NAME
ADOLPHS, RALPH
EDUCATION/TRAINING (Begin with baccalaureate or other initial professional education, such as nursing, and include postdoctoral training.)
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
Stanford University, CA
California Institute of Technology, CA
University of Iowa, IA
DEGREE
BS/MS
Ph.D. post-doc
YEAR(s) FIELD OF STUDY
1986 Chem/Biology
1992 Neurobiology
1993-1997 Neuropsychology
Positions Held:
1997 July Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Iowa
2003 July-2004 Dec Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, University of Iowa
2004 January- Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Caltech
2005 January- Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, University of Iowa
2005 November-
Bren Chair Professorship, Caltech
2005 December- Professor of Biology, Caltech (joint appointment)
Honors and Awards:
1988 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Graduate Fellowship
1993
1998
Life Sciences Research Foundation Fellowship (post-doc)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
1999
2000
2002
2005
EJLB Foundation Scholars Research Award
Klingenstein Award in the Neurosciences
McDonnell Foundation 21 st
Century Science Award
NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award
Selected publications:
1. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, H. Damasio, A. Damasio (1994). "Impaired Recognition of Emotion in Facial
Expressions Following Bilateral Damage to the Human Amygdala". Nature 372: 669-672.
2. A. Bechara, D. Tranel, H. Damasio, R. Adolphs, C. Rockland, A. R. Damasio (1995). "Double Dissociation of
Conditioning and Declarative Knowledge Relative to the Amygdala and Hippocampus in Humans." Science
269:1115-1118.
3. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, A. Damasio (1995). "Fear and the Human Amygdala." J. Neurosci., 15: 5879-5892.
4. S.B. Hamann, L. Stefanacci, L.R. Squire, R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, H. Damasio, A. Damasio (1996).
"Recognizing Facial Emotion." Nature 379:497.
5. R. Adolphs, H. Damasio, D. Tranel, A.R. Damasio (1996). "Cortical Systems for the Recognition of
Emotion in Facial Expressions." J. Neurosci., 16:7678-7687.
6. R. Adolphs, L. Cahill, R. Schul, R. Babinski (1997). "Impaired Memory for Emotional Stimuli Following
Bilateral Damage to the Human Amygdala." Learning and Memory 4:291-300.
7. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, A.Damasio (1998)."The Human Amygdala in Social Judgment." Nature 393:470-474.
8. R. Adolphs, J.A. Russell, D. Tranel (1999). "A Role for the Human Amygdala in Recognizing Emotional
Arousal from Unpleasant Stimuli." Psychological Science 10: 167-171.
9. R. Adolphs (1999). “Social Cognition and the Human Brain.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3: 469-479.
10. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, S. Hamann, A.W. Young, A.J. Calder, E. Phelps, A. Anderson, G.P. Lee, A.R.
Damasio (1999). “Recognition of Facial Emotion in Nine Individuals with Bilateral Amygdala Damage.”
Neuropsychologia 37: 1111-1117.
11. R. Adolphs and D. Tranel (1999). "Preferences for Visual Stimuli Following Amygdala Damage." J. Cogn.
Neurosci 11: 610-616.
12. R. Adolphs, H. Damasio, D.Tranel, G.Cooper, A.R. Damasio (2000). “Role for Somatosensory
Cortices in
the Visual Recognition of Emotion as Revealed by 3-D Lesion Mapping." J. Neurosci. 20: 2683-2690.
13. R. Adolphs, N. Denburg, D. Tranel (2000). “Impaired Emotional Declarative Memory following Unilateral
Amygdala Damage.” Learning and Memory 7: 180-186.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
POSITION TITLE
PROFESSOR

14. R. Adolphs (2001). “The Neurobiology of Social Cognition.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 11:231-239.
15. H. Kawasaki, R. Adolphs, O. Kaufman, H. Damasio, A.R. Damasio, M. Granner, H. Bakken, T. Hori,
M.A. Howard (2001). “Single-unit Responses to Emotional Visual Stimuli recorded in Human Ventral prefrontal cortex.” Nature Neuroscience 4:15-16.
16. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, H. Damasio (2001). “Emotion Recognition from Faces and Prosody following
Temporal Lobectomy.” Neuropsychology 15: 396-404.
17. R. Adolphs, A. Jansari, D. Tranel (2001). “Hemispheric Perception of Emotional Valence from Facial
Expressions.” Neuropsychology 15: 516-524.
18. R. Adolphs, N.L. Denburg, D. Tranel (2001). “The Amygdala’s Role in Declarative Memory for Gist and Detail.” Behavioral Neuroscience 115: 983-992.
19. R. Adolphs, L. Sears, J. Piven (2001). “Face Processing in Autism.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13:
232-240.
20. R. Adolphs (2002). “Recognizing Emotion From Facial Expressions: Psychological and Neurological
Mechanisms.” Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews 1: 21-61.
21. R. Adolphs (2002). “Neural Mechanisms for Recognizing Emotion.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 12:
169-178.
22. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, H. Damasio (2002). “Neural Systems for Recognizing Emotion from Prosody.”
Emotion 2: 23-51.
23. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, S. Baron-Cohen (2002). "Amygdala Damage Impairs Recognition of Social Emotions from Facial Expressions." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 14: 1264-1274.
24. H. Oya, H. Kawasaki, M. Howard, R. Adolphs (2002). "Electrophysiological Responses in the Human
Amygdala Discriminate Emotion Categories of Complex Visual Stimuli. The Journal of Neuroscience 22:
9502-9512.
25. R. Adolphs (2003). "Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Social Behavior". Nature Rev. Neurosci. 4: 165-178.
26. T.W. Buchanan, D. Tranel, R. Adolphs (2003). "A Specific Role for the Human Amygdala in Olfactory
Memory." Learning and Memory 10: 319-325.
27. J. Glaescher, R. Adolphs (2003). "Processing of the Arousal of Sub- and Supra-liminal Stimuli by the Human
Amygdala." The Journal of Neuroscience 23: 10274-10282.
28. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel (2003). “Amygdala damage impairs emotion recognition from scenes only when they contain facial expressions.” Neuropsychologia 41: 1281-1289.
29. A.S. Heberlein, R. Adolphs (2004). “Impaired Spontaneous Anthropomorphizing Despite Intact Social
Knowledge and Perception.” PNAS 101: 7487-7491.
30. R. Adolphs, D. Tranel (2004). “Impaired recognition of Sadness but not Happiness following Amygdala
Damage.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16: 453-462.
31. M. Karafin, D. Tranel, R. Adolphs (2004). “Dominance attributions following damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16: 1796-1804.
32. A. S. Heberlein, R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, H. Damasio (2004). “Cortical regions for judgments of emotions and
personality traits from pointlight walkers.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16: 1143-1158.
33. R. Adolphs, F. Gosselin, T.W. Buchanan, D. Tranel, P. Schyns, A. Damasio (2005). “A Mechanism for Impaired
Fear Recognition after Amygdala Damage”. Nature 433: 68-72.
34. R. Adolphs, TW Buchanan, D. Tranel (2005). “Amygdala damage impairs memory for gist but not details of complex stimuli.” Nature Neuroscience 8: 512-519.
35.
T.W. Buchanan, D. Tranel, R. Adolphs (2005). “Emotional autobiographical memories in amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe damage.” The Journal of Neuroscience 25: 3151-3160.
36.
H. Oya, R. Adolphs, H. Kawasaki, A. Bechara, A. Damasio, M.A. Howard (2005). “Electrophysiological correlates of reward prediction error recorded in the human prefrontal cortex.” PNAS 102: 8351-8356.
37.
R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, M. Koenigs, A.R. Damasio (2005). “Preferring one taste over another without recognizing either.” Nature Neuroscience 8: 860-861.
38.
M. Hsu, M. Bhatt, R. Adolphs, D. Tranel, C. Camerer (2005). “Neural systems responding to degrees of uncertainty in human decision-making.” Science 310:1680-1683.
39.
T.W. Buchanan, D. Tranel, R. Adolphs (in press). “Memories for emotional autobiographical events following unilateral damage to medial temporal lobe.” Brain (in press).
40. M.L. Spezio, R. Adolphs, R.S.E. Hurley, J. Piven (in press). “Analysis of face gaze in autism using ‘bubbles’”.

Neuropsychologia (in press).
C. Research Support.
Ongoing Research Support
5 P01 NS19632-19 R. Adolphs (P.I. on Project 1) 07/01/01- (no-cost extension)
NIH/NINDS: “Anatomical Substrates of Complex Behavior. Project 1: The Neural Basis of Emotion.”
This study investigates the recognition, expression, and experience of basic and of social emotions in braindamaged subjects.
Role: P.I. of Project 1 in this Program Project Grant (A.R. Damasio, overall Director).
21002034 R. Adolphs (P.I.) 01/01/02-01/01/08
J.S. McDonnell Foundation: “Human Emotion at the Level of the Single Neuron.”
This study investigates the processing of emotional stimuli through electrophysiological recordings in neurosurgical patients.
Role: P.I.
MH-02-001 J. Piven (P.I.) 07/01/02-06/30/07
NIH/NIMH: “Autism Research Centers of Excellence: The STAART Program.”
This Center Grant investigates emotional and social functioning in people with autism and their relatives.
Role: Co-Investigator
1 R01 MH067681 R. Adolphs (P.I.) 06/01/04-05/30/09
NIH/NIMH: “Emotional Modulation of Memory by the Human Amygdala.”
This project investigates emotional memories in normal and lesion subjects to elucidate the role of the amygdala in modulating emotional declarative memory.
Role: P.I.
SES 04-32862 R. Adolphs (P.I.) 10/15/04-10/14/07
NSF: “The Measurement and Neural Foundations of Strategic IQ”
This project, a collaboration between Caltech, Berkeley, and the University of Iowa, studies behaviour, lesion studies, and brain imaging of how people make financial decisions, using the framework of behavioral economics and game theory.
Role: P.I. (with Colin Camerer and Tek Ho)
(No Number) R. Adolphs (P.I.) 01/01/05-12/31/07
Pfeiffer Foundation Research Grant: “Social Cognition in Patients with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum”
This project investigates the structural, functional, and behavioral consequences of congenital absence of the corpus callosum, with an emphasis on impairments in higher-level social cognition
(No Number) R. Adolphs (P.I.) 01/01/05-12/31/07
Cure Autism Now Research Grant: “Emotional Face Processing in Autism: Role of the Amygdala”
This project investigates the processing of emotional facial expressions in subjects with autism and patients with focal amygdala lesions.
(No Number) R. Adolphs (P.I.) 07/01/06-06/30/08
Autism Speaks/ National Alliance for Autism Research: “Neuroimaging and Eyetracking Studies of Social
Cognition in Autism.” The project investigates social cognition using neuroimaging in autism subjects.

Completed Research Support
(No Number) R. Adolphs (P.I.) 01/05/05-30/04/06
NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award: “Social Cognition Following Developmental Frontal Lobe
Damage”. This project investigates social behavior and social learning in neurological patients with developmental damage to frontal cortex.
1 R29 MH57905-04 Adolphs (P.I.)
NIH/NIMH
Neuroanatomical Substrates of Emotional Memory in Humans.
07/01/98-06/30/03
This study investigated the effects of focal brain lesions, and of drugs, on memory for emotionally arousing stimuli in human subjects.
(No Number) Adolphs (P.I.) 07/01/00-06/30/03
Klingenstein Foundation
Combining Lesion and Single-Unit Studies of the Human Amygdala.
This study investigated processing of emotional stimuli by the amygdala, through direct electrophysiological recordings in neurosurgical patients, as well as pre- and post-surgical studies of subjects undergoing temporal lobectomy for the treatment of epilepsy.
(No Number)
EJLB Foundation
Adolphs (P.I.) 03/01/99-02/28/02
Single-Unit Neurophysiology of Emotion and Social Cognition in the Human Brain.
This study investigated neurophysiological responses in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex of neurosurgical patients.
R01-PO10165568-01 Cottrell, G. (P.I.) 08/01/98 - 07/31/01
NIH/NIMH
Modeling Face Perception.
This study investigated neural network computer models of the categorization of emotional facial expressions.
Role: Co-Investigator
5 PO1 NS19632-17 A.R. Damasio (Director ) 07/01/83-06/30/01
NIH/NINDS
Anatomical Substrates of Complex Behavior. Project 1: The Neural Basis of Emotion.
This study investigated the recognition, expression, and experience of basic and of social emotions in braindamaged subjects.
Role: Co-Investigator
BR-3746 Adolphs (P.I.) 09/16/98 - 09/15/01
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Research Fellowship, no specific project.
Role: P.I.