Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, PhD.

Professor in Bioengineering. Head of the group

Rodrigo is basically puzzled by how the brain works. In particular he is interested is principles of Neural Coding, visual perception, memory, visuo-motor transformations, single-trial evoked potentials, synchronization and the development of methods for the analysis of neurophysiology data.
Rodrigo claims he makes the best asado argentino within the UK neuroscience community.
e-mail: rqqg1(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Matias Ison, PhD.

Lecturer in Bioengineering

Matias is currently collaborating with Dr. Fried's lab at UCLA on single cell recordings from the human brain to study the formation of memories by learning associations. With a background in computational and statistical physics (Ph.D. in Physics), he is interested in applying principles from information theory and statistical mechanics to the study of neural ensembles as well as in developing quantitative analysis techniques to extract new information from neural experimental data.
Dr. Ison is famous for his "empanadas" and "panqueques".
e-mail: mji3(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Luis A. Camuñas, PhD.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Luis is working on the analysis of multiple single-cell recordings from the nervous system of the locust in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Tom Matheson in the Department of Biology of the University of Leicester. Studying the correlation of these data, he is interested in the characterization of the roles of motor nerve cells during limb movements. He is also interested in bio-inspired sensorial information processing.
Luis makes the best "gazpacho andaluz" North of London.
e-mail: lacm1(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Lisandro Kauntiz, PhD.

Lisandro joined the lab to work in a project that studies the EEG responses of subjects while they perform eye movements and watch natural scenes. With a special interest in visual perception, Lisandro has always been intrigued by the puzzle of visual awareness (particularly in the scope and limits of unconscious visual perception) and by how the brain keeps a stable conscious representation of the visual world across eye movements.

During a tough trip to San Bernardo in the hot summer of 2006 Lisandro learnt the secret recipe to cook the autochthonous "rice, lentils and eggs". From that special moment onwards that's basically all he cooks.
e-mail: lk110(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Carlos Pedreira, PhD.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Carlos is working in the analysis of human single-cell recordings and the formation of memories as sequences of events. He also works in the optimization of spike sorting algorithms. Other interests of Carlos are neuroelectronic interfaces and neuroprosthetics.
Carlos makes the best "tortilla de patatas" in Leicester.
e-mail: cp155(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Hernan Rey, PhD.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Hernan is working on single cell recordings from the human brain in collaboration with the Epilepsy Research Group at King’s College London. Particularly, he is interested in studying the timing of medial temporal lobe responses. He is also interested in abstract concept learning and decision making. Although Hernan’s cooking abilities are not bad at all, nothing gets even close to the world-class lemon pie made by his wife.
e-mail: hgr3(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Maryam Ahmadi 

PhD Student

Maryam project seeks to study of single-trial evoked potentials, as recorded by an electroencephalogram and their correlation to different sensory and cognitive processes, such as pattern learning. A promising approach to extract the single trial evoked activity is to use a denoising implementation based on the Wavelet transform. She is working on the optimization of the denoising algorithm and study of several strategies to make it completely unsupervised.
e-mail: ma447(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Jennifer Binnie

PhD Student

Jen is involved in a collaborative project between the departments of Engineering and Museum Studies, and the Art Fund. This is looking at how people experience art within museums, and shall use eye-tracking and complementary ethnographic research techniques. She is supervised by Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, Sandra Dudley (Museum Studies) and David Barrie(Art Fund). This project is funded by AHRC and the Art Fund.
Jen is rather good at baking cookies, cakes and other sweet treats.
e-mail: jmbb2(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Julieta Campi

PhD Student

Julieta is working on a project willing to provide new insights to understand memory formation in the hippocampus. To do this, she will combine in vivo electrophysiology with neuroimaging (co-supervised by Prof Ian Forsythe) of mice place cells navigating on a virtual environment.
Julieta's pizzas rival in quality the best Italian pizzas in Leicestershire.

e-mail: jec40(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Joaquin Navajas

PhD Student

Joaquin is working on the development of an online and unsupervised spike sorting algorithm that will be implemented in a chip (collaboration with Imperial College London and Newcastle University). He's also interested in 1) how visual inputs are processed by the brain to generate conscious experience and 2) how a portion of that information is stored as long-lasting memories.
Joaquin is almost a "certified" bartender.
e-mail: jmna1(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Zaira Pineda Rico

PhD Student

Zaira is working on neurophrostetic applications. She is implementing a neural network simulating previous recordings from the posterior parietal cortex in monkeys, reproducing the firing characteristics of neurons in this area to move a robot arm.
Zaira makes the best "guacamole" and "huevos a la mexicana" in Leicester.
e-mail: zp24(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Mariano Molina

Artist in residence

Mariano is visual artist doing a rotation in the lab. The goal of his residence, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and by the Leverhulme Trust, is to study the links between neuroscience and arts in the study of visual perception. His rotation will culminate with an "Arts & Science" exhibition

Juan Kamienkowski

Visiting Researcher

Alumni

Jonathan Becedas, PhD.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Jonathan is working in a Neuroprosthetics project. He studies the activity of single-neurons to control a robotic arm for reaching and grasping objects to be used in handicapped people and amputees. He is also collaborating with the UCLM to develop new position and force control strategies for robot manipulators. Jonathan makes the best "migas" and "gachas" in the whole UK.
e-mail: jbr6(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Juan Martinez

PhD Student

Juan works on the development of technology for the analysis of neural ensembles, specially spike sorting algorithms and realistic simulations of extracellular recordings. He is particulary interested in quantitative analysis techniques to extract relevant information from experimental datasets.
Juan claims he does the best "paella " in Leicester.
e-mail: jm303(@)le(.)ac(.)uk

Alberto Capurro

Postdoctoral Researcher

Andreas Kaltenbrunner

Erasmus rotating student

Emanuele Perugia

Erasmus rotating student

Main collaborators

Christof Koch

Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology.
California Institute of Technology, CA, USA.

Richard Andersen

James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience.
California Institute of Technology, CA, USA.

Itzhak Fried

Professor of Surgery/Neurosurgery and Psichiatry and Bio-Behavioral Sciences.
University of California at Los Angeles, CA, USA.