Jitendra Sharma Ph.D.
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Department of Radiology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Building 149, 13th Street
Charlestown, MA
Email: jsharma@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
PhD: Biomedical Engineering (1991) Indian Institute of Technology and All India Institute of Medical Sciences,
New Delhi, India. “Hydrodynamics of Cerebral Circulation”: Advisor: S.K. Guha
Appointments:
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Assistant Neuroscientist, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Boston MA 2005-present
Instructor, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School. 2006-present
Research Scientist, Picower Institute for Learning & Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA
March, 2003- to present
Research Scientist, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA
June, 1998- March, 2003
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Sept. 1994- June, 1998
Joint Director (Scientist E), Department of Electronics, Gov. of India, New Delhi, Oct., 1991- Sept., 1994.
Scientist/Engineer Grade SD, Department of Electronics, Gov. of India, New Delhi, Oct.,1988- Sept.,1991
Lecturer, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India, July, 1980- June, 1985
Honors and Awards
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Markey Foundation Fellowship, MIT, 1996- 1998
Fogarty International Fellowship, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 1994-96
Best Technical Paper award for paper presented at 25th Annual Conference of Indian
Academy of Pediatrics, India, 1990
Nominated to United Nations Panel on Medical Electronics, Govt. of India representative, 1990
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Fellowship of Dept. of Science & Technology, India, Oct., 1987
Professional Activities
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Reviewing Editor, Frontiers in Neuroscience, since 2008
Faculty of 1000 Medicine, since 2008
Reviewing Editor, Medical Electronics Section, Journal of Instrumentation Society of India
Associate Editor, Journal of Biology and Applied Biomedicine (1993-98).
Technologies Developed for use in Clinical Medicine and Rehabilitation
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Developed an Epidural transducer system for intracranial pressure monitoring in neurosurgical emergencies. In collaboration with Dept. of Neurosurgery & Anesthesiology, AIIMS, New Delhi
Designed and developed a new Non-invasive transducer for assessment of intracranial pressure in newborn
babies. In collaboration with Dept. of Pediatrics, AIIMS and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi
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Developed a new Transducer system for early diagnosis of anorectal dysfunction in babies. The system was
clinically tested in University College of Medical Sciences and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi
Designed a low cost Self-eye-testing system for early detection of visual impairment in school age children.
System tested and used extensively at schools in New Delhi under the National Program for Prevention of
Blindness.
Designed a Vaccine carrier based on solid state thermoelectric cooling for use carrying polio vaccines by
village health workers in rural areas. Technology was transferred to an industry in New Delhi, India.
Designed and developed a Foot controlled artificial arm prosthesis with 4 degrees of freedom. The
prosthesis was fitted and used by amputees under supervision of Dept. of Rehabilitation, AIIMS, New Delhi,
India.
Biofeedback based Speech trainer for therapy in speech disorders. System was tested in Department of
Otolaryngology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Designed and developed a Thermoforming machine for duplication of Braille Text. The technology for the
machine was transferred to an industry in New Delhi for production and also supplied to Braille libraries at
several places in India.
Teaching
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Graduate and undergraduate teaching on biomedical instrumentation and biosignal processing, IIT New Delhi
(1988-91)
Course on Biomedical Instrumentation in Anesthesiology (for MD and Mch.), AIIMS (1988-93)
Course on Biomedical Instrumentation for Emergency & Critical Care, Medical School, Delhi University,
New Delhi (1991-94)
Invited Talks
 Attention, Expectation and Plasticity in visual cortex, Harvard-MIT Cognitive Neuroscience forum.,
2009
 Rules of Cortical plasticity, Joslyn Center, Children’s Hospital, Boston, 2008
 Cortical plasticity in spatial and temporal domains, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, 2007
 How brain makes decisions and role of early visual cortex in decision making, AIIMS, New Delhi,
2007
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Spatial and temporal aspects of plasticity in cortical Networks , Children’s Hospital, Boston, 2006
Time-scales of plasticity in visual networks, Martinos Center, Mass. Gen. Hospital, MA, 2006
Plasticity in cerebral cortex, Wakeforest University, NC, 2005
Perceptual learning and decision making in brain, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, 2004
Internal representation in visual networks, 4th Annual Retreat of the Picower Center for Learning & Memory,
MIT & RIKEN, 2003.
Plasticity in cortical networks, at Division of Comparative Medicine, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2000
Role of external inputs in cortical plasticity, AAAS Conference, Cambridge, MA,1998
Perception of subjective contours in primary visual cortex, at National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India,1996
Optical Imaging of intrinsic signals to map in vivo cortical activity, at Center for Biomedical
Engineering, IIT, New Delhi,1996
Transducers for intracranial pressure measurement in newborn babies, at Department of Pediatrics,
Clinical Grand Round, AIIMS, New Delhi,1992
Design of an anorectal transducer for early diagnosis of Hirschsprung’s disease in babies, K.S.Children’s
Hospital, New Delhi, India,1990
Selected Publications:
Sharma J, Sugihara, H, Schummers, J, Katz,Y, Tannenbaum, J, Sur, M Primary visual cortical neurons
are process temporal expectation in awake behaving macaque ( in review Science, 2009)
Sharma, J., Dragoi, V. & Sur, M Spatial and Temporal influences of receptive field surround on center responses
in awake monkey V1 (in review, Journal of Neuroscience, 2009)
Sharma, J, Schummers, J, Lyon, DC and Sur, M. Influence of Attention on multiple stimulus dimensions in awake
monkey V1 and V4 (accepted for publication in Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2009)
Newton, J.R., Sharma, J., Yu, H., Sur, M. Intrinsic signal optical imaging reveals distinct effects of thalamic and
cortical mechanisms of patterning and arealization in V1 and V2 of Ephrin A2/A5 knock-out mice ( under
revision )
Schummers, J., Sharma, J., & Sur, M. Bottom up and top down dynamics in visual cortex. Prog. Brain Research
149:65-81, 2005
Sharma, J., Dragoi, V., Tennenbaum, J., Miller, E.K.& Sur, M. Modulation of V1 responses during acquisition of
an internal representation of stimulus location, Science, 300:1758-1763 (2003)
Dragoi, V., Sharma, J. & Sur, M. Response plasticity in primary visual cortex and its role in vision and
visuomotor behavior: bottom-up and top-down influences, IETE Journal, 49: 77-85 (2003).
Dragoi, V., Sharma, J., Miller, E.K. and Sur, M. Dynamics of neuronal sensitivity in primate V1 underlying local
feature discrimination, Nature Neuroscience, 5:883-91 (2002)
Rivadulla, C., Sharma, J. & Sur, M. Specific roles of NMDA and AMPA receptors in direction selective and
spatial phase selective responses in visual cortex. J. Neurosci., 21,1710-19 (2001).
Sharma, J., Angelucci, A & Sur M. Induction of visual orientation modules in auditory cortex,
Nature (Article), 404: 841-847 (2000).
Dragoi, V., Sharma, J. & Sur, M. Short-term plasticity of orientation tuning in primary visual cortex. Neuron, 28:
287-298 (2000).
Angelucci, A., Sharma, J, & Sur, M. Modifiability of neocortical connections and function during development.
In: Mutable Brain, J.H.Kaas (ed.), Harwood Academic, Amsterdam (2000).
Sur, M, Angelucci, A. & Sharma, J. Rewiring Cortex: The role of patterened activity in development and
plasticity of neocortical circuits. J. Neurobiology 41:33-43 (1999).
Sheth, B.R., Sharma, J., Rao, S.C. & Sur, M. Orientation maps of subjective contours in visual cortex. Science
274: 2110 –2115 (1996).
Sharma,J., Anand, S., Bhargava, S.K., Ramji, S. & Guha, S.K. Non-invasive continuous anterior fontanel tension
monitoring in neonates. Ind.J.Pediatr. 56: 765-769 (1995).
Guha, S.K., Anand, S. & Sharma, J. Foot controlled artificial arm with complimentary activation of body power.
Automedica 11: 201-207 (1994).
Recent Neuroscience Abstracts
Sharma, J, Sugihara, H, and Sur, M. Spatial and temporal expectations modulate neuronal responses in
macaque primary visual cortex Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2009
Landman, R, Sharma, J and Desimone, R, Laser ablation of dural granulation tissue for primate
neurophysiology Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2009
Sharma, J, Sugihara, H, Schummers, J and Sur, M. Spatial and temporal expectations modulate neuronal
responses in macaque primary visual cortex Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2008
Gorlin, S, Sharma, J, Sugihara, H, Sur, M and Sinha, P. Imaging prior information in the visual system Soc.
Neurosci Abstr., 2008
Gorlin, S, Sharma, J, Sugihara, H, Sur, M and Sinha, P. Prior information processing in the visual system Vis.
Science Soc. Conference., 2008
Liu, JV, Sharma, J, Moore, CI, Sur, M; Measuring visual field maps and orientation-selective responses in
ferret visual cortex with high-resolution functional. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2007
Gorlin, S, Sharma, J, Sugihara, H, Sur, M and Sinha, P. Hysteresis and object recognition: imaging prior
information in the visual system.Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2007
Sharma J, Sugihara, H, Schummers, J and Sur, M. Temporal dynamics of spatial attention in V1 and V4
of awake, behaving monkeys. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2007
Liu, JV, Sharma, J, Moore, CI, Sur, M; Visually driven responses in ferret measured with high-resolution
functional MRI at 9.4T. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2006
Gorlin, S, Sharma, J, Sugihara, H, Sur, M and Sinha, P. Finding signals in noise: the neural advantage of
previous information Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2006
Sharma J, Sugihara, H, Schummers, J and Sur, M. Distinct modes of visuo-spatial attention in macaque
V1 and V4 Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2006
Moore, CI, Desai, M, Liu, J, Sharma J. Measuring visual and tactile cortical organization in rodents with
high-resolution functional MRI at 9.4 T. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2006
Sharma, J, Schummers, J. & Sur, M. Attention spans multiple stimulus dimensions in macaque visual cortex .Soc.
Neurosci Abstr., 2005
Cronin, B, Wimmer, K, Sharma, J., Schummers, J, Obermayer, K & Sur, M. Attention modulates the
discriminability and information content of orientation response in macaque primary visual cortex Soc. Neurosci
Abstr., 2005
Sharma, J, Lyon, D., Schummers, J. & Sur, M. Spatial and temporal effect of directed attention in alert
monkey V1. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2004
Cronin, B., Sharma, J. & Sur, M. A model of attentional effects on orientation selectivity of macaque V1. Soc.
Neurosci Abstr., 2004
Lyon, D., Schummers, J. Sharma, J. & Sur, M. Spatial and temporal effect of directed attention in alert
monkey V1. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2004
Newton, J.R., Sharma, J., Yu, H., Sur, M. Intrinsic signal optical imaging reveals distinct effects of thalamic and
cortical mechanisms of patterning and arealization in V1 and V2 of Ephrin A2/A5 knock-out mice Soc. Neurosci
Abstr., 2004.
Sharma, J, Lyon, D & Sur, M. Influence of attention on center-surround interactions in alert monkey V1.
Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2003.*Abstract selected for publication in Annual Meeting Press Book
Newton, J.R., Sharma, J. Yu, H., Sur, M. Optical imaging of intrinsic signals reveals visual organization in mouse
V1 and V2. Soc. Neurosci Abstr., 2003.
Sharma, J, Dragoi, V & Sur, M.Response of neurons to sequentially presented stimuli in awake monkey
V1. Soc. Neurosci Abstr. 32, 159.12, 2002.