Research

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Retreats

Conference Visits

2019

  • Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2019 (cosyne.org)

2018

2017

Events (Co-) Organized by MSNE Students

Research Projects

Besides their final thesis project, MSNE students spend 15 weeks on additional two research projects over the course of their studies. In our blog post, Pranshul, Annika and Vanessa write about their experiences at UC Davis, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and MIT.

  • Impact of Structural Plasticity on Learning Rate
    Pranshul Saini, Dr. Florian Röhrbein
    Robotics and Embedded Systems, TUM’s Informatics Department, TU Munich
    The focus of the research was to investigate how neurological phenomena such as addition or pruning of synapses can alter the learning rate of spiking neural networks.
    Code: https://github.com/pranshulsaini/structural_plasticity
     Time scope: 6 week project, beginning on March 13, 2017

  • Investigating Short-Term Plasticity on SpiNNaker
    Lucas Stoffl, Steve Furber, Oliver Rhodes
    APT Advanced Processor Technologies Research Group, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
    We extended the functionality of the SpiNNaker neuromorphic platform by implementing a Short-Term Plasticity model followed by mathematical verification of single neuron simulations and an embedding of the STP model in networks of neurons.
    Time scope: 6 week project, beginning on February 21, 2018

  • Hybrid brain computer interface for control of a prosthetic arm
    Jonas Braun, Zied Tayeb
    Institute for Neuroscientific System Theory, Technical University of Munich, Germany
    We designed a hybrid brain-computer interface to control a robotic arm. FIrstly, EEG motor imagery is used to control direction of arm movement and then EMG classification on the forearm is used to control different grasp gestures. It is now part of the python toolbox gumpy.
    Publication: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1741-2552/aae186
    Code: http://gumpy.org/
     Time scope: 6 week project, beginning on February 22, 2018

  • Analysis pipeline for calcium imaging
    Yağmur Yener, Panagiotis Symvoulidis, Prof. Gil Westmeyer
    Westmeyerlab, Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany
    Inferring neural activity from fluorescent calcium imaging combined with optical imaging techniques such as two photon imaging and light sheet imaging requires quite some processing and analysis. I tried out open-source software tools in an attempt to create reusable pipelines.
    Time scope: 6 week project, beginning on February 26, 2018

  • Neurotensin differentially modulates positive and negative associative learning
    Vanessa Page, Kay Tye PhD, Praneeth Namburi PhD, Jacob Olson PhD
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Kay Tye’s Systems Neuroscience lab, Cambridge MA
    I was in Dr. Kay Tye‘s lab for 6 months. I joined a project studying the role of Neurotensin, a neuropeptide on positive and negative associative learning. I learned techniques such as RNAscope in-situ hybridization, stereotaxic surgery, and head-fixed behavior with mice.
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on March 01, 2018

  • The effect of intensive meditation training on Cognitive Functioning
    Pranshul Saini, Dr. Clifford Saron
    Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
    The aim is to investigate how a long-term intensive meditation training alters cognitive functioning. The study was done in a 3-month retreat fashion, and the assessments were made pre-retreat, mid-retreat and post-retreat. This is a part of the Shamatha project.
    Publication: http://mgiep.unesco.org/tech2018
    Code: https://neuroengineering.blog/2018/11/16/msne-research-internships/
     Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on March 26, 2018

  • Denoising EMG from Local Field Potentials in Mice using ICA
    Syed Suleman Abbas Zaidi, Anton Sirota
    The Sirota Lab, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich LMU
    We extract reliable independent components from Slow Wave Sleep and RUN state in mice and compare them to find the common and unique ones. We hope to find a stationary unique EMG component in RUN state to explain the difference in the Power Spectral Density of the two states.
    Time scope: 6 week project, beginning on March 27, 2018

  • Exploring Stimulation Results with EEG Source Localisation Methods
    Annika Thierfelder, Atalanti Mastakouri, Moritz Grosse-Wentrup
    BCI Group, Empirical Inference Department, Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
    The aim of the project was to evaluate the effect of electrical brain stimulation on the motor cortex. To evaluate the underlying brain activity, we measured the resting state EEG and performed source reconstruction in the expected frequency band.
    Code: Yes.
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on June 08, 2018

  • Linguistic Analysis with Stereo EEG Data for functional Aphasia Location
    Syed Suleman Abbas Zaidi, Professor Silvestro Micera, Fiorenzo Artoni
    Translational Neural Engineering Lab, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne EPFL
    We use Stereo EEG data (intracranial electrodes) to find regions in the brain which can best classify the use of Verbs and Nouns. We believe that our study will help locating functional sources of Aphasia, a language disorder.
    Code: Yes.
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on August 01, 2018

  • Fully-automated reconstruction of neuroglia and their relationship with synapses
    Yağmur Yener, Alessandro Motta, Prof. Dr. Moritz Helmstaedter
    Department of Connectomics, Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany
    Brain mapping in electron microscopy resolution needs machine learning for automated identification of cells and structures with the advances in acquiring larger EM volumes. We used a CNN for detecting astrocytes and combined the annotations with the auto-detected synapses.
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on August 13, 2018

  • Representational Dissimilarity Analysis
    Janne Lappalainen, Jakob Macke
    Computational Neuroengineering, TU Munich, Germany
    Im a physicist and neuroengineer who is keen to figure out principled theoretical mechanisms in our brain and how we can leverage these findings in machine learning and AI. I got some ideas.
    Code: https://github.com/jkoal/dnnvsbrain
     Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on September 01, 2018

  • Modelling spatial hearing from electric stimulation
    Iustina Andronic, Prof. Bernhard Seeber
    Audio Information Processing
    I am implementing a binaural auditory model that receives electrical pulse input and assess its accuracy in predicting the sound direction and other psychoacoustics phenomena related to spatial hearing
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on September 19, 2018

  • Exploring Stimulation Results with EEG Source Localisation
    Annika Thierfelder, Atalanti Mastakouri, Moritz Grosse-Wentrup
    BCI Group, Department for Empirical Inference, Max-Planck Institute Tübingen, Germany
    The aim of the project was to evaluate the effect of electrical brain stimulation on the motor cortex. To evaluate the underlying brain activity, we measured the resting state EEG and performed source reconstruction in the expected frequency band.
    Code: Yes.
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on June 08, 2019

  • Exploring Stimulation Results with EEG Source Localisation
    Annika Thierfelder, Atalanti Mastakouri, Moritz Grosse-Wentrup
    BCI Group, Department for Empirical Inference, Max-Planck Institute Tübingen, Germany
    The aim of the project was to evaluate the effect of electrical brain stimulation on the motor cortex. To evaluate the underlying brain activity, we measured the resting state EEG and performed source reconstruction in the expected frequency band.
    Code: Yes.
    Time scope: 9 week project, beginning on June 08, 2019