About
I am a fourth-year PhD student in MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department
and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) lab at MIT, where I am advised by
Aude Oliva. I am a computational neuroscientist where I study how both humans and machines process visual
and auditory information. Towards this aim, I am actively engaged in the collection of human neuroimaging data (MEG and (f)MRI), the analysis of neural data, and
the implementation of state-of-the-art machine learning and deep learning models. I have recent industry experience at
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals,
Microsoft, and Amazon where I was able to apply these skills with a clinical focus and product focus. I additionally have a focus in medical device design and manufacturing, where
I am an inventor in a patent-pending eye drop assist device.
Prior to joining MIT, I graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in biomedical engineering. While there, I was first introduced to the world of
research through Professor Robert Reinhart and
Professor John White. After graduating from Boston University, I joined MIT on a PhD track where I subsequently earned
a M.S. degree in EECS in 2022.
Visit my informal, non-academic blog where I write about whatever I find interesting at the moment.
Publications
2024
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Visual perception of highly memorable images is mediated by a distributed network of ventral visual regions that enable a late memorability response.
Benjamin Lahner*, Yalda Mohsenzadeh*, Caitlin Mullin, and Aude Oliva.
PLOSBiology, 2024 (in press)
Fusion Video
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A mechanical device for precise self-administration of ocular drugs.
Jesse George-Akpenyi*, Benjamin Lahner*, Seung Hyeon Shim*, Carly Smith*, Nakul Singh, Matt Murphy, Leroy Sibanda, Giovanni Traverso, and Nevan C. Hanumara.
(in revision)
2023
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Theta-phase-specific modulation of dentate gyrus memory neurons.
Bahar Rahsepar, Jad Noueihed, Jacob F. Norman, Benjamin Lahner, Melanie H. Quick, Kevin Ghaemi, Aashna Pandya, Fernando R. Fernandez, Steve Ramirez, and John A. White
eLife, 2023; doi: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.82697
Journal Link
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BOLD Moments: modeling short visual events through a video fMRI dataset and metadata.
Benjamin Lahner, Kshitij Dwivedi, Polina Iamshchinina, Monika Graumann, Alex Lascelles, Gemma Roig, Alessandro Thomas Gifford, Bowen Pan, SouYoung Jin, Ratan Murty, Kendrick Kay, Aude Oliva+, Radoslaw Cichy+
In Revision
Project Page -
bioRxiv
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The Algonauts Project 2023 Challenge: How the Human Brain Makes Sense of Natural Scenes.
Allesandro T. Gifford, Benjamin Lahner, Sari Saba-Sadiya, Martina G. Vilas, Alex Lascelles, Aude Oliva, Kendrick Kay, Gemma Roig, Radoslaw M. Cichy
arXiv 2023, arXiv:2301.03198
Project Page -
PDF
2022
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Cochlea to categories: The spatiotemporal dynamics of semantic auditory representations.
Matthew X. Lowe*, Yalda Mohsenzadeh*, Benjamin Lahner, Ian Charest, Aude Oliva and Santani Teng.
Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2022; doi:10.1080/02643294.2022.2085085
Project Page -
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Fusion Video
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Machine learning analysis of a digital insole versus clinical standard gait assessments for digital endpoint development.
Matthew F. Wipperman*, Allen Z. Lin*, Kaitlyn Gayvert*, Benjamin Lahner, Selin Somersan-Karakaya, Xuefang Wu, Joseph Im,
Minji Lee, Bharatkumar Koyani, Ian Setliff, Malika Thakur, Daoyu Duan, Aurora Breazna, Fang Wang, Wei Keat Lim, Yamini Patel,
Mickey Atwal, Jennifer D. Hamilton, Clo Huyghues-Despointes, Oren Levy, Andreja Avbersek, Rinol Alaj, Sara C. Hamon, Olivier Harari.
medRxiv 2022; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.05.22280750
Under review
medRxiv
2021
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The Algonauts Project 2021 Challenge: How the Human Brain Makes Sense of a World in Motion.
Radoslaw Martin Cichy, Kshitij Dwivedi, Benjamin Lahner, Alex Lascelles, Polina Iamshchinina, M Graumann, Alex Andonian, NAR Murty, K Kay, Gemma Roig, Aude Oliva
arXiv 2021, arXiv:2104.13714
Project Page -
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2020
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Emergence of visual center-periphery spatial organization in deep convolutional neural networks.
Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Caitlin Mullin, Benjamin Lahner, and Aude Oliva.
Scientific Reports 2020, 10, 4638; doi:10.1038/s41598-020-61409-0
Project Page -
PDF
2019
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Reliability and generalizability of similarity-based fusion of fMRI and MEG data in the ventral and dorsal visual streams.
Yalda Mohsenzadeh*, Caitlin Mullin*, Benjamin Lahner, Radoslaw Cichy, and Aude Oliva.
Vision 2019, 3, 8; doi:10.3390/vision3010008
Project Page -
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Fusion Video
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The Algonauts Project: A platform for communication between the sciences of biological and artificial intelligence.
Radoslaw Martin Cichy, Gemma Roig, Alex Andonian, Kshitij Dwivedi, Benjamin Lahner, Alex Lascelles, Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Kandan Ramakrishnan,
and Aude Oliva.
arXiv 2019, arXiv:1905.05675
Project Page -
PDF
Selected Conference Abstracts
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A mechanical device for precise self-administration of ocular drugs.
Jesse George-Akpenyi*, Benjamin Lahner*, Seung Hyeon Shim*, Carly Smith*, Nakul Singh, Matt Murphy, Leroy Sibanda, Giovanni Traverso, and Nevan C. Hanumara.
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Conference, Cambridge, MA (2024) (oral)
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Modality-specific parameters and interference contribute to better-fitting bimodal associative learning models.
Han D. Huang, Frederik R. Baumgardt, Benjamin Lahner, Robert M. G. Reinhart.
Society for Neuroscience, Virtual (2021)
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The Emergence of Early Sound Categorical Responses in the Human Brain.
Benjamin Lahner, Santani Teng, Matthew X. Lowe, Ian Charest, Aude Oliva, Yalda Mohsenzadeh.
CNS, Boston, MA (2020)
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The Emergence of Early Sound Categorical Responses in the Human Brain.
Benjamin Lahner, Santani Teng, Matthew X. Lowe, Ian Charest, Aude Oliva, Yalda Mohsenzadeh.
NeurIPS SVRHM Workshop, Vancouver, Canada (2019)
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Assessing Reproducibility of MEG and fMRI Data Fusion Method in Neural Dynamics of Object Vision.
Benjamin Lahner, Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Caitlin Mullin, Radoslaw Cichy, Aude Oliva.
Vision Science Society, St. Petersburg, Florida (2019)
Active Community Involvement
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Education Volunteer, The Educational Justice Institute (TEJI) at MIT
I teach MIT computer programming courses to inmates. They learn foundational computer skills that will be essential in their day-to-day lives, continued education, or even careers in tech.
See the Fundamentals of Neural Networks tutorial I developed with this population in mind.
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Mentor, Project Short
I mentor one prospective graduate student per application cycle through the graduate school application process. I assist with SOPs, mock interviews, networking, and any general advice.
Awards and Achievements
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MIT Open Data Competition - Honorable Mention (2022)
The competition highlights open and publicly accessible data with a large potential for scientific impact. My submission of our
large-scale fMRI dataset of video event understanding (Algonauts 2021, see above) won runner up against over 70 submissions across all of MIT.
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EECS MathWorks Fellowship (2022)
Full graduate student financial support for an academic year awarded to select MIT EECS graduate students using MATLAB to further novel and impactful
scientific research.
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Best Biomedical Engineering Senior Design Project (2019)
Awarded best biomedical engineering senior design project out of 42 other projects by Boston University engineering faculty.
The project delivered a low-latency (~20ms) algorithm to manipulate a mouse's neural signals in real-time. This project
resulted in a publication in eLife.