Lab Members

André M. Bastos, PhD

Principle Investigator

Dr. Bastos received his PhD from the University of California, Davis (2013) where he worked with Drs. Ron Mangun and Marty Usrey on thalamocortical communication. During his PhD, Dr. Bastos was a Fulbright scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Pascal Fries at the F.C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, The Netherlands (and later at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Frankfurt, Germany). His studies with Dr. Fries focused on distinct oscillatory frequencies used in feedforward vs. feedback cortical communication. He was also a visiting student with Dr. Karl Friston at Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, where he first got interested in the theory of predictive coding. André then went on to work as a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Earl Miller at MIT and Dr. Nancy Kopell at Boston University where he used large-scale neuronal recordings to gain insight into predictive processing. He joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 2021 as an Assistant Professor of Psychology and member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute (VBI).

Meet the Team!

Staff

Kaitlyn Gabhart, BS

Lab Manager
Kaitlyn received her BS in Brain and Behavioral Sciences from Purdue University in 2020. Her undergraduate research involved investigating barriers to public health screening models in primary care settings (under Dr. Monica Kasting). After graduating, she worked as a case manager in Los Angeles, CA at a forensic mental health conditional release program, providing clinical support to populations with disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She joined the Bastos Lab in Spring 2022 to train non-human primates (NHPs) on tasks investigating the neurophysiology of prediction and working memory in the brain. She is interested in how these neurophysiological processes become abberrent in mental health disorders. Along with research, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and snowboarding.
Eli Sennesh, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow
Eli received his PhD from Northeastern University (2023), where he worked with Drs. Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Karen Quigley on probabilistic inference in brains and machines. He wrote his thesis with Dr. van de Meent on reasoning compositionally about probabilistic programs, computational models flexible enough to encompass extent models of cognition. In his work with Drs. Barrett and Quigley, he collaborated with Jordan Theriault on formally grounding the biological concepts of interoception and allostasis in probabilistic control of the internal milieu. He joined the Bastos Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in Fall 2023 to study the cortical implementation of predictive coding via electrophysiology in NHPs. He is regularly found listening to heavy metal and, if one is available at the time, on the beach.
Aidan Mulvey, BA

Research Assistant II
Aidan is a recent graduate from Vanderbilt University. He majored in neuroscience with a minor in Spanish. He joined the lab in Spring 2023 and spent the summer quantifying inhibitory interneurons and excitatory pyramidal neurons in macaque cortex. He currently leads a project investigating multimodal integration during a predictive paradigm. He is also leading anatomical projects in both NHPs and humans to quantify specific cells responsible for computing predictions. During his free time, he likes to drink sparkling waters, play tennis, and DJ.
Landon Amonett

Research Assistant I

Graduate Students

Yihan (Sophy) Xiong, BA/BS

PhD Student
Sophy received her BS in Psychobiology and BA in Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. Her undergraduate research work involved novel treatments for mood disorders (under Drs. Michelle Craske and Eliza Congdon), and neurogenetics of autism using rodent models (under Drs. Daniel Geschwind and Katrina Choe). She then worked as a research assistant in addiction and emotion regulation research using human neuroimaging methods (under Dr. Hedy Kober) at Yale University. She joined the Bastos Lab in Fall 2021 to pursue her PhD in Psychological Sciences, starting her training in non-human primate research and investigating the neurophysiology of prediction in the brain. When not in lab, she can be found salsa-dancing, video-gaming, and trapeze-flying.
Hamed Nejat, BS

PhD Student
Hamed received his BSc in Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology (Iran) in 2021. His undergraduate was focused on Bio-electrical engineering and electrophysiology. For his thesis, he worked on EEG functional connectivity graph analysis with Dr. Hajipour in SUT and published his work on IEEE (ICBME-2021). He also worked on AI-based painter robot interface software for international telecom fair 2018 as part of SUT research and development team. Since early 2022, he started working with Dr. Bastos and Dr. Sherfey on DynaSim toolbox on Matlab with focus on extending it and implementation of reinforcement learning tools for dynamic neural models. He joined the Bastos Lab in Fall 2022 to pursue his PhD in Psychological Sciences, continue his work on neural simulation, training in non-human primate research, and modeling brain circuits with focus on predictive coding. He is also a violinist. When he’s not in the lab, he enjoys coffee time, talking to others, and learning how to dance.
David Ricci, MS

PhD Student
David received his BS in Neuroscience at Georgia State University in 2021. His undergraduate research with Dr. Jordan Hamm involved predictive coding, investigating how behavior reflects stimulus predictability in mouse models. He continued at the Hamm Lab, receiving his MS in Neuroscience in 2023 and then worked as a research assistant where he studied microglia's developmental influence on adult cortical circuits. In Fall 2024, he joined the Bastos Lab to pursue a PhD in Psychological Sciences. His current work focuses on the physiology of specific neuron types and on multi-sensory integration of prediction. His interests beyond the lab include hiking, DIY music, mountain biking, and motorcycles.

Undergraduate Students

Mazyar Azmi

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Mazyar is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Neuroscience with minors in Data Science and Digital Fabrication. He assists with in-house computer aided design of implant components, as well as behavioral training interface design for NHPs. Over the following semesters, he will conduct several data driven projects using MATLAB, R, and Python to answer specific questions about cortical attentional control. In his free time, he enjoys DJing, working on his car, and playing video games.
Jadyn Collado

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Jadyn is a senior honors Psychology student at Vanderbilt University, with a second major in Human and Organizational Development and a minor in Data Science. Under the mentorship of Dr. Andre Bastos, she aids in investigating the neural basis of schizophrenia, focusing on how changes in interneuron density and neural oscillations contribute to symptoms. Her contributions involve data-driven projects to explore neuron density and its relationship to predictive coding models. In her free time, Jadyn enjoys reading and going to the gym.

Where we Hail From

Explore the diverse experiences of our lab members via the interactive map. Blue pins indicate the hometowns or countries of origin of our lab members. Red pins mark locations where we have presented our scientific findings at various conferences. We encourage you to click on both types of pins to understand the unique backgrounds and culture that enhance the innovative work at Bastos Lab, as well as the reach of our research!

In the Bastos Lab, it is our belief that without a diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds, and cultural perspectives, we miss out on the full picture in both science and life. In order for scientific discovery to be broadly shared and impactful to all of society, science itself needs improve its diversity and inclusion. This should begin with the composition of our work force, where to this day the majority of scientists come from privileged backgrounds and represent only a sliver of society. Therefore, we are committed to increasing the participation of under-represented groups within science, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Scientific discovery is an intensely human process, because scientists are people. Anyone can contribute to scientific progress. If you have a curiosity and drive for knowledge and wonder about “how things work”, and if you endeavor to apply yourself towards a problem with passion and resolve, you can contribute to scientific discovery. Few things in life are as exhilarating as seeing new data and reaching a new conclusion, especially when it comes to the brain. A diversity of ideas driven by people from different backgrounds and all aspects of diversity are the sparks of light that feed the fire of scientific discovery. We invite you to be a part of it at the Bastos Lab.