RTG 2906 Curiosity

Zurna Ahmed

Postdoc in Cognitive (neuro)science and Machine Learning


Education:

  • Bachelor of Science and Ing(FH) in Medical Engineering. Title - Development of an application tip for a holmium laser light guide for applications in Otorhinolaryngology
  • Master of Science in Neuroscience. Title - Intracellular Recordings and Hodgkin-Huxley Model simulation of leech neurons
  • Dr. rer. nat. in Systems Neuroscience. Title - Neural correlates of action effect anticipation - towards ecologically more relevant paradigms

    • Internships:
  • Internship at the German Primate Center, Sensorimotor Group 10/2017 - 08/2018

    • Awards:
  • DPZ Promotionspreis for the best PhD thesis 2023
    • Young Investigator Award at the Neurizons Conference 2022


    Embodied Curiosity: How Full-Body Exploration Shapes and is Shaped by Curiosity

    This project aims to leverage information theory to design a paradigm centered on full-body exploration. Our goal is to investigate how different facets of curiosity influence exploration behaviors across different developmental ages and, in turn, how exploration behaviors shape the dynamics of curiosity.


    I am interested in understanding exploration and information seeking behaviors and their underlying neural correlates in non-human primates and humans. To address these questions I develop new methods, which allow us to study primates in a ecologically more relevant setting.


    Published manuscripts:

    Published poster abstracts:

    • C da Silva, V Ivanov, Z Ahmed, I Lacal, A Gail, F Sinz (2025 - accepted): An encoding model to study the sensorimotor cortex of freely-behaving monkeys. COSYNE, Montreal, Canada
    • M. Nuske, R. Vogg, Z. Ahmed, A. Gail, AS Ecker, F. Wörgötter (2023). Joint tracking and classification model for behavioural analysis of freely moving primates. Bernstein Conference, Berlin, Germany.
    • A Trende, Z Ahmed, S Meiser, G Ashida, J Kretzberg (2017). Which abstraction level to choose for the leech local bend network, Bernstein Conference, Goettingen, Germany


    Conference attendance with talk contributions:

    • 2023: Talk at Primate Neurobiology Conference - main conference, Göttingen, Germany
    • 2023: Young Investigator Talk at the NWG, Symposium „Neuroscience of naturalistic navigation and foraging in non-human primates“, Göttingen, Germany
    • 2020: Talk at Neuromatch Conference

    Conference with poster contributions:

    2024

    • J Grunwald*, Z. Ahmed*, I Lacal, J Hainke, A Nakahashi, A Gail (2024). Social Context shapes behavioral dynamics of foraging and decision-making infreely moving rhesus macaques. Foraging and Information Seeking Conference, Lyon, France
    • Z. Ahmed, I Lacal, R Vogg, M Nuske, N Shahidi, F Wörgötter, A Ecker, A Gail. Neural correlates of complex arm reaches during in freely moving rhesus macaques. NCM. Dubrovnik, Croatia
    • I Lacal, Z Ahmed, A Gail. Neural correlates of sensorimotor decision-making during foraging in freely walking rhesus macaques. NCM. Dubrovnik, Croatia

    2023

    • M. Nuske, R. Vogg, Z. Ahmed, A. Gail, AS Ecker, F. Wörgötter Joint tracking and classification model for behavioural analysis of freely moving primates. Bernstein Conference. Berlin, Germany
    • Z. Ahmed, I Lacal, M Nuske, R Vogg, F Wörgötter, AS Ecker, A Gail. Full-body actions beyond walking: the Playground Experiment for free solo and dyadic foraging combined with FairMOT-based action classification in rhesus macaques. SfN. Virtual
    • I Lacal, Z Ahmed, A Gail. Neural correlates of sensorimotor decision-making during foraging in freely walking rhesus macaques. SfN. Virtual
    • Z. Ahmed, I Lacal, M Nuske, R Vogg, F Wörgötter, AS Ecker, A Gail. The Playground Experiment for free solo and dyadic foraging in rhesus macaques. SimianCollective. Chicago, USA
    • N Shahidi, Z Ahmed, Y Badayeva, I Lacal, A Gail. Spatial pattern of macaques’ solo and dyadic foraging in an experimentally controlled terrain. Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting. Leipzig, Germany
    • N Shahidi , Z Ahmed, Y Badayeva, R Burghardt, I Lacal, A Gail. Spatial pattern of macaques’ solo and dyadic foraging in an experimentally controlled terrain. Primate Neurobiology Conference. Göttingen, Germany.

    2022

    • Z. Ahmed, I Lacal, R Vogg, M Nuske, N Shahidi, F Wörgötter, A Ecker, A Gail. The Exploration Room (ExR) - an experimental environment for systems neuroscience studies in freely moving rhesus macaques during naturalistic behaviors. SfN. San Diego, USA
    • I Lacal, Z Ahmed, N Shahidi, A Gail. Inferring commitment to choice from full body trajectories using go-before-you-know decision making in freely moving rhesus macaques. SfN. San Diego, USA
    • N Shahidi, Z Ahmed, I Lacal, A Gail. Spatio-temporal patterns of macaques’ foraging trajectories in an experimental controlled naturalistic train. SfN. San Diego, USA

    Others:

    • Z Ahmed, N Agha, A Trunk, M Berger, A Gail (2019). Universal guide for skull extraction and custom-fitting of implants to continuous and discontinuous skulls. Primate Neurobiology Conference. Tübingen, Germany
    • A Trende, Z Ahmed, S Meiser, G Ashida, J Kretzberg (2017). Which abstraction level to choose for the leech local bend network. NWG, Göttingen, Germany
    • D Gonschorek, Z Ahmed, J Kreuzberg (2017). Electrophysiology and computational modelling of leech Retzius cells. Bernstein Conference Göttingen, Germany

    Invited Talks:

    • two invited talks as external speaker at the Retreat of the Neuronal Intelligence Group 2025, Lab of Fabian Sinz, Harz, Germany (02/2025)
    • Invited talk for the European Primate Veterinarian conference 2024, Göttingen, Germany (09/2024)
    • Invited talk for the Award Ceremony of best doctoral thesis 2022, Göttingen, Germany (05/2023)
    • Invited Seminar talk at University of Newcastle, Lab of Stuart Baker, Newcastle, UK (11/2022)
    • Invited talk at University of Minneapolis, Lab of Jan Zimmermann, Minneapolis, USA (11/2022)
    • Invited talk at University of Parma. Lab of Luca Bonini, Parma, Italy (12/2019)
    • Invited talk at University of Bologna. Lab of Patrizia Fattori, Bologna, Italy (12/2019)

    Summerschool:

    • Summer School for Primate Cognitive Neuroscience, Gustav Stresemann Institute, Bad Bevensen, Germany (2019) with the following poster contribution: Z Ahmed, A Gail (2019). Neural correlates of action effect anticipation. Summerschool for Primate Cognitive Neuroscience, Bad Bevensen, Germany

    Outreach/ Science Communication

    • IdeenExpo Hannover (06/2024)
    • Podcast episode within the series “How animals’ brains work”, sponsored by Animal Research Tomorrow (06/2023)
    • Pint of Science - Göttingen (05/2023)
    • Night of Science: introduction of animal research to public, approx. 1000 visitors (07/2022)
    • Global social-media-campaign „Be Open about Animal research Day - #Board21“ organised by EARA (06/2022)
    • Future Day: introduction of neuroscience concepts and animal research to high school students (theory and - hands-on, 06/2019)
    • Night of Science (01/2019)