Members

Principal Investigator, Julio Martinez-Trujillo, MD, Ph.D.

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

Postdoctoral Fellow, Michael Feyerabend

Michael Feyerabend

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral fellow, Milad Khaki

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!

Postdoctoral Fellow, Diane Seguin

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.

Research Scientist, Susheel Vijayraghavan

Susheel Vijayraghavan

Research Scientist

Ph.D. Student, William Assis

William Assis

Ph.D. Student

 
Postdoctoral fellow, Guillaume Doucet

Guillaume Doucet

Postdoctoral Fellow

gdoucet@uwo.ca
Ph.D. Student, Diego Buitrago-Piza

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.

 
Ph.D. Student, Benjamin Corrigan

Benjamin Corrigan

Ph.D. Student

bcorrig2@uwo.ca
Ph.D. Student, Michelle Jimenez-Sosa

Michelle Jimenez-Sosa

Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student, Borna Mahmoudian

Borna Mahmoudian

Ph.D. Student

 
Ph.D. Student, Nasim Mortazavi

 

Nasim Mortazavi

Ph.D. Student

nmortaza@uwo.ca

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.

 
Ph.D. Student, Kartik Pradeepan

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.

Ph.D. Student, Vaishnavi Sukumar 

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.

Ph.D. Student, Julia Sunstrum

Julia Sunstrum

Ph.D. Student

M.Sc. Student, Nika Khajehdehi

Nika Khajehdehi

M.Sc. Student

Research Assistant, Hitarth Dalal

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. 

Alumni Postdoctoral Fellow, Rogelio Luna

Rogelio Luna

Postdoctoral Fellow

rluna@uwo.ca
Alumni Postdoctoral fellow, Eric Kuebler

Eric Kuebler

Postdoctoral fellow

Alumni Ph.D., Megan Roussy

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.

 
Alumni M.Sc., Mohadese Khosravi

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