Jonathan Simon
Professor (Joint appointment with Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, and Institute for Systems Research)
Contact
Email: jzsimon@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.6812
Lab: 301.405.9534
Fax: 301.314.9358
Office Address: 3227 Bio-Psych
URL: http://www.isr.umd.edu/Labs/CSSL/simonlab/index.html
Teaching
Quantitative Analysis of BIological Data, Mathematical Biology, Computational Neuroscience, Signals & Systems, Digital
Signal Processing,
Graduate Program Affiliations
Research Interests
Can the brain be thought of as a kind of computer? While this may be a topic of debate, few would deny that the brain does perform computations. The subject of my research program is to identify, and describe quantitatively, such neural computations—specifically those performed in the brain’s auditory system. This program both sheds light on the function of the brain, and permits us to discover algorithms otherwise unknown to engineering.
The range of problems solved by neural computations span the low-level (e.g. determining the spatial location of a sound source based on the different acoustic signals received by each ear) to the high-level (e.g. in a crowded room, detecting the arrival of a new voice, or the departure of an old one). Often these neural computations are critical to the proper functioning (or survival) of an animal, and so must be performed reliably and quickly, even under adverse circumstances.
The class of neural computations that use the temporal character of the sounds being processed—those for which time plays an important role—are the primary focus of my research.
My research program has components at three different hierarchical levels: auditory neural computations observable macroscopically (at the whole brain level) with magnetoencephalography (MEG), auditory neural computations at the level of small networks of neurons (e.g. a few dozen neurons involved in a single computation), and auditory neural computations at the level of individual neurons. A fourth research area develops new ideas in the signal processing of neural data and in computational neuroscience.
Current Research
Magnetoencephalography (MEG), fMRI, binaural hearing, spatial hearing, computational neuroscience, neural signal processing
Recent Publications
Education
A.B., Princeton University, 1985; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1990.
Computer Engineering, and Institute for Systems Research)
Contact
Email: jzsimon@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.6812
Lab: 301.405.9534
Fax: 301.314.9358
Office Address: 3227 Bio-Psych
URL: http://www.isr.umd.edu/Labs/CSSL/simonlab/index.html
Teaching
Quantitative Analysis of BIological Data, Mathematical Biology, Computational Neuroscience, Signals & Systems, Digital
Signal Processing,
Graduate Program Affiliations
- Neuroscience & Cognitive Science (NACS)
- BISI - BISI-Physiological Systems (PSYS)
Research Interests
Can the brain be thought of as a kind of computer? While this may be a topic of debate, few would deny that the brain does perform computations. The subject of my research program is to identify, and describe quantitatively, such neural computations—specifically those performed in the brain’s auditory system. This program both sheds light on the function of the brain, and permits us to discover algorithms otherwise unknown to engineering.
The range of problems solved by neural computations span the low-level (e.g. determining the spatial location of a sound source based on the different acoustic signals received by each ear) to the high-level (e.g. in a crowded room, detecting the arrival of a new voice, or the departure of an old one). Often these neural computations are critical to the proper functioning (or survival) of an animal, and so must be performed reliably and quickly, even under adverse circumstances.
The class of neural computations that use the temporal character of the sounds being processed—those for which time plays an important role—are the primary focus of my research.
My research program has components at three different hierarchical levels: auditory neural computations observable macroscopically (at the whole brain level) with magnetoencephalography (MEG), auditory neural computations at the level of small networks of neurons (e.g. a few dozen neurons involved in a single computation), and auditory neural computations at the level of individual neurons. A fourth research area develops new ideas in the signal processing of neural data and in computational neuroscience.
Current Research
Magnetoencephalography (MEG), fMRI, binaural hearing, spatial hearing, computational neuroscience, neural signal processing
Recent Publications
- Carr, C. E., D. Soares, J. Smolders and J. Z. Simon (2009), Detection of interaural time differences in the alligator, J Neurosci 29, 7948-7956.
- Elhilali, M., J. Xiang, S. A. Shamma and J. Z. Simon (2009), Interaction between attention and bottom-up saliency mediates the representation of foreground and background in an auditory scene, PLoS Biol 7(6), e1000129.
- de Cheveigné, A., and J. Z. Simon (2008) Denoising based on spatial filtering, J Neurosci Methods 171(1), 331-339.
- Aytekin, M., C. F. Moss and J. Z. Simon (2008) A Sensorimotor Approach to Sound Localization, Neural Computation, 20, 603-635.
Education
A.B., Princeton University, 1985; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1990.