Professor Máté Lengyel University positionProfessor Professor Máté Lengyel is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students. DepartmentsHome pagehttp://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~m.lengyel (personal home page) Research ThemesInterestsI study learning and memory from computational, algorithmic/representational and neurobiological viewpoints. I also maintain an active interest in the possible computational functions of neural oscillations, particularly those present in the hippocampus and neocortex. Computationally and algorithmically, I use ideas from Bayesian approaches to statistical inference and reinforcement learning to characterize the goals and mechanisms of learning in terms of normative principles and behavioral results. I also perform dynamical systems analyses of reduced biophysical models to understand the mapping of these mechanisms into cellular and network models. I collaborate very closely with experimental neuroscience groups, doing in vitro intracellular recordings, multi-unit recordings in behaving animals, and human psychophysical experiments.  Recall of a memory represented by spike times (white ticks): recall starts from a noisy representation (left) that is then gradually cleaned up (right) Click image to view full-size Research Focus
EquipmentComputational modelling Collaborators
Associated News Items
Key publicationsHoulsby NM, Huszár F, Ghassemi MM, Orbán G, Wolpert DM, Lengyel M (2013), “Cognitive tomography reveals complex, task-independent mental representations.” Curr Biol 23(21):2169-75 Details Berkes P, Orbán G, Lengyel M, Fiser J (2011), “Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment.” Science 331(6013):83-7 Details Pfister J-P, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2010), “Synapses with short-term plasticity are optimal estimators of presynaptic membrane potentials” Nat Neurosci 13: 1271-1275 Lengyel M, Dayan P (2008), “Hippocampal contributions to control: the third way.” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 20:889-896 Orbán G, Fiser J, Aslin RN, Lengyel M (2008), “Bayesian learning of visual chunks by human observers” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105:2745-2750 Details Lengyel M, Kwag J, Paulsen O, Dayan P (2005), “Matching storage and recall: hippocampal spike timing-dependent plasticity and phase response curves.” Nat Neurosci 8(12):1677-83 Details Lengyel M, Szatmáry Z, Erdi P (2003), “Dynamically detuned oscillations account for the coupled rate and temporal code of place cell firing.” Hippocampus 13(6):700-14 Details Publications2014Savin C, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2014), “Optimal recall from bounded metaplastic synapses: predicting functional adaptations in hippocampal area CA3.” PLoS Comput Biol 10(2):e1003489 Details 2013Fiser J, Lengyel M, Savin C, Orbán G, Berkes P (2013), “How (not) to assess the importance of correlations for the matching of spontaneous and evoked activity” arXiV 1301.6554 Savin C, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2013), “Correlations strike back (again): the case of associative memory retrieval” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 26: 288-96 2012Remme MWH, Lengyel M, Gutkin BS (2012), “A theoretical framework for the dynamics of multiple intrinsic oscillators in single neurons” Phase response curves in neuroscience: theory, experiment, and analysis pp. 53-72 2011Houlsby N, Huszár F, Ghahramani Z, Lengyel (2011), “Bayesian Active Learning for Classification and Preference Learning” arXiV 1112.5745 Savin C, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2011), “Two is better than one: distinct roles for familiarity and recollection in retrieving palimpsest memories” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 24: 1305-1313 Ujfalussy B, Lengyel M (2011), “Active dendrites: adaptation to spike-based communication” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 24: 1188-1196 2010Fiser J, Berkes P, Orbán G, Lengyel M (2010), “Statistically optimal perception and learning: from behavior to neural representations.” Trends Cogn Sci 14(3):119-30 Details Huszár F, Noppeney U, Lengyel M (2010), “Mind reading by machine learning: A doubly Bayesian method for inferring mental representations” Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society 2810-2815 Pfister JP, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2010), “Synapses with short-term plasticity are optimal estimators of presynaptic membrane potentials.” Nat Neurosci 13(10):1271-5 Details Remme MW, Lengyel M, Gutkin BS (2010), “Democracy-independence trade-off in oscillating dendrites and its implications for grid cells.” Neuron 66(3):429-37 Details 2009Pfister JP, Dayan P, Lengyel M (2009), “Know thy neighbour: a normative theory of synaptic depression” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22: 1464-1472 Remme MW, Lengyel M, Gutkin BS (2009), “The role of ongoing dendritic oscillations in single-neuron dynamics.” PLoS Comput Biol 5(9):e1000493 Details 2008Latham PE, Lengyel M (2008), “Phase coding: spikes get a boost from local fields.” Curr Biol 18(8):R349-51 Details 2007Lengyel M, Dayan P (2007), “Uncertainty, phase, and oscillatory hippocampal recall.” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 19:833–840 2006Orbán G, Fiser J, Aslin RN, Lengyel M (2006), “Learning objects by learning models: finding independent causes and preferring simplicity.” Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society 645-650 Orbán G, Fiser J, Aslin RN, Lengyel M (2006), “Bayesian model learning in human visual perception. ” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 18:1043-1050 2005Huhn Z, Orbán G, Erdi P, Lengyel M (2005), “Theta oscillation-coupled dendritic spiking integrates inputs on a long time scale.” Hippocampus 15(7):950-62 Details Lengyel M, Dayan P (2005), “Rate- and phase-coded autoassociative memory” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 17:769-776 Lengyel M, Huhn Z, Erdi P (2005), “Computational theories on the function of theta oscillations.” Biol Cybern 92(6):393-408 Details 2004Lengyel M, Erdi P (2004), “Theta-modulated feedforward network generates rate and phase coded firing in the entorhino-hippocampal system.” IEEE Trans Neural Netw 15(5):1092-9 Details 2003Zalányi L, Csárdi G, Kiss T, Lengyel M, Warner R, Tobochnik J, Erdi P (2003), “Properties of a random attachment growing network.” Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys 68(6 Pt 2):066104 Details 2001Orbán G, Kiss T, Lengyel M, Erdi P (2001), “Hippocampal rhythm generation: gamma-related theta-frequency resonance in CA3 interneurons.” Biol Cybern 84(2):123-32 Details 1999Bazsó F, Kepecs A, Lengyel M, Payrits S, Szalisznyó K, Zalányi L, Erdi P (1999), “Single cell and population activities in cortical-like systems.” Rev Neurosci 10(3-4):201-12 Details 1996Adorján P, Barna G, Erdi P, Gróbler T, Kepecs A, Lengyel M, Ventriglia F (1996), “Multicompartmental modeling of hippocampal pyramidal cells and interneurons with the GENESIS software tool.” Neurobiology (Bp) 4(3):247-9 Details |