esandoval@berkeley.edu
Current Research
I am co-mentored by Robert T. Knight in the Department of Psychology and Michael DeWeese in Redwood and the Department of Physics. In the DeWeese lab, I have implemented STDP rules in a spiking neural network(SAILnet) to allow us to use time-varying data as input to the model. My current project involves developing a causal model of sparse coding for auditory nerve fibers. My current research interests in the DeWeese all involve some flavor of time, whether it be prediction of time series, or dynamical systems of the mind or brain.
In the Knight lab, I analyze human intra-cranial data while patients in the hospital complete various tasks. I look at both intracranial LFP, microLFP, and single unit data. Currently interested in gamma, theta, and beta oscillations. My immediate projects are to compare neural correlates of behavior across iEEG(5 mm), microLFP(5 um), and single unit data within the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and hippocampus during the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task and the Interval Timing Task.
Bio
My past research has involved:
Combining all my experiences, I strive to be a computational neuroscientist that thinks about multiple scales of organization at once, from the importance of information processing across a single synapse, up to population level ideas about information processing and how cognition can arise from that, and moreover how this occurs from physical phenomena whether that be via physical constraints of neural architectures, or symmetry in the sensory environment that can be exploited by the brain. In my free time, I like to dance salsa, cook, garden, and play with electronics.