Meropi Topalidou Email & Phone Number

Greece

Greece

Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece

Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece

Orange County, California Area

Developing neurally feasible computational models of speech production that is integrated with and informed by ongoing work on speech production using a wide range of methods including functional imaging, lesion, and intracranial electrocorticography (ECoG) and stimulation mapping.

Bordeaux Area, France

Title: Neuroscience of decision making: from goal-directed actions to habitsSupervisor: Nicolas P. RougierDescription: Action-outcome and stimulus-response processes are two important components of behavior. The former evaluates the benefit of an action in order to choose the best action among those available (action selection), while the latter is responsible for automatic behavior, eliciting a response as soon as a known stimulus is present. Such habits are generally associated (and mostly opposed) to goal-directed actions that require a deliberative process to evaluate the best option to take in order to reach a given goal. Using a computational model, we investigated the classic hypothesis of habits formation and expression in the basal ganglia and proposed a new hypothesis concerning the respective role for both the basal ganglia and the cortex. Inspired by previous theoretical and experimental works (Leblois et al., 2006; Guthrie et al., 2013), we designed a computational model of the basal ganglia-thalamus-cortex that uses segregated loops (motor, cognitive and associative) and makes the hypothesis that basal ganglia are only necessary for the acquisition of habits while the expression of such habits can be mediated through the cortex. Furthermore, this model predicts the existence of covert learning within the basal ganglia when their output is inhibited. Using a two-armed bandit task, this hypothesis has been experimentally tested and confirmed in monkeys. Finally, this work suggests revising the classical idea that automatism is a subcortical feature.

Nancy Area, France

Title: Touch and the BodySupervisor: Nicolas P. RougierDescription: During my internship, I explored the representations in both motor and primary sensory cortex. Using self-organizing maps (SOM), I designed a model that learns sensory and motor representation together such that the model is able to initiate a movement where it had been touched.

Athens

Title: Automatic analysis of cerebral activity by patch clamp recordings and field potentials (local field potentials, LFPs)Master Thesis Advisor: Alexandros EleftheriadisDescription: We developed a methodology for the analysis of electrical signals from electrophysiological recordings of brain activity over time (cluster analysis, cross-correlation analysis, time-series analysis).

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Computational Neuroscience

Activities and Societies: Member of the MNEMOSYNE team-projectNeuroscience of decision making: from goal-directed actions to habits.

Master'S Degree, Medical Informatics

Bachelor Of Applied Science (Basc), Applied Mathematics