Ben Lahner

Linkedin | Google scholar | Github I am a fifth 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. I have industry experience interning at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, and Amazon. I additionally have hands-on experience 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. During my undergrad years I was first introduced to research through Professor Robert Reinhart and Professor John White.
Publications
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.
PLOS Biology, 2024; doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002564
Paper | Project page | Repository
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
Paper (coming soon) | Repository (coming soon)
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
Paper
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
Paper | Project page | Repository (coming soon)
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
Paper | Project page
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
Paper | Project page | Fusion video
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
Paper | Project page
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
Paper | Project page (under construction)
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
Paper | Project page | Fusion video
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
Paper | Project page
Selected Conference Abstracts
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
Featured Blog Posts
Boston's Best Donut Shops Ranked (2024)
A local's guide to Boston's donut scene.
Article |
Curious George Discovers the Infinite Monkey Theorem
How long would it take Curious George to write a Curious George book?
Article | Code
The Fundamentals of Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Tutorial Without Internet or GPUs
A step-by-step guide through neural networks' mathematical, NumPy, and PyTorch implementations.
Article | Code
18 Million Brackets Later, Here Are the Best - and Worst - Ways to Fill Out Your March Madness Bracket
Fill out your Men's and Women's March Madness bracket with a click of a button.
Article | Code | Website
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