2 11 40 3d 3d 31 12 8 1a 39 48 d0 3d1 39 f 87 Peter Sterling | People | Department of Neuroscience | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania 18 67 5b 5f 61 60 5c a 43 2 18 56 5a 45 61 3d 42 43 53 51 51 2 34 2 2 1c 12 13 10 14 1d 29 9 2 8 2 2 2 1a
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Peter Sterling, Ph.D

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Professor of Neuroscience
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Department: Neuroscience
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46 Contact information
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Finca Tangara, Palmira Abajo, Chiriqui Province, Panamá (November-April)
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3f 24 High Point Drive (May-October)
Amherst, MA 00102
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18 Publications
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13 Education:
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2b Cornell University, 1961.
21 6 . 15 (Medicine) c
3f New York University School of Medicine, 1962.
21 a Ph.D. 19 (Neuroscience) c
34 Western Reserve University , 1966.
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Description of Research Expertise

347 My research on the brain's functional architecture spanned the full range of scales, from nanoscopic (synaptic vesicles), to microscopic (neural circuits), to macroscopic (regional neuroanatomy and behavior). Lab studies focused on retina (Sterling, 13), but theoretical studies considered basic issues of physiological regulation and behavior, leading to the concept of allostasis (Sterling, 2004, 2011). The two lines were integrated in Principles of Neural Design (2015) written with Prof. Simon Laughlin, and What is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design (2020). My continuing efforts concern social organization, including civil rights (Sterling, 2021), mental disturbance (Sterling 2023), climate (Nathans and Sterling, 2016), and deaths of despair (Sterling and Platt, 2022; Platt and Sterling 2024).
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Selected Publications

c2 Sterling P: Some Principles of Retinal Design: The Proctor Lecture. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 54(3): 2267-2275, 2013.

48 Sterling P, Laughlin, Simon. 54 : Principles of Neural Design. MIT Press. May 2015.

d1 Schulkin J, Sterling P.: Allostasis: a brain-centered, predictive mode of physiological regulation. Trends in Neuroscience October 2019.

d1 Sterling P: What is health? allostasis and the evolution of human design. MIT Press 2020 Notes: ¿Qué es la salud? Cecropia Press 2022.

98 Sterling P.: Why I joined the Freedom Rides. Curr Biol 31: R766-R770, Jun 2021.

103 Sterling P, Platt ML: Why Deaths of Despair Are Increasing in the US and Not Other Industrial Nations—Insights From Neuroscience and Anthropology. JAMA Psychiatry 79(4): 368-374, 2022.

c2 Peter Sterling: Collected writings on the sociological and psychological bases for health and disease. ResearchGate 2023.

105 Peter Sterling: A Neuroscientist Evaluates the Standard Biological Model of Depression. Mad in America 2023 Notes: https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/10/neuroscientist-evaluates-depression/

fa Sterling P: Causality in Mental Disturbance: A Review of the Neuroscience. Mad in American Website 2023 Notes: https///www.madinamerica.com/2023/07/causality-mental-disturbance/

b9 Platt ML, Sterling P: Declining human fertility and the epidemic of despair. Nat Mental Health 2: 463-465, 2024.

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