Tarana Nigam

Tarana Nigam completed her bachelor's in Biotechnology at VIT University, India and National center for biological sciences, Bangalore, India. She did a M.Sc./Ph.D. in Neuroscience in the IMPRS Neuroscience program at the University of Göttingen. She now works as a postdoctoral researcher at the European Neuroscience Institute, German Primate Center Göttingen and Ruhr University Bochum where she investigates predictive processing in the primate visual system using fMRI and electrophysiology. During her PhD and postdoc , she also worked as a visiting researcher at the Rockefeller University in New York, USA.

"Flexibility and optimization of neural codes in the primate sensory cortex"

I work on how context-dependent flexibility of neural codes occurs in the primate visual cortex. I investigated the neural mechanisms that underlie effects of statistical learning & predictive context on sensory representations in the macaque face-processing network using both fMRI and multi-channel in-vivo electrophysiology. I recently found that predictions conveyed through top-down signaling make neural codes highly separable and flexibly transform them towards higher-order invariant geometries. I have also investigated how context-dependent flexible optimization of neural codes occur when multiple task demands exist using intracranial electrophysiology in human epilepsy patients.

I'm interested in the building blocks of intelligence: neural and computational mechanisms in rapid learning, generalization/abstraction, cognitive flexibility, contextual and learning effects on perception. I am curious about how we learn and form mental models of the world and use them for intelligent behavior.

• Lehr, A., Henneberg, N., Nigam, T., Paulus, W., & Antal, A. (2019).Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
• Caruso, N. et al. (2022)An intragenic FAT1 regulatory element deleted in muscular dystrophy patients drives muscle and mesenchyme expression during development
• Lehr, A., Henneberg, N., Nigam, T., Paulus, W., & Antal, A. (2019) Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
• Nigam, T., & Schwiedrzik, C. M. (2024). Predictions enable top-down pattern separation in the macaque face-processing hierarchy
• Schwiedrzik, C. P. D., Schwiedrzik, C. P. D., & Gail, A. P. D. (2025).Flexibility and optimization of neural codes in primate sensory cortex

• July 2019 - Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Summer School, Cold Spring Harbor Asia, Suzhou, China
• June 2019 - Cellular, Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience Summer Program , Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton, USA
• Aug 2019 - Jun 2024 - Doctoral researcher, Perception and Plasticity Group, German Primate Center and European Neuroscience Institute, Göttingen, Germany
• Jul 2022 - Sep 2022 Visiting scientist, Neural Systems Laboratory, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA
• Aug 2024 - Jan 2025 Visiting scientist, Neural Systems Laboratory, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA
• Jul 2024 - present post-doctoral researcher, Perception and Plasticity Group, German Primate Center and European Neuroscience Institute, Göttingen; and Ruhr University Bochum, Germany