Dr. Douglas P. Munoz

Tier I Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience
Director, Centre for Neuroscience Studies
Professor, Department of Physiology
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Doug Munoz received his Ph.D. from McGill University in 1988 in Neurology and Neurosurgery followed by a Post-doctoral Fellowship at McGill and subsequently at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health. He came to Queens in 1991 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology. He is now a Professor in the Department of Physiology, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and is the Director of the Centre for Neuroscience Studies.

He currently holds a Canada Research Chair and was awarded the Premiers Research Excellence Award in 1999, the Basmajian Award in 1997 and the Aesculapian Society Teaching Award in 2001. He is currently funded with multiple individual CIHR operating grants as well as being actively involved in many joint funding initiatives including a CIHR Group Grant on Sensory-Motor Systems, a CIHR IHRT grant with Dr. Jeanette Holden on Unraveling the Mystery of Autism, a CFI infrastructure grant with Dr. Jeanette Holden for Mobile Laboratories for Autism and Developmental Disability, an ORDCF with Dr. Randy McIntosh at the University of Toronto and a CIHR multi-user maintenance grant with Dr. Ravi Menon at the University of Western Ontario.

Dr. Munoz is currently supervising 5 postdoctoral fellows, 3 Masters and 2 Ph.D. students. Among the students who have completed their Ph.Ds in his laboratory, three were awarded the Abrahams Prize, two were awarded the Governor Generals Gold Medal, and one was awarded the Lindsley Prize by the Society for Neuroscience for the most outstanding thesis in behavioural neuroscience. These individuals have already been recruited to faculty positions in Canada. Two former postdocs also have faculty appointments in Canada. Many undergraduate research project students and graduate students have moved into professional programs (e.g. Medicine, Optometry) with at least some research training.

The main goals of his research are devoted to: 1) understanding the neural circuitry controlling visual fixation, the generation of saccadic eye movements, and attention; and 2) using our knowledge of this circuitry to probe a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Tourettes Syndrome.

To address these aims, he employs an array of research techniques that include: 1) precise measurement of eye movements in a variety of patients groups and age-matched controls performing sophisticated behavioural tasks; 2) behavioural neurophysiology with awake monkeys performing the same sophisticated behavioural tasks; and 3) functional imaging of the brain. By combining these different methodologies, Munoz can understand behaviour and the neural substrate controlling that behaviour.

For further information, please contact Dr. Douglas P. Munoz using the Email contact form or by phone at 613 533-2111