Our history
The Tactile Perception and Learning Lab was founded in 1997,
when Mathew Diamond established his research activity in SISSA.
Current members
Lab members come from various backgrounds and are focused on different projects, read more about the experiments we are currently conducting on the Research page.
Feel free to contact us for details about our research projects and academic experience!
Davide Giana
Post Doc
Davide joined the Lab in 2017 during his Master's Degree in Neuroscience at the University of Trieste. He began his Ph.D. project in 2019 and is currently working as a post-doc in the lab in collaboration with Cynexo.
Christophe Schülke
Post Doc
Christophe joined the Lab in 2024 with a Bridge Postdoc postdoctoral fellowship. He will use novel machine learning and neural networks approaches to investigate the statistical structures that emerge in large neuronal populations during the course of learning. He will work with SENSEx and with Sebastian Goldt, head of the Theory of Neural Networks Group of the SISSA Physics department.
Yukti Chopra
PhD student, Year IV
Yukti joined the Lab as a graduate student in 2021. Currently she's investigating memory systems under perceptual one back memory task using human behaviour.
Aybüke Durmaz
PhD student, Year IV
adurmaz@sissa.it
Aybüke joined the Lab during her Master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2020 as a part of a joint program between SISSA & CIMeC. She is currently doing her Ph.D. under the supervision of Domenica Bueti (SISSA/Neuroscience), and co-supervision by Mathew Diamond, as well as Edgar Roldán (ICTP/Statistical physics). Her Ph.D. project mainly focuses on human perceptual decision-making of nonequilibrium fluctuations, which is a physical property of stimulus dynamics used in statistical thermodynamics.
Maria Ravera
PhD student, Year IV
Maria joined the Lab in 2019 during her Master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience as a part of a joint program between SISSA & CIMeC. Her Ph.D. research is focused on understanding the combination between the sensory and non-sensory aspects of decision-making in rats and humans.
Marlen Gironimi
PhD student, Year III
Marlen joined the Lab in 2021, during her Master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience. Her Ph.D. project focuses on investigating how executive functions are implemented in the tactile sensory system of rodents.
Monica Paoletti
PhD student, Year II
Monica joined the Lab in 2023 as a Ph.D. student after completing her Master’s degree in Mathematics. Her PhD research is carried out in collaboration with Eugenio Piasini’s Lab. Her focus is the development of the brain's model of choice strategies adopted by humans and rats in sequential decision-making experiments.
Jiajun Zou
PhD student, Year I
jzou@sissa.it
Jiajun joined the Lab in 2024 as a Ph.D. student. Before arriving, Zou was studying CA1 in behaving rats for his Master's degree in Neurobiology under the supervision of Prof. Longnian Lin at East China Normal University in Shanghai.
Amisha Aparupa
PhD student, Year I
Amisha joined the Lab in 2024 after completing her Master's from the National Institute of Science Education and Research in India, where she investigated the role of the amygdala in the hypothalmic regulation of energy homeostasis under the supervision of Prof. Praful Singru.
Her Ph.D. project will be co-supervised by our PI Mathew Diamond and Prof. Paul Heppenstall.
Elif Duran
pre-doc student
eduran@sissa.it
Elif joined the lab in 2024, as a pre-PhD student, after completing her Master's degree in Experimental Psychology in Turkey.
Tatiana Potracov
Master student
Tatiana joined the lab in 2024 as an intern during her Master's degree in Neuroscience from the University of Trieste.
Alumni
Alessandro Toso - now Post Doc at the Center for Experimental Medicine in Hamburg, Germany
Annachiara Guglietti - now Ph.D. student at Bordeaux Neurocampus, France
Arash Fassihi Zakeri - now Post Doc at the University of California San Diego, USA
Arianna Cella - now Ph.D. student in the Department for BioMedical Research at Bern University, Switzerland
Iacopo Hachen - now Post Doc at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior at Konstanz, Germany
Lisa Fontana - now Ph.D. student in the Cognitive Ecology Group, Australian National University
Mario Fontanini - now Ph.D. student in the Neurons and Nanomaterials Lab, SISSA, Italy
Sebastian Reinartz - now Post Doc in the Brain and Sound Lab, Basel University, Switzerland
Zahra Yousefi Darani - now Post Doc at the German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany
We collaborate with SISSA's Mechatronics unit and CyNexo, a SISSA start-up, for custom designed hardware and software.
