Marta Tataryn – Neuroscience Academy Denmark

Marta Tataryn has a keen interest in systems neuroscience and the complex computation of the brain.

Marta Tataryn completed her master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Trieste in 2023. For her master’s thesis, Marta investigated neuronal dynamics with calcium imaging and electrophysiology in vitro.

After completing her thesis, she applied for a research internship at the Kavli Institute of Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim to further explore the area of systems neuroscience. Here, she was exposed to big electrophysiology datasets and learned to relate them to complex behaviours:

“I am interested in how the brain is able to do this complex computation, and in particular how memory and learning processes are able to influence these complex processes,” Marta explains.

This interest in the intricacies of human thinking and behavior was what led Marta into neuroscience in the first place:

“During high school, I attended philosophy lessons that were super interesting and I was wondering if maybe that was what I should study. However, I realised I required more scientific methods. Therefore, I decided to study biotechnology in order to study a master’s degree in neuroscience afterwards,” Marta explains.

For her first rotation, Marta will join the Analysis lab led by Professor Diego Vidaurre at Aarhus University:

“I contacted Diego because I would like my future PhD project to be as multidisciplinary as possible. As I have some knowledge gaps within computational neuroscience, I would like to improve my computational skills,” Marta explains. For one of her later rotations, she is interested in joining a lab focusing on the hippocampus, especially learning and memory processes.

Originally from Ukraine, growing up in Italy and living in Norway for the past year, Marta is no stranger to environmental and cultural shifts. She is excited to start her PhD journey in Denmark and to utilise the rotations during the pre-PhD year as efficiently as possible to improve her skills - and her connections within Danish neuroscience.

Lab rotations - pre-PhD year

Rotation 1

Analysis Group, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University w/PI Professor Diego Vidaurre

The way we perceive the world around us feels stable to a healthy person, but perception is a changing phenomenon. For example, for stimuli weak enough to be in the threshold of perception, we might sometimes feel and sometimes not notice. But, what determines this variability, e.g. whether whether we feel a weak stimulus or not? Marta is learning machine learning techiques to analyse a data set from collaborators in Germany, where a tactile stimulus in the threshold of perception is presented multiple times to healthy participants. Each stimulus presentation is preceded by a relatively long period of time with no stimulation. The aim is to identify and characterise brain states in this period that determine whether the stimulus is perceived or not later on.

Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience · AU

Rotation 2

Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet w/PI Cyril Pernet

During her rotation, Marta investigated risk-sensitive decision-making in humans using reinforcement learning models. To achieve this, she developed a paradigm that involved a simulated monetary card game, designed to be conducted within an fMRI framework. This game included both probabilistic and deterministic rewards to examine how different levels of uncertainty affect decision-making processes. Specifically, she implemented Temporal Difference learning, Q-learning, and SARSA algorithms to model the underlying decision-making mechanisms. Inspired by Yael Niv's research on neural circuits and reinforcement learning, her project aimed to map and analyze the brain's reward circuits in response to varying risk conditions.
Moreover the paradigm she developed is extendable to PET-MRI studies, which would enable the observation of neuromodulators' roles during task performance, providing a deeper understanding of the neurochemical dynamics involved in decision-making.

Neurobiology Research Unit · RegH

Rotation 3

Gether Lab, Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen w/Professor Ulrik Gether

Marta is comparing various reinforcement learning algorithms to simulate and predict the behavior of mice engaged in the Continuous Performance Task, which is often used to assess attentional processes and response control. At the moment she is working on both classical temporal difference learning and with microstimuli algorithms. With this normative approach, she wants to investigate how fluctuations in dopamine levels within the dorsal and ventral striatum affect mainly learning speed and valuation of rewards in goal-directed behaviors.

Department of Neuroscience · KU

PhD Project

Structure Meets Function: Modeling the Striatum

Laboratory

Berg Lab, Department of Neuroscience

Main supervisor

Rune Berg

Co-supervisors