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Patryk Laurent
- I am a neuroscientist and neural network modeler at Brain Corporation in San Diego, California.
- Using computer simulations, I study how networks of neurons learn to control themselves and generate thought, decisions, memory and movement.
Publications and Presentations
- For a complete list, see my CV here.
Latest News
Check my blog.
- Publication: Cole M.W., Laurent P., Stocco A. (2013) Rapid instructed task learning: A new window into the human brain's unique capacity for flexible cognitive control. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. (journal link)
- Publication: Laurent, P. A. (2012) A Neural Mechanism for Reward Discounting: Insights from Modeling Hippocampal-Striatal Interactions. Cognitive Computation. (journal link) (my draft, free)
- Software: Arcly - an R client for iOS (2012).
Here are some of the exciting research questions I have been thinking about and plan to investigate:
- How can a simple reinforcement signal result in the coordination of activity distributed across large neural network systems?
- How can we reliably move information from one part of a neural network to another? (Could this be used prior to neurosurgery?)
- How can a neural system control and elicit a specific action in a distant neural network if it only has a narrow channel through which to exert control? (Or, how can an expert puppeteer control a complex puppet with just a few cleverly-placed strings?)
- How can independently developed neural network models of brain regions be made to interoperate?
Although research into neural computation started many decades ago, computers have gotten quite a bit more powerful since then allowing us to simulate them with unprecedented sophistication.
What does this mean? This means we now have a unique opportunity to try things with neural networks that were previously considered too intensive!
The time is now, fellow neuromodelers! :)
Here is some software I've developed during my research. You are free to use any of this source code in your work as long as you acknowledge me. I hope to get around to selecting a more specific open source license soon.
- Computational Modeling
- NNQL
- My project to develop a simple but powerful neural network simulation language inspired by SQL. NNQL minimizes programming time, maximizes clarity of model descriptions, and improves communication between modelers and non-modelers.
- Adaptive Reading Agent Simulator
(Runs in a GUI) Train a Reinforcement Learning agent to control its saccadic eye movements as it reads words of various lengths and word identification difficulties. Outputs data in MATLAB matrix format for easy analysis. 
- Recurrent McCulloch-Pitts Network
- Train and test a Levy-style recurrent neural network of spiking McCulloch-Pitts neurons.
- fMRI
- SVM Weight Extractor
- Handy script that extracts weights from the SVM generated by MATLAB's bioinformatics toolbox so you can look at the value of your decision variables.
- ASL Eye Tracker Driver
- This Java code allows you to get gaze information from ASL eye trackers via a serial port connection for gaze-contingent paradigms. It interprets the binary data from the controller.
- EPI Noise Echo Cancellation
- If you need to hear your participant in real time during your fMRI experiment, this ChucK script allows you to cancel out the scanner noise during EPI data acquisition.
When Patryk was 6 years old, he began programming his Commodore 64 to ask questions and interpret their answers. A little over a decade later, while reading a book called "Computers and Human Language Processing" on a plane, he stumbled into a neatly hidden chapter on neural networks. This initiated a major paradigm shift in his thinking.
Patryk began studying the Cognitive Sciences and Neuroscience at the University of Virginia, and accepted an undergraduate research position in Dr. William Levy's Laboratory of Systems Neurodynamics. After resharpening his software skills in industry for a few years, he resumed his studies and earned a Ph.D in Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Laurent then accepted a postdoctoral research position at the Johns Hopkins University where he carried out a several research projects studying how reward influences attention in humans.
At the present time, he is ecstatic to be doing cutting-edge neural network modeling research as a scientist Brain Corporation.
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