Our Research
Yoram Burak’s lab investigates how neural circuits in the brain perform biologically relevant computations, such as: maintenance of short term memory, sensory inference, spatial computation, and generation of sequential neural activity.
Lab members apply diverse theoretical and computational tools borrowed from statistical physics, the theory of nonlinear dynamics, information theory, and machine learning — to approach, in a principled way, questions on design principles and mechanisms that underlie computation in the brain.
The lab is part of the Racah Institute of Physics, and the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Areas of current interest
Spatial coding and computation in the brain.
Maintenance of short term memory in noisy neural networks.
Emergence of large-scale structure in neural connectivity, due to local synaptic plasticity mechanisms.
Invariance to dynamic transformations in sensory perception.
Lab News
Our work “Simultaneous embedding of multiple attractor manifolds in a recurrent neural network using constrained gradient optimization” is accepted to NeurIPS 2023 and will be presented there by Haggai Agmon.
New paper published in Neuron (April 2022) with first authors Torgeir Waaga (Moser lab, NTNU) and Haggai Agmon (Burak lab): Link.
Grid-cell modules remain coordinated when neural activity is dissociated from external sensory cues.New paper published in Nature Communications (March 2022) with Nadav Ben-Shushan, Nimrod Shaham, and Mati Joshua: Link.
Fixational drift is driven by diffusive dynamics in central neural circuitry.New paper published in Nature (January 2022) with Rich Gardner, Erik Hermansen, Marius Pachitariu, Nils Baas, Benjamin Dunn, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser: Link.
Toroidal topology of population activity in grid cells.
