Headshot of Francisco Aboitiz.

Francisco Aboitiz

Director
Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience

Francisco Aboitiz is director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience and professor of psychiatry at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His research lines include the evolution of the brain and cognition and the neurocognitive underpinnings of neuropsychiatric conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. He is currently working on social projects, including implementing robotics workshops for children in schools of social risk and assessing their cognitive improvements, and screening resilience signatures in adolescent mothers. He has authored more than 140 scientific articles and is author of the books “A Brain for Speech. A View From Evolutionary Neuroanatomy” and “A History of Bodies, Brains and Minds. The Evolution of Life and Consciousness.”

Explore more from The Transmitter

New Stanford initiative aims to build digital twin of human brain

The effort, funded by private donors, seeks to train the model on a trove of MRI and magnetoencephalography data that scientists plan to collect over the next five years—but questions about its scientific utility and feasibility remain.

By Natalia Mesa
2 November 2026 | 0 min watch
Illustration of cake with genetic code inside.

The genome offers a recipe, not a blueprint, for the brain

During brain development, genes set the rules and turn the knobs; self-organization does much of the rest.

By Ila Fiete
2 November 2026 | 8 min read
Illustration of four faces of a rhesus macaque transitioning from opaque to transparent.

Autism research involving monkeys contends with uphill battle

Macaques and marmosets recapitulate the condition’s core traits better than mice can, but funding uncertainty and challenges at primate centers in the United States could make this work difficult to continue.

By Diana Kwon
2 November 2026 | 8 min read