Dr. William[Will] Saban

Dr. Saban is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Occupational Therapy and Sagol School of Neuroscience. After completing a Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology, he completed a post-doctorate at UC Berkeley, where he received the prestigious Rothschild Fellowship.

While the field of cognitive neuroscience highlighted the importance of cortical regions, it overlooked the potential role of subcortical regions in cognitive abilities. Thus, the mechanism by which ancient subcortical regions contribute to these more sophisticated abilities is poorly understood. 

Dr. Saban explores the uncharted territory of subcortical brain areas that are hypothesized to influence cognition (e.g., attention, arithmetic, language).

To date, he has utilized complementary methodological approaches:

1) Lesion studies: Patients with Cerebellar ataxia or Parkinson's disease, who have degenerative diseases that affect subcortical regions (i.e., the Cerebellum or the Basal Ganglia). He developed PONT: the Platform for Online Neuropsychological Testing. 

2) Healthy humans using stereoscopic manipulation: to probe the contribution of subcortical - monocularly segregated - channels 

3) Comparative neuroscience using archerfish: Lacks a fully developed cortex and allows an evolutionary perspective 

https://ramot.org/researchers/dr-william-saban/