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Christian Machens completed his PhD in Theoretical Biophysics in 2002/02/01 at the Institute for Theoretical Biology at Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. He is currently a Principal Investigator at Fundação Champalimaud in Lisbon. He published 46 articles in journals, supervised five PhD theses and co-supervised four. He works in the areas of Basic Medicine with an emphasis on Neurosciences and Computer and Information Sciences.
Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Christian Machens

Citation names

  • Machens, Christian

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
B414-40AF-C494
ORCID iD
0000-0003-1717-1562

Knowledge fields

  • Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Neurosciences
  • Exact Sciences - Computer and Information Sciences

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
German (Mother tongue)
English Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2)
Education
Degree Classification
2006/09/01
Concluded
 Computational Neuroscience (Pós-doutoramento)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States
2002/02/01
Concluded
 Theoretical Biophysics (Doktor (PhD))
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Institute for Theoretical Biology, Germany
"Sensory coding in natural environments: Lessons from the grasshopper auditory system" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
1998/07/01
Concluded
 Physik (Master)
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Institute for Theoretical Biology, Germany
Affiliation

Science

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2011/07/01 - Current Principal Investigator (Research) Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
2006/09/01 - 2007/08/31 Principal Investigator (Research) Ludwig Maximilians Universität München Department Biologie I, Germany

Teaching in Higher Education

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2007/09/01 - 2011/06/30 Associate Professor (University Teacher) École Normale Supérieure, France
Projects

Grant

Designation Funders
2017/07/01 - 2023/06/30 Communication between neural populations: circuits, coding, and behavior
SCGB 543009
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)
Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
Concluded
2007/11/01 - 2013/08/31 Information processing of natural stimuli in the mammalian auditory system
MA 3979/1-1
Principal investigator
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

École Normale Supérieure, France
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Concluded
2008/12/01 - 2012/11/30 Modèles computationnels des mécanismes neuronaux de la mémoire de travail.
ANR-08-CEXC-006-01
Principal investigator
École Normale Supérieure, France
 Agence nationale de la recherche
Concluded
Outputs

Publications

Journal article
  1. Claudia E. Feierstein; Michelle H.M. de Goeij; Aaron D. Ostrovsky; Alexandre Laborde; Ruben Portugues; Michael B. Orger; Christian K. Machens. "Dimensionality reduction reveals separate translation and rotation populations in the zebrafish hindbrain". Current Biology 33 (2023): 3911-3925. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.037.
    10.1101/2023.03.12.532285
  2. Cruz, Bruno F.; Guiomar, Gonçalo; Soares, Sofia; Motiwala, Asma; Machens, Christian K.; Paton, Joseph J.. "Action suppression reveals opponent parallel control via striatal circuits". Nature 607 7919 (2022): 521-526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04894-9.
    10.1038/s41586-022-04894-9
  3. Asma Motiwala; Sofia Soares; Bassam V. Atallah; Joseph J. Paton; Christian K. Machens. "Efficient coding of cognitive variables underlies dopamine response and choice behavior". Nature Neuroscience 25 6 (2022): 738-748. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01085-7.
    10.1038/s41593-022-01085-7
  4. Nuno Calaim; Florian A Dehmelt; Pedro J Gonçalves; Christian K Machens. "The geometry of robustness in spiking neural networks". eLife (2022): https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73276.
    10.7554/eLife.73276
  5. João D. Semedo; Anna I. Jasper; Amin Zandvakili; Aravind Krishna; Amir Aschner; Christian K. Machens; Adam Kohn; Byron M. Yu. "Feedforward and feedback interactions between visual cortical areas use different population activity patterns". Nature Communications (2022): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28552-w.
    10.1038/s41467-022-28552-w
  6. Okazawa, Gouki; Hatch, Christina E.; Mancoo, Allan; Machens, Christian K.; Kiani, Roozbeh. "Representational geometry of perceptual decisions in the monkey parietal cortex". Cell 184 14 (2021): 3748-3761.e18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.05.022.
    Published • 10.1016/j.cell.2021.05.022
  7. Kohn, Adam; Jasper, Anna I.; Semedo, João D.; Gokcen, Evren; Machens, Christian K.; Yu, Byron M.. "Principles of Corticocortical Communication: Proposed Schemes and Design Considerations". Trends in Neurosciences 43 9 (2020): 725-737. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2020.07.001.
    Published • 10.1016/j.tins.2020.07.001
  8. Wieland Brendel; Samuel J. Gershman; Ralph Bourdoukan; Pietro Vertechi; Christian K. Machens; Sophie Denève. "Learning to represent signals spike by spike". PLOS Computational Biology 16 3 (2020): e1007692-e1007692. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007692.
    10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007692
  9. Keemink, Sander W; Machens, Christian K. "Decoding and encoding (de)mixed population responses". Current Opinion in Neurobiology 58 (2019): 112-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2019.09.004.
    Published • 10.1016/j.conb.2019.09.004
  10. Kobak, Dmitry; Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L; Valente, Mafalda; Machens, Christian K; Renart, Alfonso. "State-dependent geometry of population activity in rat auditory cortex". eLife 8 (2019): http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.44526.
    10.7554/elife.44526
  11. Semedo, João D.; Zandvakili, Amin; Machens, Christian K.; Yu, Byron M.; Kohn, Adam. "Cortical Areas Interact through a Communication Subspace". Neuron 102 1 (2019): 249-259.e4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.01.026.
    Published • 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.01.026
  12. Machens, Christian. "Optimal compensation for neuron loss.". eLife (2016): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/27935480.
    10.7554/elife.12454
  13. Machens, Christian. "Distributed and Mixed Information in Monosynaptic Inputs to Dopamine Neurons.". Neuron (2016): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/27618675.
    10.1016/j.neuron.2016.08.018
  14. Machens, Christian. "Demixed principal component analysis of neural population data.". eLife (2016): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/27067378.
    10.7554/elife.10989
  15. Machens, Christian. "Efficient codes and balanced networks.". Nature neuroscience (2016): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/26906504.
    10.1038/nn.4243
  16. Thiago S Gouvêa; Tiago Monteiro; Asma Motiwala; Sofia Soares; Christian Machens; Joseph J Paton. "Striatal dynamics explain duration judgments". eLife 4 (2015): https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11386.
    10.7554/eLife.11386
  17. Machens, Christian. "On the number of neurons and time scale of integration underlying the formation of percepts in the brain.". PLoS computational biology (2015): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/25793393.
    10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004082
  18. Machens, Christian. "Variability in neural activity and behavior.". Current opinion in neurobiology (2014): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/24632334.
    10.1016/j.conb.2014.02.013
  19. Machens, Christian. "Optogenetic perturbations reveal the dynamics of an oculomotor integrator.". Frontiers in neural circuits (2014): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/24616666.
    10.3389/fncir.2014.00010
  20. Wohrer, A.; MacHens, C.K.. "Percept and the single neuron". Nature Neuroscience 16 2 (2013): 112-113. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84873840084&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1038/nn.3314
  21. Wohrer, A.; Humphries, M.D.; Machens, C.K.. "Population-wide distributions of neural activity during perceptual decision-making". Progress in Neurobiology 103 (2013): 156-193. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84875965987&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.pneurobio.2012.09.004
  22. Boerlin, M.; Machens, C.K.; Denève, S.. "Predictive Coding of Dynamical Variables in Balanced Spiking Networks". PLoS Computational Biology 9 11 (2013): http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84888221902&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003258
  23. Weber, F.; Machens, C.K.; Borst, A.. "Disentangling the functional consequences of the connectivity between optic-flow processing neurons". Nature Neuroscience 15 3 (2012): 441-448. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84857649949&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1038/nn.3044
  24. Machens, C.K.. "Building the human brain". Science 338 6111 (2012): 1156-1157. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84870224291&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1126/science.1231865
  25. Bourdoukan, R.; Barrett, D.G.T.; MacHens, C.K.; Denève, S.. "Learning optimal spike-based representations". Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 3 (2012): 2285-2293. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84877783229&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
  26. Brendel, W.; Romo, R.; MacHens, C.K.. "Demixed principal component analysis". Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 24: 25th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems 2011, NIPS 2011 (2011): http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84860609028&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
  27. Wohrer, A.; Romo, R.; MacHens, C.. "Linear readout from a neural population with partial correlation data". Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 23: 24th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems 2010, NIPS 2010 (2010): http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84860609377&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
  28. Machens, C.K.; Romo, R.; Brody, C.D.. "Functional, but not anatomical, separation of "what" and "when" in prefrontal cortex". Journal of Neuroscience 30 1 (2010): 350-360. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-74849088855&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3276-09.2010
  29. Weber, F.; Machens, C.K.; Borst, A.. "Spatiotemporal response properties of optic-flow processing neurons". Neuron 67 4 (2010): 629-642. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-77955930961&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.neuron.2010.07.017
  30. Machens, C.K.. "Demixing population activity in higher cortical areas". Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience 4 (2010): http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-82955174157&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.3389/fncom.2010.00126
  31. Machens, C.K.; Brody, C.D.. "Design of continuous attractor networks with monotonic tuning using a symmetry principle". Neural Computation 20 2 (2008): 452-485. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-38649118901&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1162/neco.2007.07-06-297
  32. Benda, J.; Gollisch, T.; Machens, C.K.; Herz, A.V.. "From response to stimulus: adaptive sampling in sensory physiology". Current Opinion in Neurobiology 17 4 (2007): 430-436. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-34948897019&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.conb.2007.07.009
  33. Herz, A.V.M.; Gollisch, T.; Machens, C.K.; Jaeger, D.. "Modeling single-neuron dynamics and computations: A balance of detail and abstraction". Science 314 5796 (2006): 80-85. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33749595018&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1126/science.1127240
  34. Machens, C.K.; Romo, R.; Brody, C.D.. "Flexible control of mutual inhibition: A neural model of two-interval discrimination". Science 307 5712 (2005): 1121-1124. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-13844317831&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1126/science.1104171
  35. Machens, C.K.; Gollisch, T.; Kolesnikova, O.; Herz, A.V.M.. "Testing the efficiency of sensory coding with optimal stimulus ensembles". Neuron 47 3 (2005): 447-456. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-23044462075&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.neuron.2005.06.015
  36. Machens, Christian. "Searching for optimal sensory signals: iterative stimulus reconstruction in closed-loop experiments.". Journal of computational neuroscience (2004): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/15218353.
    10.1023/b:jcns.0000023868.18446.a2
  37. Machens, C.K.; Wehr, M.S.; Zador, A.M.. "Linearity of Cortical Receptive Fields Measured with Natural Sounds". Journal of Neuroscience 24 5 (2004): 1089-1100. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0842304135&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4445-03.2004
  38. Edin, F.; Machens, C.K.; Schütze, H.; Herz, A.V.. "Searching for optimal sensory signals: iterative stimulus reconstruction in closed-loop experiments.". Journal of computational neuroscience 17 1 (2004): 47-56. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-3342881154&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
  39. Machens, C.K.; Schütze, H.; Franz, A.; Kolesnikova, O.; Stemmler, M.B.; Ronacher, B.; Herz, A.V.M.. "Single auditory neurons rapidly discriminate conspecific communication signals". Nature Neuroscience 6 4 (2003): 341-342. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0345074136&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1038/nn1036
  40. Machens, C.K.; Zador, A.. "Auditory Modeling Gets an Edge". Journal of Neurophysiology 90 6 (2003): 3581-3582. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0348012934&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1152/jn.00832.2003
  41. Machens, Christian. "Adaptive sampling by information maximization.". Physical review letters (2002): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12059456.
    10.1103/physrevlett.88.228104
  42. Schreiber, S.; Machens, C.K.; Herz, A.V.M.; Laughlin, S.B.. "Energy-efficient coding with discrete stochastic events". Neural Computation 14 6 (2002): 1323-1346. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0036618448&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1162/089976602753712963
  43. Machens, C.K.. "Adaptive sampling by information maximization". Physical Review Letters 88 22 (2002): http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0037014273&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
  44. Machens, Christian. "Representation of acoustic communication signals by insect auditory receptor neurons.". The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (2001): http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/11312306.
  45. Machens, C.K.; Stemmler, M.B.; Prinz, P.; Krahe, R.; Ronacher, B.; Herz, A.V.M.. "Representation of acoustic communication signals by insect auditory receptor neurons". Journal of Neuroscience 21 9 (2001): 3215-3227. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0035341265&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
  46. Machens, C.K; Prinz, P.; Stemmler, M.B; Ronacher, B.; Herz, A.V.M. "Discrimination of behaviorally relevant signals by auditory receptor neurons". Neurocomputing 38-40 (2001): 263-268. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0035383929&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/S0925-2312(01)00382-4
Activities

Supervision

Thesis Title
Role 		Degree Subject (Type)
Institution / Organization
2016/09/01 - 2022/11/01 Towards a normative understanding of higher-order brain activity
Supervisor
 Neuroscience (PhD)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
2015/09/01 - 2022/05/01 Reliable Spike Coding Despite Communication Delays
Supervisor
 Neuroscience (PhD)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
2016/10/01 - 2021/03/03 On the interpretation of higher-order principal components
Supervisor
 Neuroscience (PhD)
École Normale Supérieure, France
2013/09/01 - 2019/10/01 Robustness of Spike Coding Networks
Supervisor
 Neuroscience (PhD)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
2013/09/01 - 2018/10/01 Internal representations for time based decisions
Co-supervisor
 Neuroscience (PhD)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
2012/10/01 - 2018/04/01 Inter-area communication in the brain: a population-level approach
Co-supervisor
 Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD)
Carnegie Mellon University, United States
2010/09/01 - 2014/10/29 On the Demixing and Self-organized Formation of Neural Population Responses
Co-supervisor
École Normale Supérieure, France
2008/11/01 - 2012/09/12 A neural circuit model of the oculomotor integrator: theory and optogenetic dissection
Supervisor
École Normale Supérieure, France
2007/03/01 - 2011/12/07 System Identification of Optic-Flow Processing Neurons in the Fly: Single Cell and Small Circuit Models
Co-supervisor