Professor Rauschecker was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Award for his outstanding contributions to two research areas
According to the Selection Committee:
“Firstly, he and his colleagues have much improved our understanding of how signals from the inner ear are processed in higher centers of the brain and secondly, they have made important observations of how neuronal cells and even brain areas can acquire new functions when the input to the brain is chronically altered, a phenomenon called neuronal plasticity. Many of these new findings have been obtained by combining modern physiology with imaging techniques. In particular, the pioneering work on functional spin resonance tomography has delivered new insights in neuronal processes with impact not only on classical neurophysiology but also evolution biology, biophysics and linguistics.”