Dr. Buxhoeveden received his JD in Law from Loyola University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from The University of Chicago in 1993. In 1995, he was awarded a McDonnell-Pew Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Science at the University California, San Diego.

Dr. Buxhoeveden is interested in the reiterative micro-organization of the cortex and how this can be applied to comparative neuroscience, medicine, and brain evolution. Vertical micro-units are thought to be fundamental building blocks of the cortex, and recent evidence suggests these units are altered in selected regions of the cortex in certain neurological conditions and also prenatal cocaine exposure.

He is currently pursing research grants on the effects of cocaine on developing vertical cell columns, autism, and comparative brain anatomy among primates. One interesting question is whether insults to these units from diverse sources, be it environmental or genetic, that are incurred during the critical phases of cortical development, result in similar organizational outcomes? If this is the case, then physiological changes to the units would be predictable while the behavioral outcomes would be dictated according to specificity of a given cortical region. This would provide a basic underlying principle to many diverse neurological conditions. Dr. Buxhoeveden is especially drawn to the significance of autistic spectrum disorders and other anomalies of the brain and mind in the context of the contemporary human condition.

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Sample Papers
Buxhoeveden, D and Casanova MF (2004). Accelerated maturation in brains of patients with Downs syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability, 48:705-706.

Casanova, M., Buxhoeveden, D, Gomez, EE. (2003). Disruption in the inhibitory architecture of the cell minicolumn: implications for autism. The Neuroscientist, 9(6):496-507.

Buxhoeveden, D., and Casanova, M.F. (2002). The minicolumn and evolution of the brain. Brain, behavior, and Evolution, 60(3):125-51.

Casanova, M., Buxhoeveden, D., Cohen M., D., Switala, A., Roy, E. (2002) Minicolumnar pathology in Dyslexia. Annals of Neurology. 52:108-110.

Buxhoeveden, D., and Casanova, M.F. (2002) The minicolumn hypothesis in neuroscience: A Review. Brain, 125:935-951.

Casanova, M., Buxhoeveden, D., Switala, A., Roy, E. (2002) Asperger’s syndrome and cortical neuropathology. Journal of Child Neurology, 17(2):142-5.

Casanova, M., Buxhoeveden, D., Switala, A., Roy, E. (2002) Minicolumn pathology in autism. Neurology, 58: 428-432.

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