I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow working with Maneesh Sahani at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL. I am broadly interested in building biologically constrained theoretical models (combining methods from dynamical systems, statistical physics and machine learning) to guide new experiments and ultimately refine the models to further our understanding of neural systems. At the moment, I am analysing electrophysiological data of the auditory cortex in collaboration with Jennifer Linden and Jannis Hildebrandt.

My PhD was supervised by Christian Machens at École normale supérieure in Paris (2012). In collaboration with Aristides Arrenberg and Herwig Baier, we studied mechanisms of generation and maintenance of persistent activity in the oculomotor integrator, using theoretical modeling constrained by experiments in the zebrafish involving optogenetics.

Peer-reviewed articles

Goncalves P.J., Arrenberg A.B., Hablitzel B., Baier H. and Machens C.K. (2014). Optogenetic perturbations reveal the dynamics of an oculomotor integrator. Frontiers in Neural Circuits 8:10.


Selected conference abstracts

Goncalves P.J. A plasticity mechanism for the robustness of the oculomotor integrator. Computational and Systems Neuroscience (2013)

Goncalves P.J., Arrenberg A.B., Baier H. and Machens, C.K. Inference of causal mapping between neural activity and motor response using optogenetic stimulation. Computational and Systems Neuroscience (2011)

Goncalves P.J., Arrenberg A.B., Baier H. and Machens, C.K. A universal neural circuit model of the oculomotor integrator: a theoretical framework for optogenetic dissection. Society for Neuroscience (2010)

Goncalves P. and Machens, C. A robust neural circuit model of the oculomotor integrator. Neuronal circuits CSHL (2010)

Goncalves P. and Machens, C. A robust bilateral line attractor model of the oculomotor system with ordinary neurons. Computational and Systems Neuroscience (2010)

Goncalves P. and Machens, C. A bilateral band attractor model for the oculomotor system. Computational Neuroscience Meeting (2009)

Goncalves P. and Machens, C. Lifetime and stability in line attractor networks of short-term memory. Neurocomp (2008)

some music I like
alva noto
ali farka touré
murcof
toumani diabaté

some stuff from the past
ploustochnik

present
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