Systems Neuroscience, Neuroethology, Complex Systems, Reinforcement Learning, Tool development, Motor Sequencing & Learning, Dynamical Systems, Electrophysiology, Neurophotonics.
Williams Lab, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurosurgery and Harvard Medical School.
Research Summary: Use novel ultrahigh resolution microelectrode arrays to study the processes by which humans produce and comprehend language: project design, neuronal analysis and modeling, and manuscript writing.
Gardner Lab, Boston University Department of Biology.
Research Summary: (1) Adapted calcium imaging techniques to awake behaving canaries and studied neural coding of correlated song sequences. The key finding was that hidden network states support behavior transition syntax rules with long-range history dependence. (2) Deep neural network algorithms development - outperforming the state-of-the-art method for birdsong annotation. (3) Collaborated with the Cogan lab from UT Dallas to develop scalable ultramicroelectrode arrays for neural stimulation and recording.
Paz and Schneidman labs, Weizmann Institute of Science Department of Neurobiology.
Research Summary: Modeled human classification learning. Found that visual feature-based reinforcement learning models can capture, predict and be used to influence behavior - and boost learning. Trained monkeys on classification tasks and recorded single neurons while the animals learned new rules. Developed a novel projection of neural activity on visual features to discover different learning dynamics in cortex and striatum.
Cohen Y, Schneidman E (2013) "High-order feature-based mixture models of classi cation learning predict individual learning curves and enable personalized teaching". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110:684689.
Cohen Y, Paz R (2015) "It All Depends on the Context, but Also on the Amygdala". Neuron 87: 4: 67880. (Preview)
Deku F, Cohen Y, Joshi-Imre A, Kanneganti A, Gardner TJ, and Cogan SF (2018) "Amorphous Silicon Carbide Ultramicroelectrode Arrays for Neural Stimulation and Recording". J. Neural Eng. 15, 016007.
Cohen Y, Shen J, Semu D, Otchy TM & Gardner TJ (2018) "Calcium imaging in canary (serinus canaria) HVC reveals latent states supporting behavioral sequencing with long range history dependence". in 2018 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience. doi:10.32470/CCN.2018.1133-0.
Deku F, Frewin C, Stiller A, Cohen Y, Aqeel S, Joshi-Imre A, Black B, Gardner TJ, Pancrazio JJ, and Cogan SF (2018) "Amorphous Silicon Carbide Platform for Next Generation Penetrating Neural Interface Designs". Micromachines, 9(10), 480.
Cohen Y, Nicholson DA, Gardner TJ (2020) "TweetyNet: A neural network that enables high-throughput, automated annotation of birdsong". bioRxiv (under review, eLife)
Cohen Y, Shen J, Semu D, Leman DP, Liberti WA III, Perkins N, and Gardner TJ (2020). "Hidden neural states underlie canary song syntax." Nature 582, 539–544.
Cohen Y, Schneidman E, Paz R (2020) "The geometry of neuronal representations during rule learning reveals complementary roles of cingulate cortex and putamen". Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.12.027
Cohen Y, Cvitanovic P, Solla SA (2021) "A novel approach to the empirical characterization of learning in biological systems". bioRxiv
Leman DP, Chen IA, Bolding KA, Tai J, Wilmerding LK, Gritton HJ, Cohen Y, Yen WW, Perkins LN, Liberti WA, Kilic K, Han X, Cruz-Martín A, Gardner TJ, Otchy TM, Davison IG (2021) "Large-scale cellular-resolution imaging of neural activity in freely behaving mice". bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.15.426462
Talk at Minna James Heinemann workshop, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Talk at PyData 2017, New York City, USA
Tutorial at SFN Birdsong sattelite conference, San Diego CA, USA
Popular lecture for school children at Devotion elementary school, Brookline, MA
Popular lectures for school children 2018 Overview: My presentations in a local elementary school, “What can we learn from songbirds?” aim to communicate the passion for science and describe some of the questions we have and how songbirds can help us answer them in the lab.
Ad Hoc Referee: journal of behavioral processes 2017-present
Ad Hoc Referee: PLoS Computational Biology 2020-present