News
– Started a new position as senior research scientist at York University. (July 2025)
– Focused Ultrasound Foundation covers our latest Nature Communications paper. (May 2025)
– Elsevier 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)
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Most Recent Abstracts
– G. Darmani, C. Sarica, H. Ramezanpour, A. Lozano, R. Chen. Local Field Potentials Signatures of Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation in the Human Basal Ganglia. Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation Conference. Hong Kong.
– R. Annirood*, H. Ramezanpour*, G. Darmani*, C. Sarica*, A. Bhattacharya, T. Grippe, M. Callister, K. Zeng, D. Cheyene, W. Hutchison, S. Pichardo, A Lozano, R. Chen. Pilot Behavioral Effects of 5 Hz vs 10 Hz Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation of the Globus Pallidus Internus in Parkinsonian Patients. Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation Conference. Hong Kong.
– H. Ramezanpour, G. Darmani, A. Annirood, C. Sarica, A. Vetkas, T. Grippe, J. F. Nankoo, K. Zeng, 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.
– 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.
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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[…]
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,[…]
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
Topic: Deep Brain Stimulation
Individualized non-invasive deep brain stimulation of the basal ganglia using transcranial ultrasound stimulation
G. Darmani*, H. Ramezanpour* , C. Sarica*, R. Annirood*, … , A. Lozano, R. Chen
Nature Communications, 2025
Topic: High-Level Vision
Facial expression discrimination emerges from neural subspaces shared with detection and identity
M. Wehrheim, ST. Alamooti, H. Ramezanpour, K. Kar
bioRxiv, 2025
Topic: Ultrasound Stimulation
Deep brain ultrasound augments human attention
H. Ramezanpour*, G. Darmani*, R. Annirood*, C. Sarica, J.F. Nankoo, S. Pichardo, J. D. Schall, A. M. Lozano, R. Chen
bioRxiv, 2025
Topic: Body-centered Vision
Visual attention in peripersonal space dependent on differential modulation of V2 feature selectivity by hand vision and proprioception
H. Ramezanpour, D. Heinze Kehoe, C. J. Perry, M. Fallah
Current Biology, 2026
Topic: Dynamic Object Recognition
Modeling Dynamic Computations in the Primate Ventral Visual Stream
M. Dunnhofer*, M. Wehrheim*, H. Ramezanpour* , S. Muzellec*, K. Kar
arXix, 2026
COLLEAGUES
Ghazal Darmani
Neuroscientist @ Division of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Ghazal is a brain stimulation expert. She combines TMS, ultrasound stimulation, and DBS with computational methods and electrophysiology to study pathophysiology of brain functions.
Can Sarica
Neurosurgeon @ Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Harvard Medical School
Drawing on his background as a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, Can’s research aims to develop and test deep brain stimulation treatments (DBS and focused ultrasound) for neurological conditions.
Amirhossein Asadian
Research Assistant @ Center for Vision Research, York University, Toronto
Amirhossein is very passionate about combining electrophsyiology with brain imaging. We are currently developing transcranial functional ultrasound (fus) imaging in marmoset monkeys to study cognitive control functions.
Ian Chong
Postdoc @ The Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York
Ian is an expert in manipulation of neural circuits by using microstimulation and pharamacology. He investigates the causal role of the pSTS 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 colaborated with him in a project on the role of V1 in the perceptual compensation of “false torsion”.
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.
Liya Ma
Assistant Professor, York University, Toronto
Liya is a great cognitive neuroscientist. I am so happy to work with her on developing functional ultrasound imaging in marmosets.
Andres Lozano
Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Andres Lozano is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and pioneer in using deep brain stimulation to restore neural circuits.
Robert Chen
Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Chen is a leading expert in using neuromodulation methods such as TMS and TUS. I am very lucky to collaborate with 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.
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.
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.
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.
MEDIA COVERAGE OF OUR WORK