Research Interests / Specializations
Provincial Endowed Academic Chair in Autism
Contact Information
Robarts Research Institute
519-931-5777 x24383
julio.martinez@robarts.ca
Biography
Julio Martinez-Trujillo is Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology in the Faculty of Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. He holds an Provincially Endowed Academic Chair in Autism and is a Scientist at the Robarts Research Institute. Prior to joining Western University in 2014, he was Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience at McGill University
Michael Feyerabend
Postdoctoral Fellow
Milad Khaki
(Postdoctoral Fellow)
I am currently doing my postdoc in the Cognitive Neurophysiology and Developing Brain lab. My main research interest is doing the optimization of practical research problems using constraint programming and a diverse set of techniques adopted from Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. I have done various works from Satellite Phased Array antenna optimization, Big Data analysis of Smart water meter data, to the standardization of data and machine learning-based analysis in Water construction projects in my research.
Finally, I have fine-tuned my passion in the application of artificial intelligence in cognitive neurophysiology. I am currently involved with several projects in Dr. Martinez-Trujillo’s lab: working memory and 3d representation in rhesus macaque monkeys, application of AI in Epilepsy, and a few other projects!
Diane Seguin, PhD is currently a post doc in the Cognitive Neurophysiology and Developing Brain labs. Her graduate work at the University of Toronto focused on the effects of low-dose fetal alcohol on social behaviours using a pre-clinical model. Diane’s postdoctoral work is building on her research interests in neurodevelopmental disorders. She is currently studying social communication and eye gaze behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorders using eye-tracking and neuroimaging methods. She is also investigating amygdala subnuclei using MRI and immunohistochemistry to uncover how differences in size and cellular composition of these brain regions contribute to behaviours such as stereotypy and altered social communication often seen in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Susheel Vijayraghavan
Research Scientist
William Assis
Ph.D. Student
Guillaume Doucet
Postdoctoral Fellow
Diego Buitrago-Piza
Ph.D. Student
My name is Diego, and I am studying the representation of space in the hippocampus of freely-moving marmosets. I also measure head movement kinematics in three dimensions as a way to understand visual exploratory behaviour in marmosets.
Benjamin Corrigan
Ph.D. StudentMichelle Jimenez-Sosa
Ph.D. Student
Borna Mahmoudian
Ph.D. Student
Nasim Mortazavi
Ph.D. Student
I am a Ph.D. student in neuroscience studying associative learning in drug resistance epilepsy humans under co-supervisions of Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo and Dr. Ana Suller-Marti.
My research work is involved in investigating the neural representation of a behavioural learning task in epilepsy humans.
Kartik Pradeepan
Ph.D. Student
Kartik is a Ph.D. student co-supervised by Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo and Dr. Lyle Muller. He received his Bachelor of Science with an honours double major in Genetics and Physiology from Western University. His research involves computationally modelling early circuit development of human stem cell-derived Autism Spectrum Disorder and Rett Syndrome neurons from patients with specific associated mutations. Using electrophysiological data from these neurons on a multielectrode array, he is investing the single unit and network-level differences of these neurons. He also has a passion for scientific communication and open science, working on many projects associated with disseminating collaborative neuroscientific data and recent research.
Vaishnavi Sukumar
Ph.D. Student
vsukuma@uwo.ca
I am a Ph.D. student co-supervised in the Martinez and Pruszynski labs at Western University. I am interested in central and peripheral processing of sensorimotor information as well as motor control. I am interested in both neurophysiological and behavioural experiments, across species. In my spare time, I love to read non-scientific material (fiction and non-fiction), cook, create craftwork in different mediums (beads, wool, wire, paper, etc.) and play/listen to music. Someday I’d like to see the stars from different parts of the world.
Julia Sunstrum
Ph.D. Student
Nika Khajehdehi
M.Sc. Student
Hitarth Dalal
Research Assistant
My name is Hitarth Dalal and I am currently a research assistant at the JMT lab. I first met Julio through a neuroscience class and quickly became a part of the lab as an undergraduate student. I obtained first-hand experience on effective psychophysics experimentation using virtual-reality software and constructing a behavioural paradigm for non-human primates. Currently, I am working on a macaque amygdala implantation project with Borna.
Rogelio Luna
Postdoctoral Fellow
Eric Kuebler
Postdoctoral fellow
Megan Roussy
Ph.D. Student
I’m a 4th year Ph.D. student studying working memory in non-human primates. My research focuses on neural correlates of spatial working memory in complex naturalistic environments which are developed using virtual reality engines. I am also interested in pathophysiology of prefrontal cortex cognitive circuits and study this using ketamine which mimics cognitive dysfunction seen in schizophrenia and related disorders.
Mohadese Khosravi
M.Sc. Student
Hello! I am a M.Sc. student working with wonderful people in Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Laboratory (CDNL) as well as Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory. My research interest revolves around development of executive functions and neurodevelopmental disorders. My project co-supervised by Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo and Dr. J. Bruce Morton is particularly about the development of working memory in common marmosets. Marmoset monkeys are a promising model for studying cognitive development that enables better understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders. Though, we currently don’t have a quantitative assessment of working memory in juvenile marmosets. In my master’s project, I focus on designing touch screen measurements to assess working memory performance in juvenile marmosets. I am very excited about my project as it opens a door for me to investigate working memory development.
Mkhosra7@uwo.ca