PERSONAL INFORMATION
Family name First name: Chatzidimitrakis Konstantinos (Kostas)
Date of birth: 11/12/1972
Nationality: Greek
Email: kon.chatzidimitrakis@unibo.it [mailto:kon.chatzidimitrakis@unibo.itedu]
Address: Via Frassinago 21, Bologna, 40123, Italy
EDUCATION
07/2007 PhD, Brain and Mind Sciences (“Excellent”), University of Crete, Greece
04/1999 MSc, Neuroscience (“Very Good”), University of Crete, Greece
10/1995 BSc, Biology (“Good”), University of Patras, Greece
CURRENT APPOINTMENT
10/2021 -present Assistant Professor senior, Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy.
PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS
05/2019 - 09/2021 Research Associate (Assegno di Ricerca) with Prof. P. Fattori, Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Visuomotor Processes, Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy.
09/2015 – 04/2019 Research Associate with Prof. M. Rosa, Laboratory of Visual Neurophysiology, Department of Physiology and Monash Biomedical Discovery Institute, Monash University, Australia.
09/2013 - 08/2015 Pre-Clinical Research Team, Monash Vision Group, Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative for Bionic Vision, Monash University, Australia.
09/2011 - 08/2013 Post-doctoral Researcher with Prof. C. Galletti, Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Visuomotor Processes, Department of Physiology, University of Bologna, Italy.
01/2009 - 08/2011 Post-doctoral Researcher with Prof. P. Fattori, Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Visuomotor Processes, Department of Physiology, University of Bologna, Italy.
06/2006 - 12/2008 Post-doctoral Researcher with Prof. A. Parker, Laboratory of Physiology, Department of Physiology, Human Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, UK.
06/1999 - 06/2006 Ph.D. student, Program of Neurosciences/Brain and Mind Sciences, Medical School, University of Crete, Greece, Supervisor: Prof. A. Moschovakis. Ph.D. Thesis title: “Neural control of gaze shifts: neuroanatomical and neurophysiological studies”.
10/1996 - 10/1998 Graduate Program in Neurosciences, Department of Basic Sciences, Medical School, University of Crete, Greece, First cycle, leading to the award of MSc.
10/1995 - 05/1996 Postgraduate research in electrophysiology with Prof. G. Kostopoulos at Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Medical School, University of Patras, Greece: Extracellular field recordings in hippocampal slice preparations of rats.
10/1994 - 09/1995 Undergraduate research in molecular biology with Prof. N. Gavalas, Department of Biology, University of Patras, Greece. Thesis title: ‘Study of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase from the C4 plant Cynodon dactylon’.
ADDITIONAL SCIENTIFIC TRAINING
09-11/1999: Visit to the laboratory of A. Grantyn, College de France: Neuroanatomical study of the primate superior colliculus, with application of trans-neuronal tracers (rabies virus).
05-11/2004: Visit to the laboratory of Prof. U. Buttner at the Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet, Munich, Germany, under a Marie-Curie short term fellowship: Single unit recordings of the deep cerebellar nuclei of monkeys during coordinated eye-head movements.
09/2008: Visit to the laboratory of Prof. A. Thiele Institute of Neuroscience, University of Newcastle, UK: Effect of local injections of neuromodulators on the attentional modulation in visual area V4.
CAREER INTERRUPTION
7/2001 - 12/2002 Compulsory military service.
PUBLICATIONS (different spelling of surname): Refereed journal articles
- Papers have been cited 399 times, including two papers with more than 50 citations. This led to h-index of 11, h10-index of 11 (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zCxflrUAAAAJ&hl=en ).
1) De Vitis M, Breveglieri R, Hadjidimitrakis K, Vanduffel W, Galletti C, Fattori P (2019). Segregated processing
of reach depth and direction signals in the macaque area PE. Brain Structure & Function, 224: 2537-2557.
2) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bakola S, Chaplin TA, Yu HH, Alanazi O, Chan JM, Worthy KH, Rosa MGP (2019). Topographic Organization of the 'Third-Tier' Dorsomedial Visual Cortex in the Macaque. J Neurosci. 39(27):5311-5325.
3) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bakola S, Wong YT, Hagan MA. (2019) Mixed Spatial and Movement Representations in the Primate Posterior Parietal Cortex. Front. Neural Circuits. 13:15
4) Filippini M, Breveglieri R, Hadjidimitrakis K, Bosco A, Fattori P (2018). Decoding of reaching targets in 3D space from monkey posterior area V6A. Cell Reports, 23(3):725-732.
5) Hietanen M, Price NSC, Cloherty SP, Hadjidimitrakis K, Ibbotson MR (2017). Long-term sensorimotor adaptation in the ocular following system of primates. PLoS One 12: e0189030.
6) Hadjidimitrakis K*, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Galletti C, Fattori P (2017). Temporal stability of reference frames in monkey area V6A during a reaching task in 3D space. Brain Structure and Function 222(4):1959-1970 (*corresponding author).
7) Piserchia V, Breveglieri R, Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Galletti C, Fattori P (2017). Mixed Body/Hand Reference Frame for Reaching in 3D Space in Macaque Parietal Area PEc. Cerebral Cortex 27(3):1976-1990.
8) Bosco A, Breveglieri R, Hadjidimitrakis K, Galletti C, Fattori P (2016). Reference frames for reaching when decoupling eye and target position in depth and direction. Scientific Reports 6:21646.
9) Hadjidimitrakis K*, Dal Bo G, Breveglieri R, Galletti C, Fattori P (2015). Overlapping representations for reach depth and direction in caudal superior parietal lobule of macaques. Journal of Neurophysiology 114:2340-2352 (*corresponding author).
10) Breveglieri R, Galletti C, Dal Bo’ G, Hadjidimitrakis K, Fattori P (2014). Multiple aspects of neural activity during reaching preparation in the medial posterior parietal area V6A. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 26(4):878-95.
11) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Fattori P, Galletti C (2014). Body-centered, mixed, but not-hand centered coding of visual targets in the medial posterior parietal cortex during reaching in 3D space. Cerebral Cortex 24:3209-20.
12) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Bosco A, Galletti C, Fattori P (2014). Common neural substrate for processing depth and direction signals for reaching in monkey medial posterior parietal cortex. Cerebral Cortex 24:1645-57.
13) Hadjidimitrakis K, Breveglieri R, Bosco A, Fattori P (2012). Three-dimensional eye position signals shape both peripersonal space and arm movement activity in the medial posterior parietal cortex. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 6:37, invited review.
14) Breveglieri R*, Hadjidimitrakis K*, Bosco A, Sabatini S P, Galletti C, Fattori P (2012). Eye-position encoding in three-dimensional space: integration of version and vergence signals in the medial posterior parietal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 32: 159-169 (*equal contribution by the first two authors).
15) Hadjidimitrakis K, Breveglieri R, Placenti G, Bosco A, Sabatini S, Fattori P (2011). Fix your eyes in the space you could reach: Neurons in the macaque medial parietal cortex prefer gaze positions in the peripersonal space. PLoS One 6: e23335.
16) Hadjidimitrakis K, Moschovakis AK, Dalezios Y, Grantyn A (2007). Eye position modulates the electromyographic responses of neck muscles to electrical stimulation of the superior colliculus in the alert cat. Experimental Brain Research 179: 1-16.
17) Moschovakis AK, Gregoriou GG, Ugolini G, Doldan M, Graf W, Guldin W, Hadjidimitrakis K, Savaki HE (2004). Oculomotor areas of the primate frontal lobes: a transneuronal transfer of rabies virus and [14C]-2-deoxyglucose functional imaging study. Journal of Neuroscience 24: 5726-5740.
18) Grantyn A, Brandi AM, Dubayle D, Graf W, Ugolini G, Hadjidimitrakis K, Moschovakis AK (2002). Density gradients of trans-synaptically labelled collicular neurons after injections of rabies virus in the lateral rectus muscle of the rhesus monkey. Journal of Comparative Neurology 451: 346-361.
19) Salahas G, Hatzidimitrakis K, Georgiou CD, Angelopopulos K, Gavalas NA. 1997. Phosphate and sulfate activate the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase from the C4 plant Cynodon dactylon L. Botanica Acta 110, 309–313.
Manuscripts submitted/in preparation
1) Hadjidimitrakis K, Ghodratti M, Breveglieri R, Rosa M, Fattori P. Neural coding of action in 3 dimensions: Task- and time-invariant reference frames for visuospatial and motor-related activity in parietal area.
2) Filippini M, Morris AP, Hadjidimitrakis K, Breveglieri R, Fattori P. Exploiting V6A multiple signals from parietal cortex signals to drive cognitive neuroprosthetics.
Publications: Selected Conference presentations
1) De Vitis M, Hadjidimitrakis K, Breveglieri R, Bosco A, Galletti C, Fattori P (2017). Segregated processing
of reach depth and direction signals in the macaque area PE. Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC, USA
2) Filippini M, Breveglieri R, Hadjidimitrakis K, Bosco A, Fattori P (2017). Decoding of reaching targets in 3D space from monkey posterior area V6A. Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC, USA
3)Hadjidimitrakis K, Alanazi O, Chaplin T, Chan J, Yu HH, Bakola S, Rosa M (2015). Topographic organization of the “third tier” dorsomedial visual cortex in the macaque monkey. Society for Neuroscience, Chicago USA.
4) Hadjidimitrakis K, Dal Bo’ G, Breveglieri R, Galletti C, Rosa MGP, Fattori P (2015). Visuospatial and somatomotor represenations of the direction and extent of reaching movements in the parietal cortex of monkeys. 25th International Society of Neurochemistry Biennial Meeting in conjuction with Australasian Neuroscience Society, Cairns, Australia.
5) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Bosco A, Galletti C, Rosa MGP, Fattori P (2014).
Evolution of reference frames in posterior parietal area V6A of macaques during arm movements in 3D space. Federation of European Neuroscience Societies 9th Forum, Milan, Italy.
6) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Rosa MGP, Galletti C, Fattori P (2013). Body-centered, mixed, but not hand-centered coding of visual targets in the medial posterior parietal cortex of macaque monkeys during reaches in 3D space. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, USA.
7) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Bosco A, Dal Bo’ G, Galletti C, Fattori P (2011). Visually guided arm movements in 3D space: Spatial tuning in fixation, preparation and reaching activity in monkey medial posterior parietal cortex (oral presentation). Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC, USA.
8) Hadjidimitrakis K, Bertozzi F, Breveglieri R, Dal Bo’ G, Bosco A, Galletti C, Fattori P (2011). Fix your eyes where you can reach: neurons in the macaque medial parietal cortex prefer gaze positions in peripersonal space. International Brain Research Organization 8th World Congress, Florence, Italy,
9) Hadjidimitrakis K, Breveglieri R, Bosco A, Placenti G, Bertozzi F, Fattori P, Galletti C (2010). Fixation in depth reveals a preference for reachable space in the macaque medial parieto-occipital cortex. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, USA.
10) Hadjidimitrakis K, Moschovakis AK, Dalezios Y, Grantyn A (2006). Eye position dependent mapping from the superior colliculus to neck muscles. Federation of European Neuroscience Societies 5th Forum, Vienna, Austria
INVITED TALKS
2010 ‘Coding of fixation-in-depth in the parieto-occipital cortex.’
‘EYESHOTS’ 7th Frame Network Meeting, Milan, Italy.
2014 ‘Sensorimotor transformations for reaching and grasping in posterior parietal cortex’.
Mini-symposium, Society for Neuroscience meeting, Washington DC, US.
2016 ‘Encoding and decoding of 3D reaches from neural populations of the posterior parietal cortex in macaques’.
36th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Neuroscience Society, Hobart, Australia.
2019 ‘Topographic organization of the “third tier” dorsomedial visual cortex in the macaque’.
Federation of European Physiological Societies and Italian Physiological Society Meeting, Bologna, Italy.
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS
1999: Competitive Fellowship for PhD awarded by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation.
2004: Marie Curie short-term Fellowship, Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet, Germany, “Role of the dentate nucleus in eye-head coordination”.
2014: Travel award to Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Monash Vision Group, Monash University, Australia.
2015: Travel award to Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Department of Physiology, Monash University, Australia.
FUNDING
Project Title
Funding source
Amount €
Period
Role of the PI
Plasticity of perceptual space under sensorimotor interactions
EU, Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) program
1200K €
2017-2021
Co-Investigator
(with Lappe, Fattori, Rucci, Bremmer, Wahl, Rosa, Morris, Watson)
Visuomotor integration in medial parietal cortical areas
National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant, Australia
445K €
2015-2017
Co-Chief Investigator
(with Rosa, Fattori, Bakola)
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
My appointments in Australia (6 years) and UK (2 years) involved a considerable amount of teaching and tutoring activities that required an advanced level of proficient use of English. These activities are described in more detail below:
2014 – 2017: Department of Physiology, Monash University. PHY3111“Sensation and Movement” Course Unit for BSc students in Biomedical Sciences. My duties involved lecturing, examination, demonstrating and grading practical classes.
2014 – 2019: Department of Physiology, Monash University. PHY4001 “Honours in Physiology” Research Unit for MSc students in Biomedical Sciences. I served as examiner of MSc students’ presentations, literature reviews and final theses.
2014 – 2019: Department of Physiology, Monash University. PHY3990 “Research in Action” Research Unit for BSc students in Biomedical Sciences and in Electrical Engineering. I served as examiner of student presentations and final theses.
2007-2008: Department of Physiology, Oxford University. I served as tutor in the practical courses on binocular vision.
SUPERVISING
During my appointment in Australia I supervised one postdoc and mentored 10 undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students.
2018 A. Torazzi, MSc student (University of Bologna), Department of Physiology, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Prof. R. Breveglieri).
2018 M. Filippini, Visiting PhD student (University of Bologna), Department of Physiology, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Dr. A. Morris).
2017-2018 M. Ghodratti, Postgraduate research assistant, Department of Physiology, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Prof. M. Rosa).
2017 S. Narayanan Vaniya, PhD candidate, Department of Physiology, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Dr. L. Lui).
2017 J. Sultani, A.Chong, Honours students, Department of Engineering, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Dr. Y. Wong).
2016 J. Kim. Undergraduate research assistant, Department of Engineering, Monash University.
2015 Dr Y. Mokri, Postdoctoral research assistant, Department of Physiology, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Prof. M. Rosa).
2014 D. Pires, Undergraduate student attending the research academic unit “Physiology in Action”, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Prof. M. Rosa).
2014 O. Alanazi, Honours in Medicine, Monash University (Co-supervisor with Prof. M. Rosa).
2013-2016 J. Chan. Undergraduate research assistant, Department of Physiology, Monash University.
COMMISSIONS OF TRUST
Editorial Board, Journal of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Reviewing member of the Faculty of F1000.
Reviewer for international journals (Cerebral Cortex, Journal of Neurophysiology, Scientific Reports, PLoS One, Vision Research, among others).
Reviewer for funding agencies (National Health Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council).
MEMBERSHIPS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES (2017)
Society for Neuroscience
Australasian Neuroscience Society
MAJOR COLLABORATIONS
Profs. Patrizia Fattori and Claudio Galletti (Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna): Studies of reaching and grasping in primates.
Prof. Arthur Lowery (Department of Engineering, Monash University): Vision prosthesis.
Prof. Michael Ibbotson (Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Melbourne): Visual and Ocular Motor processing.
Dr Adam Morris (Department of Physiology, Monash University): Eye position signals in the dorsal visual stream areas.
Dr Hsin-Hao Yu (Department of Physiology, Monash University): Topographic organization of extrastriate visual areas.
Dr. Yan Wong (Department of Engineering, Monash University): Implantating multielectrode arrays in the non-human primate cortex.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2015 Participation in Monash Neurophysiology meeting, reviewing suggested policies on ethical considerations on animal research.
2018 Building warden, Building 13F Annex, Department of Physiology, Monash University
