Jonathan Simon headshot
Contact Info
Office Phone: 301.405.3645
Lab Phone: 301.405.9534
Fax: 301.314.9358
Office Address: 2145 A.V. Williams Bldg
Jonathan Simon
Professor
Joint appointment with Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute for Systems Research

Teaching

Quantitative Analysis of Biological Data, Mathematical Biology, Computational Neuroscience, Signals & Systems, Digital Signal Processing


Graduate Program Affiliations

  • Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
  • 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


Education

A.B., Princeton University, 1985
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1990


All Publications

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Latest Publications via PubMed

Karunathilake IMD,Brodbeck C,Bhattasali S,Resnik P,Simon JZ
bioRxiv. 2024 Feb 2;:. pii: 2024.02.02.578603. doi: 10.1101/2024.02.02.578603. Epub 2024 Feb 2
Commuri V,Kulasingham JP,Simon JZ
Front Neurosci. 2023;17:1264453. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1264453. Epub 2023 Dec 14
Karunathilake IMD,Kulasingham JP,Simon JZ
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Dec 5;120(49):e2309166120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2309166120. Epub 2023 Nov 30
Brodbeck C,Das P,Gillis M,Kulasingham JP,Bhattasali S,Gaston P,Resnik P,Simon JZ
Elife. 2023 Nov 29;12:. doi: 10.7554/eLife.85012. Epub 2023 Nov 29
Commuri V,Kulasingham JP,Simon JZ
bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 15;:. pii: 2023.07.20.549567. doi: 10.1101/2023.07.20.549567. Epub 2023 Oct 15
Karunathilake IMD,Kulasingham JP,Simon JZ
bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 9;:. pii: 2023.05.18.541269. doi: 10.1101/2023.05.18.541269. Epub 2023 Oct 9
Karunathilake IMD,Dunlap JL,Perera J,Presacco A,Decruy L,Anderson S,Kuchinsky SE,Simon JZ
J Neurophysiol. 2023 Jun 1;129(6):1359-1377. doi: 10.1152/jn.00356.2022. Epub 2023 Apr 25
Soleimani B,Dallasta I,Das P,Kulasingham JP,Girgenti S,Simon JZ,Babadi B,Marsh EB
Brain Commun. 2023;5(3):fcad149. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcad149. Epub 2023 May 6
Du X,Hare S,Summerfelt A,Adhikari BM,Garcia L,Marshall W,Zan P,Kvarta M,Goldwaser E,Bruce H,Gao S,Sampath H,Kochunov P,Simon JZ,Hong LE
Transl Psychiatry. 2023 Jan 19;13(1):13. doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-02300-6. Epub 2023 Jan 19
Kulasingham JP,Simon JZ
IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2023 Jan;70(1):88-96. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2022.3185005. Epub 2022 Dec 26
Simon JZ,Commuri V,Kulasingham JP
Front Neurosci. 2022;16:1075369. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1075369. Epub 2022 Dec 8
Soleimani B,Das P,Dushyanthi Karunathilake IM,Kuchinsky SE,Simon JZ,Babadi B
Neuroimage. 2022 Oct 15;260:119496. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119496. Epub 2022 Jul 21
Brodbeck C,Simon JZ
Front Neurosci. 2022;16:828546. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.828546. Epub 2022 Aug 8
Kulasingham JP,Brodbeck C,Khan S,Marsh EB,Simon JZ
Front Neurol. 2022;13:819603. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.819603. Epub 2022 Mar 28
Brodbeck C,Bhattasali S,Cruz Heredia AAL,Resnik P,Simon JZ,Lau E
Elife. 2022 Jan 21;11:. doi: 10.7554/eLife.72056. Epub 2022 Jan 21
Gillis M,Vanthornhout J,Simon JZ,Francart T,Brodbeck C
J Neurosci. 2021 Dec 15;41(50):10316-10329. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0812-21.2021. Epub 2021 Nov 3
Kulasingham JP,Joshi NH,Rezaeizadeh M,Simon JZ
J Neurosci. 2021 Sep 22;41(38):8023-8039. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0269-21.2021. Epub 2021 Aug 16
Hare SM,Adhikari BM,Du X,Garcia L,Bruce H,Kochunov P,Simon JZ,Hong LE
Schizophr Res. 2021 Feb;228:262-270. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.11.052. Epub 2021 Jan 22
Marsh EB,Brodbeck C,Llinas RH,Mallick D,Kulasingham JP,Simon JZ,Llinás RR
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 29;117(52):33578-33585. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2013231117. Epub 2020 Dec 14
Brodbeck C,Simon JZ
Curr Opin Physiol. 2020 Dec;18:25-31. doi: 10.1016/j.cophys.2020.07.014. Epub 2020 Jul 28