Neurobiology of Mental Computations
How does the brain give rise to the mind? How do neurons, circuits, and synapses in the brain encode knowledge about objects, events, and other structural and causal relationships in the environment? Research in Mehrdad Jazayeri’s lab brings together ideas from cognitive science, neuroscience, and machine learning with experimental data in humans, animals, and computer models to develop a computational understanding of how the brain create internal representations, or models, of the external world.
Biography
Mehrdad Jazayeri is a professor and director of education in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and an investigator at the McGovern Institute. Before coming to MIT in 2013, Jazayeri received his BSc in electrical engineering majoring in telecommunications from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. He completed his MS in physiology at the University of Toronto and his PhD in neuroscience at New York University.
Honors and Awards
Awards
2024, 2019 – Excellence in Teaching, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
2019 – Award for Graduate Education, School of Science, MIT
2017 – McKnight Scholar Award, McKnight Foundation
2016 – Graduate Teaching Award, Graduate Council, MIT
2015 – Robert Swanson Career Development Professorship
2015 – Fellow, Klingenstein Philanthropies and Simons Foundation
2014 – Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
2014 – Excellence in Teaching, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
