®

 

---

 

About George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience

The nominations for the 2025 George A. Miller (GAM) award are now open. The George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience was established in 1995 by the Cognitive Neuroscience Society to honor the innovative scholarship of George A. Miller, whose many theoretical advances has so greatly influenced the discipline of cognitive neuroscience. The first ten years of the prize were funded by generous support from the James S. McDonnell Foundation.

---

 

Previous Winners of the George A. Miller Lectureship

2024 Lynn Nadel, Ph.D., University of Arizona
2023 Sabine Kastner, M.D., Ph.D., Princeton University
2022 BJ Casey, Ph.D., Yale University
2021 Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D., Harvard University
2020 Nancy Kanwisher, Ph.D, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019 Earl K. Miller, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2018 Elizabeth Spelke, Ph.D., Harvard University
2017 Dr. David Van Essen, Ph.D., Alumni Endowed Processor, Washington University in St Louis
2016 Brian Wandell, Ph.D., Isaac and Madeline Stein Family Professor
2015 Patricia Kuhl, Ph.D., University of Washington
2014 Jon Kaas, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
2013 Fred Gage, Ph.D., The Salk Institute
2012 Eve Marder, Ph.D., Brandeis University
2011 Mortimer Mishkin, Ph.D., NIMH
2010 Steven Pinker, Ph.D., Harvard University
2009 Marcus Raichle, M.D., Washington University School of Medicine
2008 Anne Treisman, Ph.D., Princeton University
2007 Joaquin M. Fuster, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles
2006 Steven A. Hillyard, Ph.D., University of California San Diego
2005 Leslie Ungerleider, Ph.D., National Institute of Mental Health
2004 Michael Posner, Ph.D., University of Oregon
2003 Michael Gazzaniga, Ph.D., Dartmouth College
2002 Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., Princeton University
2001 William Newsome, Ph.D., Stanford University
2000 Patricia Churchland, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego
1999 Giacommo Rizzolatti, M.D., University of Parma, Italy
1998 Susan Carey, Ph.D., New York University
1997 Roger Shepard, Ph.D., Stanford University
1996 David Premack, Ph.D., CNRS, France
1995 David H. Hubel, M.D., Harvard Medical School