Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, PhD
Professor, Psychology | Vielight
Austin, TX, UNITED STATES
Neurobiology expert, revolutionizing brain metabolic mapping of learning functions
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Biography
An honors graduate of Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, Francisco Gonzalez-Lima received a B.S. in Biology in 1976 and a B.A. in Psychology in 1977. His Honors Thesis was supervised by Drs. Janis L. Dunlap, Arnold A. Gerall and Joan C. King. Dr. King’s teachings, in particular, motivated him to study the brain. During his last summer at Tulane he worked in the neuroendocrinology laboratory of Dr. Andrew V. Schally, who later that year earned a Nobel Prize. The enriching research experiences at Tulane convinced him to pursue a research career. While being recruited to continue studies at Tulane, he met Dr. Sven O.E. Ebbesson, a former Tulane neuroanatomy professor, who recruited him in a visit to Puerto Rico where Dr. Ebbesson was the new director of the medical sciences graduate program. In 1980 he received a Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan. Dr. Gonzalez-Lima was introduced to electrophysiology by Dr. Jose del Castillo, director of the Laboratory of Neurobiology, co-discoverer of quantum transmitter release (del Castillo and Katz--that led to a Nobel Prize to Katz), and a disciple of the Spanish school of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, founding father of modern neuroscience. Dr. Gonzalez-Lima’s research philosophy from thereon has been inspired by their example. His doctoral dissertation utilized electrophysiological recording of single cells and electrical stimulation of the brain and was supervised by Drs. James J. Keene, Jose del Castillo, Earl Kicliter, Hilda Lopez and Walter L. Stiehl.
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Areas of Expertise (4)
Brain energy modulation
Neuroanatomy
Neuroscience
Physiological Psychology
Education (2)
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Technische Universität Darmstadt: Postdoctoral Fellow, Behavioral Neuroscience 1983
School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus: Ph.D., Anatomy and Neurobiology 1980
Links (4)
Media Appearances (2)
Using light to image and potentially to treat PTSD
Science Daily online
2016-09-06
"Professor Hanli Liu was the primary investigator on the project. Her team of graduate students and a research associate, Fenghua Tian, worked with co-investigators Alexa Smith-Osborne, a UTA social work associate professor; Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, a psychology professor at UT Austin; and Fu Lye Martin Woon, a former assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern; to show potential intervention using light in brain disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder..."
UT Researchers Use Laser Light to Fight Depression, Anxiety
Reporting Texas online
2016-05-12
"Any function that the nerve cells are doing, they can do better, because they have more resources,” Gonzalez-Lima said. “It’s entirely noninvasive, it’s entirely safe, there are no side effects.”
Articles (5)
Beneficial neurocognitive effects of transcranial laser in older adults
Lasers in Medical Science
2017 Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) at 1064 nm, 250 mW/cm2 has been proven safe and effective for increasing neurocognitive functions in young adults in controlled studies using photobiomodulation of the right prefrontal cortex. The objective of this pilot study was to determine whether there is any effect from TILS on neurocognitive function in older adults with subjective memory complaint at risk for cognitive decline (e.g., increased carotid artery intima-media thickness or mild traumatic brain injury). We investigated the cognitive effects of TILS in older adults (ages 49-90, n = 12) using prefrontal cortex measures of attention (psychomotor vigilance task (PVT)) and memory (delayed match to sample (DMS)), carotid artery intima-media thickness (measured by ultrasound), and evaluated the potential neural mechanisms mediating the cognitive effects of TILS using exploratory brain studies of electroencephalography (EEG, n = 6) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, n = 6). Cognitive performance, age, and carotid artery intima-media thickness were highly correlated, but all participants improved in all cognitive measures after TILS treatments. Baseline vs. chronic (five weekly sessions, 8 min each) comparisons of mean cognitive scores all showed improvements, significant for PVT reaction time (p < 0.001), PVT lapses (p < 0.001), and DMS correct responses (p < 0.05). The neural studies also showed for the first time that TILS increases resting-state EEG alpha, beta, and gamma power and promotes more efficient prefrontal blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD)-fMRI response. Importantly, no adverse effects were found. These preliminary findings support the use of TILS for larger randomized clinical trials with this non-invasive approach to augment neurocognitive function in older people to combat aging-related and vascular disease-related cognitive decline.
Preventing the return of fear using reconsolidation updating and methylene blue is differentially dependent on extinction learning
Scientific Reports
2017 Many factors account for how well individuals extinguish conditioned fears, such as genetic variability, learning capacity and conditions under which extinction training is administered. We predicted that memory-based interventions would be more effective to reduce the reinstatement of fear in subjects genetically predisposed to display more extinction learning. We tested this hypothesis in rats genetically selected for differences in fear extinction using two strategies: (1) attenuation of fear memory using post-retrieval extinction training, and (2) pharmacological enhancement of the extinction memory after extinction training by low-dose USP methylene blue (MB). Subjects selectively bred for divergent extinction phenotypes were fear conditioned to a tone stimulus and administered either standard extinction training or retrieval + extinction. Following extinction, subjects received injections of saline or MB. Both reconsolidation updating and MB administration showed beneficial effects in preventing fear reinstatement, but differed in the groups they targeted. Reconsolidation updating showed an overall effect in reducing fear reinstatement, whereas pharmacological memory enhancement using MB was an effective strategy, but only for individuals who were responsive to extinction.
Transcranial infrared laser stimulation improves rule-based, but not information-integration, category learning in humans
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
2017 This is the first randomized, controlled study comparing the cognitive effects of transcranial laser stimulation on category learning tasks. Transcranial infrared laser stimulation is a new non-invasive form of brain stimulation that shows promise for wide-ranging experimental and neuropsychological applications. It involves using infrared laser to enhance cerebral oxygenation and energy metabolism through upregulation of the respiratory enzyme cytochrome oxidase, the primary infrared photon acceptor in cells. Previous research found that transcranial infrared laser stimulation aimed at the prefrontal cortex can improve sustained attention, short-term memory, and executive function. In this study, we directly investigated the influence of transcranial infrared laser stimulation on two neurobiologically dissociable systems of category learning: a prefrontal cortex mediated reflective system that learns categories using explicit rules, and a striatally mediated reflexive learning system that forms gradual stimulus-response associations. Participants (n=118) received either active infrared laser to the lateral prefrontal cortex or sham (placebo) stimulation, and then learned one of two category structures-a rule-based structure optimally learned by the reflective system, or an information-integration structure optimally learned by the reflexive system. We found that prefrontal rule-based learning was substantially improved following transcranial infrared laser stimulation as compared to placebo (treatment X block interaction: F(1, 298)=5.117, p=0.024), while information-integration learning did not show significant group differences (treatment X block interaction: F(1, 288)=1.633, p=0.202). These results highlight the exciting potential of transcranial infrared laser stimulation for cognitive enhancement and provide insight into the neurobiological underpinnings of category learning.
Up-regulation of cerebral cytochrome-c-oxidase and hemodynamics by transcranial infrared laser stimulation: A broadband near-infrared spectroscopy study
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
2017 Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) is a noninvasive form of brain photobiomulation. Cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO), the terminal enzyme in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, is hypothesized to be the primary intracellular photoacceptor. We hypothesized that TILS up-regulates cerebral CCO and causes hemodynamic changes. We delivered 1064-nm laser stimulation to the forehead of healthy participants ( n = 11), while broadband near-infrared spectroscopy was utilized to acquire light reflectance from the TILS-treated cortical region before, during, and after TILS. Placebo experiments were also performed for accurate comparison. Time course of spectroscopic readings were analyzed and fitted to the modified Beer-Lambert law. With respect to the placebo readings, we observed (1) significant increases in cerebral concentrations of oxidized CCO (Δ[CCO]; >0.08 µM; p 0.8 µM; p 0.5 µM; p
Reconsolidation-Extinction Interactions in Fear Memory Attenuation: The Role of Inter-Trial Interval Variability
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
2017 Fear extinction typically results in the formation of a new inhibitory memory that suppresses the original conditioned response. Evidence also suggests that extinction training during a retrieval-induced labile period results in integration of the extinction memory into the original fear memory, rendering the fear memory less susceptible to reinstatement. Here we investigated the parameters by which the retrieval-extinction paradigm was most effective in memory updating. Specifically, we manipulated the inter-trial intervals (ITIs) between conditional stimulus (CS) presentations during extinction, examining how having interval lengths with different degrees of variability affected the strength of memory updating. We showed that randomizing the ITI of CS presentations during extinction led to less return of fear via reinstatement than extinction with a fixed ITI. Subjects who received variable ITIs during extinction also showed higher freezing during the ITI, indicating that the randomization of CS presentations led to a higher general reactivity during extinction, which may be one potential mechanism for memory updating.