Faculty are listed by Department within their Research Areas,
with descriptions of their active projects.

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

TIM GARDNER,Assistant Professor of Biology; Ph.D.- Rockefeller University, NY.
Research Interests: The Gardner lab studies the assembly and function of neural circuits, focusing on the well-defined pathways for vocal learning in songbirds. A first priority is the quantitative description of vocal behavior. The lab also explores physiological recordings and circuit perturbations in singing birds, in-vivo imaging, and theoretical models for self-assembly of neural systems.

DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

H. STEVEN COLBURN
Professor, Biomedical Engineering;
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Interests: Dr. Colburn's research involves the application of signal processing, statistical communication theory, and computational modeling to the study of hearing and hearing impairments. He is particularly interested in the measurement and modeling of binaural hearing performance. He is also interested in human-machine interfaces for virtual environments and teleoperators.

JAMES J. COLLINS
Professor/Supervisor, Motion Analysis Laboratory;
PhD, University of Oxford (England)

Research Interests: Dr. Collins' research interests include developing and implementing techniques and concepts from nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics to study the neural control and biomechanics of posture and locomotion.

DAVID C. MOUNTAIN, Jr.
Professor, Biomedical Engineering; Associate Research Professor,
Otolaryngology, School of Medicine; PhD, University of Wisconsin

Research Interests:Auditory information processing, sensory biophysics, computer simulation, biomedical electronics, biomedical signal, and image processing.

Dr. Mountain's research centers around experimental and theoretical studies of hearing function including: cochlear biomechanics, otacoustic emissions, auditory processing of complex sounds, and auditory evoked potentials. Professor Mountain also collaborates with researchers from the Boston University Marine Program who are studying olfactory physiology and behavior.

CHRISTOPHER PASSAGLIA
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering;
PhD, Syracuse University

Research Interests: Dr. Passaglia studies how the eye transforms visual images into the neural signals it transmits to the brain and how target neurons in the brain process these signals. His laboratory is presently focused on quantitatively describing the receptive field properties of mammalian retinal ganglion cells in normal and diseased states and on building computer models that accurately simulate the retinal output under natural viewing conditions. Another interest of the lab is to characterize the response properties of invertebrate visual neurons, particularly those of horseshoe crabs, which mediate comparatively simple visually-guided behaviors. His research uses electrophysiological, anatomical, computational, and behavioral methods.

KAMAL SEN
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering; PhD, Brandeis University

Research Interests: Our laboratory studies the neural coding of complex vocal communication sounds in songbirds, a model system that shows striking parallels to humans. We use electrophysiological techniques to record neural responses. Theoretical methods from areas such as statistical signal processing, systems theory, probability theory, and pattern recognition are applied to characterize how neurons in the brain encode natural sounds. We also use computational modeling to understand the processing of natural sounds, both at the single neuron and the network level.

LUCIA M. VAINA
Professor, Biomedical Engineering; Research Professor of Neurology,
School of Medicine; PhD, Sorbonne (France) and Doctorat D'Etat es
Sciences, National Politechnique Institute-Toulouse (France), 1985

Research Interests: The adult brain constantly adapts to changes in stimuli, and this plasticity is manifest not only as learning and memory but also as dynamic changes in information transmission and processing. The goal of research in my laboratory is to understand the mechanisms mediating human visual perception in healthy and damaged human brain,  long-term plasticity and short-term dynamics in networks of the  adult normal and damaged (from stroke) cortex by using interactively multimodal imaging (fMRI, MEG, DTI), psychophysics, and biologically constraint computational modeling. An additional facet of our research is translational,  conducted hand in hand with several neurologists and physiatrists clinicians, investigates multisensory processing for facilitating behavior and recovery in stroke patients.

HERBERT F. VOIGT
Professor, Biomedical Engineering; Associate Research Professor,
Otolaryngology, School of Medicine; PhD, Johns Hopkins University

Research Interests:Dr. Voigt is currently engaged in experimental and theoretical studies of the neuronal circuitry in the cochlear nucleus. He uses single- and multi-unit recording and analysis techniques to study the responses of neurons and neural nets to acoustic stimulation. Other interests include brainstem auditory evoked responses and neural modeling of the cochlear nucleus.


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DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS

DANIEL H. BULLOCK
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and
Psychology; PhD, Stanford University
Research Interests:Integrated neural network models of sensory-motor learning, planning and control. These neural network models encompass circuits in cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and the spinal cord. Our studies focus on step-by-step reconstruction of known brain and CNS circuits within the context of a quantitative functional theory of adaptive behavior and cognition. Concepts and hypotheses are rigorously assessed by comprehensive computer simulations of neural circuits that are specified as systems of ordinary differential equations.

GAIL A. CARPENTER
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Mathematics;
PhD, University of Wisconsin

Research Interests:Development of neural network models for self-organizing category learning and pattern recognition; neural mechanisms of synaptic transmission and adaptation; and systems that incorporate these models into neural networks architectures for incremental supervised learning and prediction. Also: Neural models of vision, nerve impulse generation (Hodgkin-Huxley equations), transmitter dynamics, and biological rhythms.

MICHAEL A. COHEN
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and
Computer Science; PhD, Harvard University

Research Interests:Neural network models of speech and language processing. Stability and instability of dynamical systems underlying neural networks. Models of memory, language comprehension, and auditory psychoacoustics, statistical neural network models of depression, and cardiovascular control.

STEPHEN GROSSBERG
Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems,
Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering;
Director, Center for Adaptive Systems; Chairman, Department of
Cognitive and Neural Systems; PhD, Rockefeller University

Research Interests:Development of neural models of learning, recognition, memory, vision, audition, speech, cognition, reinforcement, attention, adaptive sensory-motor control, and biological rhythms. Systematic analysis and prediction of behavioral and brain data in both normal and clinical patients. Applications to outstanding technological problems.

FRANK GUENTHER
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems; PhD,
Boston University

Research Interests: Areas of research include speech production, speech perception, and functional brain imaging. These areas are studied with an approach that combines computational and neural modeling with experimental investigations that test model performance and guide model development. Modeling efforts emphasize skill acquisition and flexible performance under a variety of environmental conditions.

ENNIO MINGOLLA
Chair and Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Psychology;Co-Director, Center for Excellence in Learning in Education, Science, and Technology. PhD, University of Connecticut.

Research Interests: Theoretical research includes design of neural network architectures for visual perception, including segmentation, completion, and grouping of static and moving boundaries, textures, and shaded regions. Empirical research includes psychophysical studies of human perception of visual motion, visual search, surface perception, and object recognition.

ERIC L. SCHWARTZ
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Electrical and
Computer Systems Engineering, and Anatomy and Neurobiology; PhD,
Columbia University

Research Interests: Computational neuroscience, space-variant vision, modeling of cortical map and column systems, spatial representation, computer aided neuroanatomy, robotics and VLSI.

BARBARA G. SHINN-CUNNINGHAM
Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and
Biomedical Engineering; PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Interests: My research focuses on modeling auditory perception, with a special emphasis on binaural and spatial hearing, learning and plasticity in spatial perception, and multi-sensory interactions. The goal of this work is to develop physiologically-based, computational models that describe human and animal behavior. Perceptual experiments are used to test and refine these models.

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SCIENCES

HELEN BARBAS
Professor; PhD, McGill University

Research Interests: Organization of the prefrontal cortex in primates. Research involves the use of tracers to map neural circuits associated with cognitive, mnemonic, and emotional processes. Combined histochemical, immunocytochemical, and molecular approaches are used to characterize specific receptors and intracellular markers in neurons involved in these circuits.

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DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

NANCY KOPELL
Professor; PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Research Interests: I'm interested in the origin and functional uses of dynamics in the nervous system, especially dynamics involving rhythms. My main current focus is rhythms in the hippocampus, thalamus, and neocortex, especially rhythms associated with memory, learning, attention, and awareness. The research aims to understand first how the intrinsic and synaptic membrane properties of classes of neurons lead networks of such neurons to exhibit rhythmic behavior, and how modulations lead to different dy namic behavior (e.g., different rhythms). This knowledge is the basis for investigation of how subnetworks of the nervous system affect the dynamics of other subnetworks, how they coordinate their firing (e.g., create dispersed cell assemblies), and why different rhythms appear in different behavioral contexts. Other interests include the dynamics of central pattern generators.

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DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS

GREGOR J. JONES
Assistant Professor; PhD

Research Interests:Photoreceptor mechanisms, especially the mechanisms of light and dark adaptation as measured electrically in isolated single photoreceptors.


DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

HOWARD EICHENBAUM
University Professor and Director of Center for Neuroscience and the Center for Memory and Brain; PhD, University of Michigan

Research Interests: My research involves explorations of the neural circuitry that mediates our capacities for cognition and memory. In particular, work in my lab focuses on the contributions of a system of brain structures including the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Our approach to understanding this system entails a combination of neuropsychological testing to analyze how memory breaks down after selective damage to components of this system and electrophysiological recording to characterize how experiences are encoded by the activity patterns of neurons in these brain structures.

MICHAEL HASSELMO
Professor of Psychology; DPhil, Oxford University

Research Interests: Research in the Hasselmo laboratory focuses on physiological and computational analysis of the mechanisms of memory function in mammalian cortical circuits, including the role of activation in muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and GABAB receptors, and the role of oscillatory dynamics in the olfactory cortex and hippocampus. Students in the laboratory have the opportunity to learn a wide range of neuroscience research techniques, including electrophysiological recording from brain slice preparations of the hippocampus and piriform cortex, recordings of evoked potentials and unit activity in anesthetized and chronic preparations, detailed compartmental biophysical simulations of cortical circuits, and behavioral studies of cholinergic modulation in olfactory behavior. Articles from this laboratory have been co-authored by numerous trainees, many of whom have performed both computational modeling work and physiological research while working in the laboratory.

DAVID SOMERS
Assistant Professor; PhD, Boston University

Research Interests: My research investigates the neural mechanisms of visual perception and attention. These investigations take place at three levels of analysis: investigating perceptual function; mapping perceptual function onto brain structures; and studying the computational architecture of the underlying neural mechanisms. In pursuing these goals, three primary techniques are employed: traditional human visual psychophysics; functional magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during visual perceptual and attentional tasks; and computational modeling of visual cortical circuitry. Current specific topics of interest include visual spatial attention, visual motion perception, lightness perception, and neural computations in primary visual cortex.

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