Tarana Nigam

"Flexibility and optimization of neural codes in the primate sensory cortex"

I work on how context-dependent flexibility of neural codes occurs in the primate visual cortex. I investigated the neural mechanisms that underlie effects of statistical learning & predictive context on sensory representations in the macaque face-processing network using both fMRI and multi-channel in-vivo electrophysiology. I recently found that predictions conveyed through top-down signaling make neural codes highly separable and flexibly transform them towards higher-order invariant geometries. I have also investigated how context-dependent flexible optimization of neural codes occur when multiple task demands exist using intracranial electrophysiology in human epilepsy patients.

I'm interested in the building blocks of intelligence: neural and computational mechanisms in rapid learning, generalization/abstraction, cognitive flexibility, contextual and learning effects on perception. I am curious about how we learn and form mental models of the world and use them for intelligent behavior.

• Lehr, A., Henneberg, N., Nigam, T., Paulus, W., & Antal, A. (2019).Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
• Caruso, N. et al. (2022)An intragenic FAT1 regulatory element deleted in muscular dystrophy patients drives muscle and mesenchyme expression during development
• Lehr, A., Henneberg, N., Nigam, T., Paulus, W., & Antal, A. (2019) Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
• Nigam, T., & Schwiedrzik, C. M. (2024). Predictions enable top-down pattern separation in the macaque face-processing hierarchy
• Schwiedrzik, C. P. D., Schwiedrzik, C. P. D., & Gail, A. P. D. (2025).Flexibility and optimization of neural codes in primate sensory cortex