Dr. Randy Buckner

Biography

Randy Buckner is the Interim Department Chair and Sosland Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He received his BA in Psychology and PhD in Neurosciences from Washington University in St. Louis. Buckner is also a member of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard, serving as the Director of the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Division at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the organization and function of large-scale human brain networks that contribute to high-level cognition. Utilizing various behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational approaches, his laboratory characterizes brain networks and the variations that lead to differences in network organization and behavior, as well as dysfunctions associated with neuropsychiatric illnesses. Recent studies have aimed to comprehensively characterize the organization of the cortex, striatum, and cerebellum, with particular emphasis on brain association networks important for memory and cognitive control. The work seeks to determine whether dysfunction can be detected prior to clinical symptoms in individuals at risk for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative illnesses, emphasizing a detailed understanding of the organization of individual brains and the changes over time using tailored investigations and continuous behavioral monitoring with digital phenotyping tools such as smartphones and wearables.

Research Interests