Individual differences in functional brain representations: a novel framework for precision neuroscience
Neural Engineering Seminar Series

ABSTRACT:

Individual differences in conceptual representations have been difficult to measure, limiting precision medicine approaches for cognitive disorders. We developed a statistical framework for characterizing individual differences in brain representations recovered from fMRI data. Applying this framework to story-listening data revealed systematic individual differences in conceptual representations. Variability was highest in social processing regions, potentially reflecting cognitive traits unique to each person. By enabling precise measurement of individual differences in brain representations, our framework establishes a foundation for fMRI applications in precision medicine.

BIOGRAPHY:

Matteo is an Assistant Project Scientist in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, working in Jack Gallant’s lab. His research develops computational methods to understand how the human brain represents meaning and how these representations vary across individuals. He is working to translate these methods from cognitive neuroscience to clinical neurology, with the goal of making fMRI a diagnostic tool for neurological disorders. Matteo earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth, where he worked with Ida Gobbini and Jim Haxby studying how the brain represents personally familiar people.