Ramanujan Srinath, Ph.D.

Ramanujan Srinath is interested in how we see and interact with objects in the world. In his Ph.D., he studied how the brain quickly transforms image information from the retina to decodable information about the geometry of 3D objects. He is an experienced electrophysiologist, optophysiologist and programmer, and is interested in multi-faceted projects that can answer fundamental questions about how we make inferences about and physically interact with our environment. He designs experiments that probe how cognitive processes and learning modulate internal neural representations.

Principal Investigator: Marlene Cohen

Fellow: Amelia Orwant

Project
Our brain parses incoming information, decides what is and isn’t relevant, and plans and executes behaviors to interact with the objects in the environment. In comparison, programming computers to do the same tasks with similar accuracy or precision is very hard. This lab studies all the phases of interactive behavior by training monkeys to explore an immersive 3D environment and to engage with a displayed object. They do this by either simply observing its behavior, reporting its properties, or interacting with it in learned ways. Then, using neural recordings and data analysis techniques, the researchers decipher how the brain produces these behaviors. The SURF fellow will be involved in (a) coding and executing experiments in which humans and monkeys will engage with the objects around them in a VR environment, and (b) analyzing data to assess the neural transformations that lead to flexible behavior.