Pablo Oyarzo
Neural Dynamics of Visual Cognition
PhD Candidate
Room JK 25/222b
14195 Berlin
I joined the lab in November 2019 as a PhD student. Before that I studied Psychology at the Catholic University of Chile for a bachelor and a professional degree, then I obtained a master's degree in Neuroscience at the University of Chile. In my thesis I focussed on dysfunctions of visual perception found in patients with schizophrenia. I have also collaborated with the Psychophysiology Lab and the Experimental Psychology Lab at the Catholic University of Chile in projects that tackled attention, sensorimotor coordination and language processing.
Besides science, I enjoy playing music, doing sports, and escaping the city at every opportunity.
General research interests
I aim to better understand information processing during visual object recognition in the human brain. I am currently working on the role of recurrent computations in the variability of neural responses to visual stimuli. I use a combination of M/EEG, fMRI, deep learning, and multivariate statistics to assess whether these circuits are functionally critical for object recognition. For this, I work in collaboration with Dr. Kohitij Kar. In addition, I am also interested in the role of motion in visual perception and the neural mechanisms that mediate stable percepts in a dynamic context.
My research is funded by the CONICYT scholarship program and the ERC until November 2023.
Ongoing research projects
Project 1: I use convolutional neural networks and human behavior to select images that would require recurrent processing, and subsequently record EEG and fMRI signals associated with processing these stimuli. By using multivariate pattern analysis, I aim to obtain an integrated space- and time-resolved view of the recurrent dynamics during visual object recognition.
Project 2: To investigate how more dynamic stimuli are processed in the brain, we are working on combining fMRI and EEG responses to videos (from the Algonauts 2021 challenge) in a joint analytical framework.
Student supervision & opportunities
I am currently supervising Antoniya Boyanova and Furkan Özkan.
I am not actively looking for students, but if you are interested in some of the topics I am working on, feel free to email me.