Current team members

Andrea Alamia, Principal Investigator. Interested in understanding whether Bayesian inference and Predictive Coding could tell us all the secrets of the brain. Also into traveling, learning, and sport (currently at the gym, previously judo and breakdance). Big fan of Asimov’s books (all of them!), historical fictions and dinosaurs. For more information about my past experiences, here my CV page.

Leslie Marie-Louise, Project Manager. I have a background in neuroscience and neuropsychology. I worked as a research assistant at the babylab of the École normale supérieure in Paris. I have always been fascinated by how the brain works. The neural system, human behavior and child development are my main interests. I would like to participate in the application of scientific knowledge in society and make it more accessible to all. In my free time, I enjoy dancing and traveling. I always enjoy new adventures, as long as they are as far away from spiders, ants and all the bugs as possible. I am a big fan of cake day!!

Jakob Schwenk, PostDoc. Stitching together the brain’s space-time continuum - how is communication between brain areas (space) coordinated by local oscillations (time)! More specifically, how does the thalamo-cortical loop shape the dynamics of hierarchical processing. Approaching this through biologically plausible network models, building on my PhD work in experimental neurophysiology at the Neurophysics Lab in Marburg. In my free time working on real-world implementations of cross-frequency coupling between my left and right hand on the cello or the piano.

Martina Pasqualetti, PhdStudent. I am a PhD student working on a Predictive Coding interpretation of travelling waves. My background studies in Neurosciences introduced me to cognitive sciences and the study of consciousness. The mind-body dualism blowed my mind so much that I decided to pursue a research career centred on the investigation of it.How can a well-organized mass of atoms and energy become aware of itself? Well, unfortunately I don’t know yet, but in the meanwhile I will take care of my mental health by growing my amazing indoor plant collection.

Antoine Grimaldi, PostDoc. My research focuses on the dynamics of vision and the brain in general. I observed the statistics of natural images with a scientific approach, and a more subjective one when I shot scenes of the environment with my camera. I also became interested in how this visual information can be encoded by neurons with binary events called spikes. Now I want to extend my understanding of the brain to the dynamics of communication between areas, with a growing interest in neurodiversity. Observing and exploring nature is also a big part of my personal life, with a strong attraction to the mountains.

Pierre-Marie Matta, PhdStudent. (cosupervised with Robin Baures & Julian Duclay). How does perception influence our ability to act? Can our beliefs affect our performance? What ultimately limits human endeavor? Currently trying to unravel these questions by investigating the interplay between psychological factors and bodily processes during physical effort. My research takes a multidisciplinary approach, using fun tools such as nerve stimulation, EMG, EEG, and fMRI. When I am not diving into science, you’ll likely find me wondering about deep questions such as: What is consciousness? Can life be observed without priors? How to reach freedom in our daily lives? (If you think I still do science during my free time, you might be right). Otherwise, I am also fond of sports (martial arts and gym), music (currently learning the piano), spending time with animals (all of them) and being in nature.

Riccardo Bertaccini, visiting PhdStudent. (supervised by Vincenzo Romei). I am a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Bologna, under the supervision of Prof. Vincenzo Romei. With a background in neuropsychology, I combine cognitive electrophysiology, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and a bit of clinimetrics, to investigate the perceptual mechanics and oscillatory signatures underlying cross-modal integration along the schizotypal continuum. Does the speed of occipital alpha rhythms shape observers’ audiovisual sensitivity? If so, are such dynamics different across individuals, depending on their schizotypal traits? While at CerCo, I will try to address these questions by leveraging also a travelling waves perspective on multisensory temporal binding. Beyond my scientific pursuits, I enjoy hiking, reading, watching TV shows, and working out at the gym in my free time.

Mariem Younssi, Research Assistant. I hold a Master’s in experimental psychology and am passionate about understanding the brain. Currently, I’m focused on developing skills in computational modeling and neural imaging to explore the brain’s complex mechanisms. My particular interest lies in studying the computational and neural mechanisms supporting inference and prediction in perception and decision-making. When I’m not immersed in exciting research projects, you’ll likely find me underwater, freediving — that’s when my brain enters a low-energy state.

Noe Pic, Master 2 intern. With an engineering background, I’m deeply passionate about psychology, especially the mechanisms underlying psychopathology. I believe there’s still so much to uncover about how our minds work and thrive, and that a better understanding of ourselves could help us shape a more nurturing society where everyone has the opportunity to blossom. Right now, I’m working on modeling psychotic perception, a topic that raises fascinating questions about consciousness and the nature of reality. Outside of work, I’m passionate about parkour and movment in general (tricking, dance…), for both its aesthetics and the joy it brings me. I love adventure, from a short climbing session in the mountains to long backpacking trips to discover new cultures. And when I’m not moving, you’ll probably find me baking something or drinking maté.

Past team members

Bhavin Choksi, PostDoc. I am interested in understanding networks using a special pair of glasses: one which has a machine learning lens on one and neuroscience on the other. Specifically, I am interested in building networks that are more biological and in turn using them and their properties to get a peek into the human brain. In my free time, I am just trying to wrap my head around the fact that cheese can also be eaten as a dessert.

Xiaoqi Xu, PostDoc. I am a post-doc working on computational models to explain the functional role of travelling waves from a Predictive Coding point of view. My PhD work at ISAE SUPAERO focused on using mathematical approaches to decode mental states from EEG signals in the context of brain-computer interfaces. Before that I studied pure mathematics at Université Paris-Saclay and artificial intelligence at Ecole normale supérieure Paris-Saclay.

Damien Ricci, M2 student, co-supervised with Benedikt Zoefel .
Lena Brakha, M1 student & research assistant.
Maeva Kurtz, M2 student.
Can Pouliquen, M2 student. Co-supervised with Rufin VanRullen.
Asmae Belmahi, M2 student.
Nathan Gaubil, M2 student. Co-supervised with Martin Giurfa.
Yifan Zeng, M1 student.
Malo Renaud D’Ambra, M1 student. Co-supervised with Rufin VanRullen.
Lucie Terral, M1 student. Co-supervised with Rufin VanRullen.
Dimitri Paisios, M1 student. Co-supervised with Rufin VanRullen.
Victor Gauducheau, M2 student. Co-supervised with Rufin VanRullen.