biology

John Reynolds (neuroscientist)

John Reynolds (neuroscientist) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Reynolds (neuroscientist) rather than just read about it. In short: John Reynolds is an American neuroscientist. He is a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, adjunct professor at University of California, San Diego, and member of the advisory board for the Kavli Foundation (United States) Kavli Institute for the Brain and Mind.

Key takeaways

John Reynolds (neuroscientist) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Reynolds (neuroscientist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Reynolds (neuroscientist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Reynolds is an American neuroscientist. He is a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, adjunct professor at University of California, San Diego, and member of the advisory board for the Kavli Foundation (United States) Kavli Institute for the Brain and Mind. He studies perception and vision and is known for developing a computational model of attention that scientists use as a framework for understanding how the brain performs attentional selection.

Education John Reynolds received his bachelor's of science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and then completed his doctoral studies in cognitive and neural systems at Boston University. He then joined the National Institute of Mental Health as an Intramural Research Fellow in their Laboratory of Neuropsychology.

Career and research After his fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health, John Reynolds joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies as an assistant professor in the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory in 2000. Currently, John Reynolds runs a lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he works on developing models of the visual system, perception, and consciousness. In his time at the Institute, he has made several landmark discoveries in his field:

In 2004, he published a paper in Annual Review of Neuroscience describing how the brain attends to a specific stimuli by increasing its contrast against its surroundings. In 2009, he published a paper in Neuron (journal) describing a model for studying attentional selection in the brain, which was dubbed the "normalization model of attention." In 2013, he published again in Neuron (journal) to reveal how neurons in the visual areas of the brain are highly dynamic, which allows the brain to predict the movement of stimuli. In 2020, he published a paper in Nature (journal) finding perception relies on traveling brain waves. John Reynolds' more recent work focuses on aging and Alzheimer's disease, like his 2023 study detailing how the failure of mitochondria to produce sufficient energy in brain synapses may cause age-related cognitive decline. He is also working on new tools for studying neurons with Mark Schnitzer at Stanford University and looking more at the aging brain with Salk Institute for Biological Studies colleague Fred Gage. John Reynolds has also participated in artistic collaborations, including serving on the board of the non-profit art project A SHIP IN THE WOODS and supporting David Byrne's immersive optical illusion show "Theater of the Mind."

Awards and honors 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow 2001 McKnight Foundation Scholar Award

References

External links John Reynolds at Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Reynolds (neuroscientist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Reynolds (neuroscientist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Reynolds (neuroscientist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Reynolds (neuroscientist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Reynolds (neuroscientist)

In research: John Reynolds (neuroscientist) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Reynolds (neuroscientist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Reynolds (neuroscientist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alzheimer's disease researchers, American neuroscientists, Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Reynolds (neuroscientist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “John Reynolds (neuroscientist)” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study John Reynolds (neuroscientist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Reynolds (neuroscientist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Reynolds (neuroscientist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Reynolds (neuroscientist) in simple terms?

Why does John Reynolds (neuroscientist) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Reynolds (neuroscientist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Reynolds (neuroscientist).