people | cognitive & neural computation lab

I am an Associate Professor in the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences. I’m also a Fellow in the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, and a Fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Brain Mind & Consciousness program. I am also President and Chairperson of the Board of Directors at Neuromatch, and Chairperson of the Neuromatch Academy Board Committee. Prior to joining UCI I was on the faculty at UC Riverside in the Department of Bioengineering. I received my Ph.D. in computational cognitive neuroscience (psychology) from UCLA, having worked with Ladan Shams, and then was a postdoc there working with Hakwan Lau.

My research aims to reveal how the brain represents and uses uncertainty, and performs adaptive computations based on noisy, incomplete information. I specifically focus on how these abilities support metacognitive evaluations of the quality of (mostly perceptual) decisions, and how these processes might relate to phenomenology and conscious awareness.

I use neuroimaging, computational modeling, machine learning and neural stimulation techniques to study these topics. I also enjoy reading scifi, travel, and karaoke and have a ridiculous cat named Momo.

Brian Maniscalco
Associate Project Scientist
Personal website | Google Scholar

I trained in experimental psychology at Columbia University with Hakwan Lau and received my Ph.D. in 2013. Subsequently I did a cognitive neuroscience postdoc with Biyu He at the NIH and NYU Langone Medical Center. I joined the Cognitive & Neural Computation Lab in 2018. My work focuses on understanding conscious awareness and metacognition using psychophysics, computational modeling, and cognitive neuroscience modalities.

Shaida Abachi
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
Personal website | Google Scholar | twitter

I received my B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside and am now pursing a doctoral degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCI. My motivation to understand the brain stems from my interests in disorders of cognition, specifically ones that affect perception and metacognition. My current research uses a combination of fMRI and psychophysics to understand the neural computations underlying metacognition. Also, meet Pluto!

Hojjat Azimi
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
LinkedIn | github

I received my Master’s in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Tehran, and joined the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences as a PhD student in December 2021. I am interested in decoded neurofeedback using EEG and fMRI, and machine learning approaches to improving brain-computer interfaces.

Nora Bradford
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
Google Scholar | twitter | LinkedIn

I am a PhD student in Cognitive Sciences. In 2019 I graduated from UChicago with majors in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Philosophy. I’m interested in conscious perception, visual illusions, and metacognition both in the lab and in the classroom. When I’m not doing research, I love kayaking, painting, and doing advocacy work with the Sunrise movement. This is Sandy!

Vanessa Ceja
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences

I am a doctoral student in Cognitive Sciences at UCI, although I started my graduate training in the Neuroscience program at UCR. I graduated from UCR June of 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S. in Anthropology. I have always been interested in the areas of philosophy, psychology, cognition, perception, and artificial intelligence. My current research is in its initial stages but we expect the results of this project will offer an innovative and more precise way to diagnose and quantify physical and behavioral deficits brought on by psychiatric disorders.

Andrew Hansen
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
Google Scholar | Personal website

I am a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCI. Previously, I worked in the Neuromorphic Machine Intelligence Laboratory (NMI Lab) developing neuromorphic hardware and designing spiking neural networks and processors. I received my MS in Computational Neuroscience from Brandeis University in 2016 and a BS in Physics/Biophysics/Chemistry from St. Mary’s University in Texas. My core interests are in reconciling the epistemological conundrum of consciousness with empirically-derived functional models, autonoesis/introspection/metacognition/meta-learning approaches in neural networks, and theoretical neuroscience. I can also generally be found hiking, climbing, or making music or “art”.

Ari Khoudary
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
Personal website | Google Scholar | twitter | github

I’m a PhD student in Cognitive Sciences. I received a B.S. in Psychology with a second major in Philosophy from Boston College in 2019, and then worked as a lab manager and research assistant at Duke University. I’m interested in using computational cognitive neuroscience to study metacognition, mental imagery, episodic memory, and consciousness. I also have long-standing interests in philosophy of cognitive (neuro)science and philosophy of science more broadly. Outside of the lab, I enjoy making food for friends, experiencing art, and hanging out with my cat, Bella.

Mehdi Orouji (full name: Seyedmehdi Orouji)
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
Google Scholar

I received a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri and a second Master’s in bioengineering from UC Riverside. Currently, I am a doctoral student in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at UCI. I am interested in the applications of classification and machine learning to learn about how and where consciousness arises in the brain. I am working on a neural network architecture to understand categorical object representations in different regions of the brain.

Angela Shen
PhD student | UCI Cognitive Sciences
Google Scholar

I am a doctoral student in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at UCI. I’m broadly interested in the behavioral and neural relationships between visual perception, metacognition, and spatial and temporal attention. Prior to joining CNC Lab, I attained an MA in Psychology from NYU and a BA in Psychology and in International Development Studies from McGill University. I also like to teach and practice yoga, visit art museums, and see live music.

I am a lab manager in the Cognitive & Neural Computation Lab. Prior to joining the lab, I have worked on developing, executing and analyzing cognitive neuroimaging experiments to study various topics including meditation, spatial memory and reinforcement learning in fear conditioning. I received my B.S. in Psychology and M.S. in Cognitive Science from Lund University, Sweden. I am passionate about researching consciousness through neuroimaging and computational methods and am particularly curious about identifying and controlling neurocomputational mechanisms evoking changes in states of awareness in observers like us. While supporting a diverse range of lab research activities, my predominant focus is on utilizing decoded neurofeedback with fMRI to study metacognition.

Yusuf Ezzeldine
BS & postbac researcher| UCI Cognitive Sciences
LinkedIn

I received my B.S. in Cognitive Science at UCI with a minor in the History and Philosophy of Science in 2023 and joined the lab as a Research Assistant in 2021. I’m intent on tackling the hard problem of consciousness and am foremost interested in the computational and ethical foundations of biological and artificial self-awareness alike. My research focuses on computational modeling and statistical measures for experiments on metacognition.

Alumni

Dr. Kimia Yaghoubi
PhD | UCR Psychology
Google Scholar

I received my PhD in Psychology from UCR, having worked with Dr. Aaron Seitz at UC Riverside (Psychology), and Dr. Megan Peters at UC Irvine (Cognitive Sciences). My research interests involve understanding neuronal circuitry underlying cognitive abilities, such as attention, perception and decision-making. I am currently working on characterizing the role of Locus Coeruleus in perceptual processing using fMRI. Here is Nabaat — her name means rock candy!

Isaac Menchaca
BS & post-bac researcher | UCR Bioengineering
Github

I work with Ramesh Srinivasan at UCI in Cognitive Sciences. Previously, I was a post-bac researcher in the CNC lab at UCR and UCI working on fMRI and EEG signal processing and Decoded Neurofeedback. I received my BS in Bioengineering from UC Riverside in 2019. I’m interested in working on functional neuroimaging and real-time fMRI to address confidence, motivation, and educational success. See my github page for projects and code.

Olenka Graham Castaneda
BA and PhD student | UCR Psychology & UCI Cognitive Sciences
Google Scholar

I graduated from UC Riverside with a bachelor’s in Psychology with focus on Neuroscience, having worked in the Cognitive and Neural Computation Lab there for 2 years as an undergraduate. I am interested in studies of phenomenal consciousness, metacognition, sleep and dreaming, as well as mental health. I’m also drawn to related concepts in philosophy and other issues in sustainability. Here is my dog, Maisy!

Dr. Sana Hussain
PhD | UCR Bioengineering
Personal website

I received my bachelors in Bioengineering from UC San Diego in 2016, and my masters in Bioengineering from UC Riverside in 2018. I received my Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Riverside under the supervision of Dr. Xiaoping Hu and Dr. Megan Peters. My research focuses on resting state neuroimaging, the locus coeruleus circuit, and functional connectivity of resting state and attention networks.

Nalani Lando
MS | UCR Bioengineering

I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in bioengineering from UCR. My research focuses on applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to study potential changes in perception and metacognition when this region of the brain is stimulated.

Fan Zhang
MS | UCR Data Science

I completed an MS in Data Science at UC Riverside.

Tammi Tang
BS | UCR Bioengineering

I completed a Bachelor’s in Bioengineering with a minor in Music at UC Riverside. My research interests include music cognition, computational neuroscience, and metacognitive sensitivity. I’m currently conducting a project on auditory metacognition to determine the unique neurological signatures of absolute pitch individuals, as well as the neural correlates between confidence and musical aptitude.

Yingqi Rong
BS | UCI Mathematics

I completed a Bachelor’s in Mathematics at UC Irvine.

Jarrett Winter
BS | UCI Cognitive Sciences

I completed a Bachelor’s in Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine. My research interests include signal detection theory and simulations.

Garrett Mauter
Post-bac Researcher

I graduated from UC Irvine in 2020 with a Bachelor’s in Psychology. My research interests include object similarity judgements, consciousness, and decision-making. I worked with Mehdi to investigate how psychological similarity across multiple dimensions relates to fMRI voxel-based representation similarity analysis results. When I’m not in the lab, I enjoy playing the drums, snowboarding, camping, and hiking with my dog, Bodie.