Computational & Systems Neuroscience Laboratory

Our lab’s research vision is to perform cross-disciplinary research combining engineering, physics, and machine-learning approaches to answer questions that are motivated by and grounded in neurobiology. This will enable us to go beyond the traditional boundaries in order to understand how the brain implements cognition.

Our research program’s priority areas include:

• development of multi-modal (e.g., functional MRI, diffusion MRI, EEG) and multi-scale Bayesian methods – i.e., dynamic causal modelling (DCM) – to characterise brain network dynamics and how these dynamics reorganise with different brain pathologies;

• development of neuroscience-inspired artificial intelligence (i.e. active inference) schemes to understand how brain performs reasoning, learning and planning;

• use of classical psychedelics (e.g. LSD and Psilocybin) in combination with computational modelling to understand neural mechanisms underlying altered states of consciousness.

• 02/2022: CIFAR/Jacobs Workshop on “Machine Learning & Theory Development” (Online), which Adeel is co-organising, is happening on 10-12 Jul, 2023. To register go here.

• 04/2023: Adeel is invited to the 2023 World Laureates Forum, 6-8 Nov, 2023 in Shanghai, China.

• 01/2023: PsiConnect has completed the recruitment and data collection phase, congratulations to everyone involved and a special thanks to the study participants. PsiConnect was recently covered by The Age here.

• 12/2022: Adeel co-organised (with Sahba Besharati, Michael Cohen, Adrian Owen and Anil Seth) this year's CIFAR Winter School on Neurosciecne of Consciousness in Cancun, Mexico from 14-17 Dec, 2022.

• 11/2022: We organised 2022 edition of workshop “Maths in the Brain” which was this year expanded to include computational neuroscientists across Australia. More than 100 delegates registered for this year's workshop!

• 10/2022: Our DishBrain paper is now out and is widely covered by the international and national media: The Age, The Guardian, BBC, Nature, Economist etc.

• 09/2022: We have a new Postdoctoral Fellow position available. The project is about understanding ‘principles of learning’ in biological & artificial neural networks. It is in collaboration with Anil Seth, Yoshua Bengio, and Blake Richards. If interested, please apply here. Deadline is 07 Nov 2022.

• 09/2022: Adeel is now the Chair-elect of the Australian Chapter of the Organizaton of Human Brain Mapping.

• 07/2022: Adeel has been selected to participate in the New York Academy of Sciences and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development's Interstellar Initiative.

• 07/2022: Adeel has joined the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports.

• 03/2022: OHBM 2022 Educational Course (full day) on ‘‘Generative modelling of brain dynamics: From principles to applications" is being organized by Adeel together with Daniele Marinazzo, Gustavo Deco, Victor Jirsa, Marta Garrido, Ashish Raj, Richard Rosch, Jil Meier and Katharina Glomb on 19 June, 2022 in Glasgow, Scotland. Stay tuned for more information!

• 02/2022: CIFAR/Jacobs Workshop on “Causal Inference from Longitudinal Data” (Online), which Adeel is co-organising, is happening from 29th March to 1st April, 2022. Please register here.

• 01/2022: Adeel is a lead Guest Editor for NeuroImage Special Issue on “Generative modelling of brain dynamics in health and disease” together with Andreea Diaconescu, Pamela K. Douglas and Michael Breakspear. The deadline for submission is 30 Sep 2022.

• 11/2021: We organized the third edition of the “Maths in the Brain” workshop which was Victoria-wide this year. There were more than 90 participants joining for an in-person meeeting.

• 09/2021: We have been awarded CIFAR Catalyst grant for the project “Towards mechanistic understanding of artificial and biological neural computation of conscious learning” with Adeel as the lead investigator, together with Anil Seth, Blake Richards, Yoshua Bengio, Karl Friston, and our industrial partner CorticalLabs.

• 08/2021: Adeel is invited to the 2021 World Laureates Forum to particiapte as a young scientist, 30th Oct - 3rd Nov 2021. He will be speaking, and taking part in a panel discussion, in a session with May-Britt Moser (Nobel Prize, 2014), John Hardy (Breakthrough Prize, 2016), and Jean-Pierre Changeux (Wolf Prize, 1982) among others.

• 07/2021: Adeel with collaborators, Kou Murayama, Julia Moeller, Baobao Zhang, Catherine Lebel and Drew Bailey, has received seed funding from CIFAR and Jacobs Foundation to hold a series of workshops on longitudinal data analysis across disciplines. Watch this space!

• 05/2021: Adeel is selected as the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar in the Brain, Mind & Consciousness program (co-directors: Anil Seth and Adrian Owen) and interacting with Learning in Machines and Brains program (co-directors: Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun).

• 04/2021: We have new PhD position(s) vancant. Deadline: 15 June, 2021. Apply here

• 05/2020: Adeel is awarded 5 years NHMRC Investigator Fellowship (Emerging Leadership). He will start his Fellowship in January 2021.
  

• 02/2020: Devon’s abstract is selected for “Merit Abstract Award” for presentation at OHBM 2020. There were only 12 such awards chosen from > 2300 submissions. Congratulations Devon!
  

• 12/2019: Adeel is awarded an Australian Research Council’s ‘Discovery Project’ grant “Multiscale and multimodal modelling of brain dynamics” together with Andrew Zalesky and Karl Friston. We’re hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow and PhD students so get in touch!
  

• 11/2019: Adeel will give an invited talk at the 6th Whistler Scientific Workshop on Brain Functional Organization, Connectivity and Behaviour, at Whistler, British Columbia, Canada on 1-4 March 2020.
  

• 11/2019: Sean Ng, who is an Honours student in our lab, was awarded third prize for his presentation during 2019 SOBR symposium. He was the only Honours student presenting in the competition. Congrats Sean, hurray!
  

• 06/2019: Adeel is elected as the Treasurer-Elect of the OHBM Australian Chapter.
  

• 05/2019: Adeel will be giving a talk to the Brain-Inspired Computing Research Group at IBM Research Australia on 16th May.
  

• 04/2019: Adeel will be speaking at the #DisruptorsInTech Melbourne event on AI in Healthcare, which is sponsored by Deloitte Australia, on Tuesday 16 April.
  

• 03/2019: Adeel will give an invited talk at the workshop “Graph modelling of macroscopic brain activity” as part of the CNS*2019 in Barcelona in July 2019.
  

• 03/2019: Adeel is invited as one of the mentors for OHBM Student & Postdoc SIG event “Lunch with Mentors” during OHBM 2019 in Rome in June 2019.
  

• 03/2019: Our PNAS paper with Katrin Preller on effective connectivity changes in LSD was covered by The Age.
  

• 01/2019: Adeel has started tenure as the (founding) member of the newly constituted Education Committee of the Organization of Human Brain Mapping.
  

• 06/2018: Our paper received an ‘‘Honourable Mention” for the Best Paper of Year Award from Neuroimage at OHBM 2018 in Singapore. Neuroimage receives more than 3000 papers every year with an acceptance rate of only 10-15%.
  

• 05/2018: Adeel will be lecturing at the Australian Connectomics School, 30 May – 01 June 2018, in Melbourne, Australia.
  

• 02/2018: Adeel will give an invited talk at the 6th Resting State and Brain Connectivity Conference, 26-28 Sep 2018, in Montreal, Canada.
  

• Adeel’s slides from the SPM short course of May 2017 on DCM for resting state fMRI.