Lecturer at the Radboud University
Visual Neuroscience group (Richard van Wezel),
Neurobiology Section/DCN
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour,
Radboud University,
Nijmegen,
The Netherlands
ABOUT ME
I am a neurophysiologist AND vision scientist.
my research includes,
Electrophysiology:
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neural dynamics of neurons in visual cortex investigated by a neuron-computer interface (NCI)
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all-optical physiology
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hippocampal neural circuit
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non-linear neural responses to oscillatory signals
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neural dynamics of hiPSC (induced human pluripotent stem cell) derived cultured network
Visual perception:
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figure-ground organization and underlying mechanisms
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illusory and multistable perception
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neuro-computational modeling for Gestalt-like phenomena such as figure-ground organization, illusion, and multi-stability
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natural image statistics that reflect global configurations
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the emergence of non-linear frequency components in EEG frequency tagging paradigm corresponding to Gestalt phenomena
NEUROSCIENCE
Is noise a bad thing for neural computation?
non-linear frequency responses of pyramidal neurons in visual cortex
mutual inhibition underlying decision making
multichannel dynamic clamp
hippocampal neural circuit
"all-optical dynamic clamp" system
top-down feedback reverses lower-level neural competition in visual cortex
VISION SCIENCE
2023-10-06
I attended the Donders-NIN meeting. I had one poster presentation (about my project) and on oral presentation for NeurotechEU breakout session (about ideas for the future development of NeurotechEU program). Very nice interactions and in-depth discussions with researchers from NIN (Netherlands Institutes for Neuroscience) and Donders Institute. A fruitful day.
2023-09-15
I attended DCBT2023, organized by NeurotechEU (Donders Cognitive, Brain & Technology Summer School). Superb lectures! And enjoyed networking with the lecturers and participants.
2023-07-19
A paper by my colleague (and I am a humble co-author of it) on neural networks of iNeurons derived from patients with Dravet syndrome (a severe form of epilepsy) has been accepted for the journal Brain! https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awad245
2023-04-24
Great News! I was accepted for a NeurotechEU fellowship to support my research and help my activities for dissemination. The project is about the development of an all-optical dynamic clamp system. This will help me with my mobility for international collaborations.
2023-03-27
I will give a presentation at Perception Day at Utrecht University (3/31). I will present (oral presentation) brand-new data on biased competition dynamics. I investigated the influence of top-down signals (from V2 to V1) while pyramidal neurons in V1 are competing for dominance. Very excited to present the data for the first time in public.
2022-08-28~09-01
My project on the neural competition mechanism has been presented at ECVP conference at Nijmegen. The presentation was made by my collaborator (and the organizer of the conference) Richard van Wezel. We got a quite few positive feedbacks. I also invited two vision scientists, Prof. Micahel Herzog from Lausanne Technical University) and Prof. Jan Brascamp (Michigan State University) to our laboratory to show my experiment. the brainstorming discussions with them were excellent! I really enjoyed the in-depth conversations with them.
2022-06-22
I have given a presentation at MESA+ 2022 meeting at the University of Twente. It is an interdisciplinary event with many engineers and physicists collaborating with biologists and researchers in medicine. I presented my project ideas on neural competition mechanisms and the applications of the hybrid neuron-computer-interface system (click here). I got a quite few responses afterwards. It was a nice experience.
2022-07-09~13
My project with the neural competition mechanism has been presented at FENS meeting in Paris. The poster was about my dynamic clamp project and it was combined with an in vivo works by my colleagues.
2022-05-04
Happy to see a paper by my colleagues is published now (and I am a humble co-author ;>). https://www-cell-com.ru.idm.oclc.org/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)00557-5… It is about the effect of loss-of-function variants in the schizophrenia risk gene SETD1A on neuronal network activity in human neurons through the cAMP/PKA pathway.
2022-05-01
An abstract of our work on a neural competition mechanism and bistable dynamics has been submitted to ECVP 2022 (European Conference for Vision and Perception). It is titled "Decision making in a dish: fundamental mechanisms of bistable visual information processing in mouse visual cortical brain slices"
2022-03-08
An abstract of my friend, Janine Kerstholt (and I am honoured to be a co-author) has been accepted for a presentation at SOSORT. It is about the treatment of scoliosis with a brace. It is a much less harmful approach than drastic surgeries conventionally practised. Yey to Janine!
2022-02-23
We have submitted our abstract to FENS, Federation of European Neuroscience Societies! It is titled "Processing of bistable visual information in the mouse visual system".
2021-06-03
My paper on a neuro-computational model for border-ownership (edge assignment) is now published in Psychological Review. Our work links the neurophysiological data (from Rudiger von der Heydt's group) to mechanisms of determining the depth order of segmented regions.
and public summary
https://link.growkudos.com/1kuaqg522v4
preprint version is available here
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.26.113324v1.article-info
2021-05-08
I am invited to give a talk at Neurotech EU meeting "Neurotech Open Section" on May 13th. I will talk about our novel dynamic clamp approach of neuron-computer interface (NCI) system to investigate dynamics of neural circuit.
2021-02-01
Our new paper about dynamics of bi-stable activity of a pair of neurons, with a neuron-computer interface system, is now published!
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/41/6/1251
MY RESEARCH
Why and how do we see things as we do? To answer this question is one of the most challenging tasks in science. One of the most prominent properties of vision is that perception is fundamentally subjective. This is cause our perception is not a passive response of the brain to the retinal inputs. Instead, the brain actively processes signals, organizes them, and establishes the perception. To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying this emergence of perceptual organization, I conduct theoretical research of perceptual organization (neuro-computational models) and, at the same time, run experimental research. I have recently started an electrophysiological project to investigate underlying neural mechanisms of bi-stable perception.
My goal as a scientist is to develop a whole new avenue of research activities that bridge between neural dynamics at single-cell/synaptic level and behavioral properties of the visual system as a whole. For this purpose, I apply the knowledge and skills from my interdisciplinary backgrounds in physics, neuroscience, cognitive science, computer vision and psychophysics.
MY RESEARCH FIELDS and SKILLS
Research Fields
Neuroscience:
neural dynamics; electro-physiology; all-optical physiology; visual cortex; hippocampus; synaptic integration; neurocomputational models;
Vision science:
perceptual organization; figure-ground organization; illusory perception; modal and amodal completion;
Skills
multi-channel patch-clamp recording; in vivo, ex vivo, in vitro (cell culture) neural recordings; iontophoresis;
dynamic clamp system;
optical recording with voltage indicators or calcium indicators; optogenetics;
neurocomputational modelling;
EEG recording with frequency tagging; psychophysics;
Matlab programming; NEURON simulation;
TEACHING
Since this September, 2021, I also have a teaching duty as an Education Development Officer of Radboud University. I teach neuroscience at the science faculty. I teach at "Comparative Physiology" course and "Neurons and Synapses".
AWARDS, SEMINARS, INVITED TALKS
I was awarded for Parker B. Francis Foundation fellowship (University of Calgary and University of Kentucky, 1991-1993). I obtained the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO, Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) post-doctoral fellowship (2011~2014) and the three years extension of the FWO post-doctoral fellowship (2014~2017). I am awarded European Fellowship from Marie Curie Actions, European Commission (2018~2020). I am awarded for NeurotechEU fellowship (2023).
I have been invited to give presentations at various places, including the St. Louis University (School of Medicine), University of Leuven (Department of Mathematics), University of Leeds (School of Biomedical Sciences), University of Trieste (Department of Psychology), Johns Hopkins University (Bodian Seminar at Mind/Brain Institute), the symposium for the centennial anniversary of Rubin’s figure (University of Copenhagen), Rutgers University (Center of Cognitive Science), the symposium “Amodal completion: Michotte’s legacy and new directions fifty years after ‘Les compléments amodaux’” at European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP 2014, Belgrade), Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN, Roelfsema Group), Radboud University (Donders Institute), University of Sussex (laboratory of T. Nowotony, informatics), Tamagawa University (Brain Science Institute, Japan), and Utrecht University (Department of Psychology).
ORGANIZED SYMPOSIUMS
I organized a satellite symposium at VSS (Vision Science Society) 2016 (May) at St. Pete Beach, FL, titled “Are there donuts in vision? Neural computation of global image configuration by a circular receptive field.”, organized with Drs. B. Machilsen (University of Leuven), V. Froyen (University of Leuven), M. Cox (Vanderbilt University) and with invited speakers of R. von der Heyde (Johns Hopkins University), J. Elder (York University) and A. Pasupathy (University of Washington).
I also organized a symposium at ECVP (European Conference on Visual Perception) 2017 (August) in Berlin, titled “Neuro-computational mechanisms to reflect global image structure: from boundary detection to figure-ground organization and shape detection” co-organized with M. Self (Netherlands Insititute of Neuroscience), and with invited speakers of R. von der Heydt (Johns Hopkins University), S. Zucker (Yale University) and A. Pasupathy (University of Washington).
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
PHD IN PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN, BELGIUM
January 2004 - October 2009
vision science, computer vision
PHD IN MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA, JAPAN
April 1985 - March 1989
neuroscience, electrophysiology
MSC IN MEDICAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA, JAPAN
April 1983 - March 1985
neuroscience, electrophysiology
BSC IN PHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF SAITAMA, JAPAN
April 1977 - March 1981
physics, bio-physics
PAST EXPERIENCE
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW, BRAIN AND COGNITION, UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN, BELGIUM
October 2009 - September 2017
vision science, computer vision, electrophysiology
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW, ESAT-PSI, UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN, BELGIUM
January 2001 - December 2003
computer vision
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW, MRC, ANATOMICAL NEUROPHARMACOLOGY UNIT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
April 1998 - December 2000
hippocampus, electrophysiology
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW, DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY, ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY
September 1993 - April 1998
electrophysiology
PHILOSOPHY
Research Ethics
CONTACT
Contact me for any questions or just to initiate nice discussions!
Thanks for submitting!