Agostina Palmigiano to start her group at the Gatsby Unit

Her group will develop data-driven theoretical approaches to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive functions.

Having completed her undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Buenos Aires, Agostina joined the Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience program at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. There, she worked with Fred Wolf and Theo Geisel investigating how population-level oscillatory activity changes the information-processing capabilities of recurrent neural networks, work for which she received the 2018 Otto Hahn medal of the Max Planck Society. She then joined Kenneth D Miller’s group at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University. Agostina was awarded a Swartz Foundation Fellowship for Theory in Neuroscience in 2019. Currently she is a Bridge to Independence fellow in the Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain program.

“I am incredibly happy to join the Gatsby Unit. It’s a place that has shaped generations of theoreticians, and I cannot imagine a better place to start my lab. I am excited about the science that will emerge from the pushback between normative vs data-driven theoretical approaches and from working in close interaction with experimentalists at SWC,” said Agostina Palmigiano.

Agostina’s group will leverage tools from statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics to build interpretable models with biological fidelity and explanatory power that facilitate a closed-loop interaction with experimental data at SWC. Her group will investigate i) the computational principles underlying sensory/motor processing and learning ii) how behavioural information (as choice, reward) across the cortex shapes area-specific computations, and iii) how interspecies differences in circuit architecture and dynamical regimes limit/facilitate learning.

“Agostina brings well-honed analytic skills and a circuits-driven perspective that will complement and expand the scope of research in the Gatsby Unit and the SWC. We are tremendously excited to welcome her to our community,” said Professor Maneesh Sahani, Director of the Gatsby Unit.

For more information on Agostina and her research, please visit her webpage.

19 September 2023