Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Kagan, Igor, Dr.

Group Leader, Decision and Awareness Group, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center


  • 2011 - present: Group Leader, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany
  • 2009-2010: Senior Research Fellow, Andersen Lab, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA
  • 2003-2008: Postdoctoral Scholar, Andersen Lab, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA
  • 2003: Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, and Schepens Eye Research
    Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
  • 1996: B.Sc. Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  • 1989-1991: Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, St. Petersburg State Technical University, Russia



Major Research Interests
Neurophysiology and functional imaging of decision-making, cognitive and visuomotor functions in primates, interhemispheric interactions and bihemispheric network processing for action planning in the context of goal-directed behaviors. Human-monkey cross-species comparison using functional imaging, pharmacological inactivation, and behavioral approaches. Neuronal basis of fMRI signals. Neurophysiology of active vision in primary visual cortex.

Homepage Department/Research Group

http://www.dpz.eu/dag



Selected Recent Publications

  • Domínguez-Vargas AU, Schneider L, Wilke M*, Kagan I* (2017). Electrical mi-crostimulation of the pulvinar biases saccade choices and reaction times in a time-dependent manner. Journal of Neuroscience 37(8): 2234-57

  • Christopoulos NV, Bonaiuto J, Kagan I, Andersen RA (2015). Inactivation of parietal reach region affects reaching but not saccade choices in internally guided decisions. Journal of Neuroscience 35(33): 11719-28

  • Kagan I, Hafed ZM (2013). Active vision: microsaccades direct the eye to where it matters most. Current Biology 23(17): R712-R714

  • Wilke M, Kagan I, Andersen RA (2013). Effects of pulvinar inactivation on spatial decisionmaking between equal and asymmetric reward options. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 25(8): 1270-83

  • Wilke M*, Kagan I*, Andersen RA (2012). Functional imaging reveals rapid reorganization of cortical activity after parietal inactivation in monkeys. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(21): 8274-9

  • Kagan I (2012). Active vision: fixational eye movements help seeing space in time. Current Biology 22(6): R186-R188

  • Iyer A, Lindner A, Kagan I, Andersen RA (2010). Motor preparatory activity in poste-rior parietal cortex is modulated by subjective absolute value. PLoS Biology 8(8): e1000444

  • Lindner A, Iyer A, Kagan I, Andersen RA (2010). Human posterior parietal cortex plans where to reach and what to avoid. Journal of Neuroscience 30(35): 11715-25

  • Kagan I, Iyer A, Lindner A, Andersen RA (2010). Space representation for eye movements is more contralateral in monkeys than in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(17): 7933-8

  • Kagan I, Gur M, Snodderly DM (2008) Saccades and drifts differentially modulate neuronal activity in V1: Effects of retinal image motion, position, and extraretinal influences. Journal of Vision 8(14):19: 1-25

    • *shared authorship