Verschure, Paul FMJ – ICREA Memoir 2021

Paul Verschure

Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya

Engineering Sciences

Dr. Paul Verschure leads the Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems Laboratory, hosted by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalunya. Paul has received his MA and Ph.D. in Psychology and pursued his research at different leading institutes in Europe and the US and manages a team of over 20 researchers and technicians with whom he has published over 400 articles in leading journals and conferences in a range of disciplines. Paul is regularly invited as a speaker at relevant scientific conferences and international policy events, a consultant for the European Commission, board member of three journals and reviews for a number of relevant journals and conferences. Paul is founder/CEO of Eodyne Systems S.L, which is commercializing neurorehabilitation, education and cultural heritage technologies, founder/Chairman of the Future Memory Foundation and founder/Chairman of the Convergent Science Network Foundation.

Research interests

His scientific goal is to generate a unified theory of mind and brain and body. Relying on synthetic methods and delivering science grounded technologies that support and advance the human condition added to the applicationn for developing novel real-world technologies and quality of life-enhancing applications. At Specs-Lab activities are organized along seven dimensions: ·Architecture of mind and brain ·Computational neuroscience ·Robotics ·Neuroinformatics ·Human neurophysiology ·Neurorehabilitation ·Education and cultural heritage. The unique synergy between basic and applied science realized in Specs has generated new insights into the organization of mind and brain and provided solutions in neurorehabilitation, education, and cultural heritage used by thousands of people.

Selected publications

– Pacheco D., Zucca R., Arsiwalla X., Principe A., Zhang H., Rocamora R., Axmacher N., Paul FMJ Verschure, 2021, “Volitional learning promotes theta phase coding in the human hippocampus” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS vol. 118 issue 10; e2021238118.

– Santos-Pata D., Amil A.F., Raikov I.G., Rennó‐Costa C., Mura A., Soltesz I., Paul FMJ Verschure 2021, “Epistemic autonomy and the mammalian hippocampus: Bootstrapping gradient descent learning“. Trends in Cognitive Sciences (TICS) vol. 25, nº7, pp 582-595.

– Santos-Pata D., Amil A.F., Raikov I.G., Rennó-Costa C., Mura A., Soltesz I., Paul FMJ Verschure 2021, “Entorhinal mismatch: A model of self-supervised learning in the hippocampus“. IScience vol.24, no. 4, e102364.

– Ballester B.R., Ward N.S., Brander F., Maier M., Kelly K., Paul FMJ Verschure, 2021, “Relationship between intensity and recovery in post-stroke rehabilitation: a retrospective analysis“. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Vol. 93, Issue 2, pp. 226-228.

– Amil, Adrian F.; Verschure, Paul FMJ 2021, ‘Supercritical dynamics at the edge-of-chaos underlies optimal decision-making’, Journal Of Physics-complexity, 2, 4, 045017.

– FP dos Santos, PFMJ Verschure 2021, ‘Excitatory-Inhibitory Homeostasis and Diaschisis: Tying the Local and Global Scales in the Post-stroke Cortex‘, Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 15

– Wiers R.W., Paul F.M.J. Verschure, 2020/2021 “Curing the broken brain model of addiction: Neurorehabilitation from a systems perspective” Addictive Behaviors, vol. 112, pp 106602.

– PFMJ Verschure, S Wierenga 2021, ‘Future memory: a digital humanities approach for the preservation and presentation of the history of the Holocaust and Nazi crimes, Holocaust Studies, 1-27