“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci
hamidram@yorku.ca

Probing brain functions and dysfunctions using state of the art neurotechnologies

Clinical Areas of Interest: Disorders of the Visual System, Autism and Parkinson's Disease 
 
Research Methods: Electrophysiology, fMRI, psychophysics, eye tracking, pharmacological manipulations, brain stimulation (electrical, magnetic, ultrasound), and computational modeling

News

 Elsevier Travel Award, Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society. (May 2024)

– CIHR fellowship awarded. (June 2022)

– VISTA postdoctroal fellowship awarded. (July 2020)

 – PhD degree with summa cum laude. (Nov 2019)

Most Recent Abstracts

– H. Ramezanpour*, G. Darmani*, A. Annirood, C. Sarica, A. Vetkas, T. Grippe, J. F. Nankoo, K. Zneg, N. Samuel, S. Pichardo, A. Lozano, R. Chen, “The causal role of the human posterior thalamus in the control of visual attention”, International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology (ICCN), Jakarta, Sep 2024.

– G. Darmani*, C. Sarica*, H. Ramezanpour*, A. Annirood, T. Grippe, M. Lankarany, J. F. Nankoo, A. Fasano, S. Kalia, S. Pichardo, A. Lozano, R. Chen, “Safety and efficacy of low-intensity transcranial ultrasound in movement disorders: insights from basal ganglia local field potentials”, International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology (ICCN), Jakarta, Sep 2024.

– H. Ramezanpour, F. Ilic, R. Wildes, K. Kar, “Object motion representation in the macaque inferior temporal cortex – a gateway to understanding the brain’s intuitive physics engine”, Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society (VSS), Florida, May 2024.

– H. Ramezanpour, D. H. Kehoe, C. Perry, M. Fallah, “Enhance attention near the hands: investigating neural activity in area V2”, Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), Toronto, April 2024.

Blog

Active vision by the temporal cortex attention network (TAN)

Classical views hold that a few oculomotor structures such as frontal eye field (FEF), superior colliculus (SC), and lateral intraparietal area (LIP) guide visual attention by representing priority maps, a[…]

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The role of the pSTS in gaze following and joint attention

In humans, eye gaze of another person is a powerful stimulus, drawing the observer’s attention precisely to places and objects of interest to the other one. Monkeys also follow gaze,[…]

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Topic: Human Social Interactions

Following Eye Gaze Activates a Patch in the Posterior Temporal Cortex That Is not Part of the Human “Face Patch” System

        K. Marquardt*,  H. Ramezanpour* ,  P. Dicke,         P. Thier 

eNeuro, 2017

Topic: Human Social Interactions

Frontal, parietal and temporal brain areas are differentially activated when disambiguating potential objects of joint attention

P. Kraemer*, M. Görner*, H. Ramezanpour*, P. Dicke, P. Thier

eNeuro, 2020

Topic: Listing’s Law and V1

V1 neurons encode the perceptual compensation of “false torsion” arising from Listing’s law


M. Khazali, H. Ramezanpour, P. Thier


PNAS, 2020

Topic: Human Social Attention

Does the brain encode the gaze of others as beams emitted by their eyes? 


M. Görner, H. Ramezanpour, I. Chong, P.Thier

PNAS, 2020

Topic: Monkey Social Interactions

  Decoding of the other’s focus of attention by a temporal cortex module   


  H. Ramezanpour, and  P.Thier

PNAS, 2020

Topic: Consciousness

A degraded state of consciousness in healthy awake humans?

G. Darmani,  J. Nieminen, T.O.  Bergmann, H. Ramezanpour*, U. Ziemann*

Brain Stimulation, 2021

Topic: Monkey Social Interactions

Variability of neuronal responses in the posterior superior temporal sulcus predicts choice behavior during social interactions

H. Ramezanpour, M. Görner, and P. Thier



Journal of Neurophysiology, 2021

Topic: Brain Stimulation

Non-invasive transcranial ultrasound stimulation for neuromodulation

G. Darmani, TO. Bergmann, K. Butts Pauly, C. Caskey, L. de Lecea, A. Fomenko, E. Fouragnan, W. Legon, K.R. Murphy, T. Nandi, M.A. Phipps, G. Pinton, H. Ramezanpour, J. Sallet, S.Yaakub, S.S. Yoo, R. Chen

Clinical Neurophysiology, 2021

Topic: Attention & Cognitive Control 

The role of temporal cortex in the control of attention



H. Ramezanpour and M. Fallah



Current Research in Neurobiology, 2022

Topic: Eye Movements, Cognitive Control, Color Perception

Oculomotor system can differentially process red and green colors during saccade programming in the presence of a competing distractor 


H. Ramezanpour, S. Blizzard, D. H. Kehoe, M. Fallah


Experimental Brain Research, 2022

Topic: Oscillations, Aperiodic Activity, Deep Brain Stimulation 

Long-term recording of subthalamic aperiodic activities and beta bursts in Parkinson’s disease

G. Darmani, N. Drummond, H. Ramezanpour,  U. Saha, T. Hoque, K. Udupa, C. Sarica, K. Zeng, T. Cortez Grippe, JF. Nankoo, TO. Bergmann, M. Hodaie, S. Kalia, A. Lozano, W, Hutchison, A. Fasano, R. Chen

Movement Disorders, 2022

Topic: Cognitive Control of Social Interactions

A frontoparietal network for volitional control of gaze following


M. Breu*,  H. Ramezanpour* ,  P. Dicke,  P. Thier 



European Journal of Neuroscience, 2023

Topic: Monkey Social Interactions

Causal manipulation of gaze-following in the macaque temporal cortex


I. Chong,  H. Ramezanpour,  P. Thier 


Progress in Neurobiology, 2023

Topic: Nonhuman Primates Technologies 

Low-cost, portable, easy-to-use kiosks to facilitate home-cage testing of non-human primates during vision-based behavioral tasks

H. Ramezanpour, C. Giverin, K. Kar

Journal of Neurophysiology, 2024

Topic: Dynamic Object Recognition in the Ventral Stream

Object motion representation in the macaque ventral stream — a gateway to understanding the brain’s intuitive physics engine

        H. Ramezanpour*,  F. Ilic, R. Wildes, K. Kar*

bioRxiv, 2024

Topic: Human Social Interactions

Gaze and Arrows: does the Gaze Following Patch
in the posterior temporal cortex differentiate
social and symbolic spatial cues?


        M. Görner,  H. Ramezanpour,  P. Dicke,                P. Thier 

eNeuro, 2024

Topic: Control of Eye Movements

Dynamics of saccade trajectory modulation by distractors: neural activity patterns in the frontal eye field


        H. Ramezanpour, D. Kehoe, J. D. Schall, M. Fallah


Journal of Neuroscience, 2024

Topic: High-Level Vision

The impact of Scene Context on Visual Object Recognition: Comparing Humans, Monkeys, and Computational Models.


        S. Djambazovska, A. Zafer*, H. Ramezanpour*,  G. Kreiman, K. Kar. 

bioRxiv, 2024

Topic: Brain Networks and Plasticity

KETAMINE: Neural- and Network-level changes



        V. Bharmauria,  H. Ramezanpour,  A. Ouelhazi, Y. Y. Belkacemi, O. Flouty, S. Molotchnikoff 


Neuroscience, 2024

COLLEAGUES

Ghazal Darmani

Postdoc @ Division of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada

Ghazal is a brain stimulation expert. She combines TMS, ultrasound stimulation, and DBS with computational methods and electrophysiology to study pathophysiology of brain functions.

Ian Chong

PhD student @  Hertie Institute, University of Tübingen, Germany

Ian is an expert in manipulation of neural circuits by using microstimulation and pharamacology. He investigates the causal role of the pSTS, and in particualr the gaze following patch in social interactions.

Mohammad Khazali

Postdoc @ Epilepsy Center, University of Freiburg, Germany

Mohammad was my colleague when I was in Peter Thier’s lab in Tübingen. I helped him in a project on the role of V1 in the perceptual compensation of “false torsion” arising from Listing’s law in primates. 

Zongpeng Sun

Senior Scientist @ School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, China

Peng is expert in eye movement control. We used to work in Thier’s lab. Now we are working together in a project on the role of saccades in gating visual perception.

Marius Görner

Postdoc @ Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany

Marius is a computational neuroscientist. He is working on a couple of fMRI and electrophysiological projects on the neural substrtes of gaze following and joint attention in humans.

Mentors and Collaborators

I have been super lucky to have the opportunity to learn from all of these amazing scientists. I can not imagine to have a better team of people teaching me how to do science.

Kohitij Kar

Assistant Professor, York University, Toronto

Ko is an excellent vision neuroscientist and I am so lucky to have the opportunity to work with him and learn from him. 

Jeffrey Schall

Professor, York University, Toronto

Jeff is a wonderfull neuroscientist and a very kind person. I am truly honoured to be guided by him. 

Mazyar Fallah

Professor, University of Guelph, Guelph

Maz is an amazing neuroscientist. I am so lucky that he is supervising me in a few projects on eye movements control.

Peter Thier

Professor, University of Tübingen, Germany

Peter is my role model in science. I certainly could not have asked for a better mentor. He is a walking encyclopedia of neuroscience. 

Peter Dicke

Senior Scientist, University of Tübingen

Peter has been the engineering mind behind most of my projects. I was so lucky to have him around and I have learnt a lot from him.

Tadashi Isa

Professor, University of Kyoto, Japan

Tadashi is an excellent neuroscientist. I did a project under his supervision on neural circuits of blindsight after V1 lesions.

MEDIA COVERAGE OF OUR WORK

CONEUR Interview

Temporal cortex attention network (TAN)

SPECTRUM

Researchers map spot in brain for tracking others’ eyes.

IDW (in Deutsch)

Siehst du, was ich sehe? 

LABO (in Deutsch)

Neu entdeckte Nervenzellen verarbeiten gezielt Blickbeobachtungen.

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