Geoffrey K. Aguirre, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology
I am an Associate Director of the Neurology Residency Program for the University of Pennsylvania. My focus is on the scholarly and research activities of the residents. I direct the research career curriculum, which is an ongoing educational program covering career development, research methodology, and the responsible conduct of research.
I serve as a PI of both Penn’s R25 training grant, and the ReConNect translational neuroscience T32 program.
Publications

 

Education and Training

  • BA: (Politics) Princeton University, 1992
  • PhD: (Neuroscience) University Of Pennsylvania, 2000
  • MD: University Of Pennsylvania, 2001
  • Preliminary Internship: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2002
  • Neurology Residency: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2004

 

Description of Research Expertise

I study human cortical organization for vision, and how this organization is altered by neurologic and ophthalmologic disease. Human visual cortex is composed of early, “retinotopically” organized visual areas, as well as more specialized, “categorical” areas that process specific visual features (such as facial appearance). My work has varied along two dimensions within this research space: scale and perturbation. I have examined the organization of visual cortex from its large-scale, anatomical arrangement to the precise and subtle form of population neural coding for object features. These studies at different scales of cortical organization have further been conducted both in healthy controls as well as in patients for whom visual function has been perturbed by retinal disease or cerebral dysfunction. I make use of a variety of scientific techniques, although the majority of my research uses BOLD fMRI, which is a non-invasive measure of neural activity in human participants.

Description of Clinical Expertise

My sub-speciality in Behavioral Neurology, and I treat patients with a variety of disturbances of visual perception, thinking and memory.