Research strand: modelling of the neural mechanisms underlying the emergence of cognitive functions in the brain -- in particular, language acquisition and processing, and spontaneous decision making processes (such as volitional action and free will).
- I simulate the emergence of such higher-level functions starting from an initially randomly connected uniform neural substrate, and by means of exclusively unsupervised learning mechanisms which closely mimic synaptic plasticity phenomena known to exist in the cerebral cortex.
- In parallel to neurocomputational simulations, I also collaborate with experimentalists to apply brain imaging and behavioural methods to test and validate the predictions emerging from the computational models.
