Who am I?
I am a Junior Group Leader and Principal Investigator at UC Berkeley and TU Berlin . I am interested in understanding how complex information is encoded in the brain and use machine-learning approaches to fit computational models to large-scale brain data acquired during natural tasks. Currently, I explore how more than one language can coexist in the human brain.
I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute in UC Berkeley, a Moore-and-Sloan Data Science Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science , and DAAD postdoctoral fellow at International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) in Berkeley. I did my Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience at Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, obained a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich and worked at California Institute of Technology during my master’s thesis.
I routinely disregard disciplinary boundaries and follow my curiosity. This makes my work lie at the intersection between data science, neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I design and promote approaches for scientific reproducibility and co-edited a book on reproducibility published here. Here is an online version of the book. I also worked on improving online user authentication applications using image based authentication procedures combined with knowledge gained from cognitive neuroscience (Check MooneyAuth ) and created a database of two-tone Mooney images. E-mail me if you would like to use those for your research. Code is available on GitHub.
I am a passionate coder, baker, and I love feeling the resonance when I play the cello which makes me simply happy.
Publications
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Kitzes, J., Turek D., Deniz F., editors, The Practice of Reproducible Research: Case Studies in Data Science , UC Press, 2017. Online version book available at https://www.practicereproducibleresearch.org/.
Book
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Deniz F., "pyMooney: Generating a Database of Two-Tone, Mooney Images ". In The Practice of Reproducible Research: Case Studies in Data Science. Kitzes, J., Turek D., Deniz F., editors. UC Press, 2017
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Turek D., Deniz F., "Introducing the Case Studies". In The Practice of Reproducible Research: Case Studies in Data Science. Kitzes, J., Turek D., Deniz F., editors. UC Press, 2017
Book Chapters
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Popham S., Huth A. G., Bilenko N. Y., Deniz F., Gao, S. J., Nunez-Elizalde A., Gallant J. L., Visual and linguistic semantic representations are aligned at the border of human visual cortex . Nature Neuroscience 24, 1628-1636, 2021
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Ramakrishnan K. and Deniz F., Non-Complementarity of Information in Word-Embedding and Brain Representations in Distinguishing between Concrete and Abstract Words . In Proceedings of NAACL HLT Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics (CMCL), 2021
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Deniz F., Nunez-Elizalde A.O., Huth A. G., Gallant J. L., The representation of semantic information across human cerebral cortex during listening versus reading is invariant to stimulus modality . Journal of Neuroscience, 39(39):7722-7736, 2019
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Wu M.*, Deniz F.*, Prenger R., Gallant J. L., The unified maximum a posteriori (MAP) framework for neuronal system identification . (* First authorship shared), arXiv, https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.01043, 2018
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Holdgraf C., Culich A., Rokem A., Deniz F., Ushuzima D., Alegro M., Portable learning environments for hands-on computational instruction: Using container- and cloud-based technology to teach data science . In Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing on Sustainability, Success and Impact (p. 32), ACM, 2017
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Castelluccia C., Duermuth M., Golla M., Deniz F.., MooneyAuth: Towards Practical Implicit Memory-based Authentication . In Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2017
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Kizilirmak J. M., Gomes da Silva J. G., Imamoglu F., Richardson-Klavehn A., Generation and the subjective feeling of "aha!": Independent contributions to learning from insight . Psychological research 80 (6), 1059-1074, 2015
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Castelluccia C., Duermuth M., Imamoglu F., Learning from Neuroscience to Improve Internet Security . ERCIM News, Research and Innovation, 99:46, 2014
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Imamoglu F., Heinzle J., Imfeld A., Haynes J.-D., Activity in high-level brain regions reflects visibility of low-level stimuli . Neuroimage, 102:688-694, 2014
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Imamoglu F., Kahnt T., Koch C., Haynes J.-D., Changes in functional connectivity support conscious object recognition . Neuroimage, 63:1909-17, 2012
Journal and conference publications
Projects
Press
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MIT Technology Review: “A map of the brain could help to guess what you’re reading”
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Discover Magazine: “Audiobooks or Reading? To Our Brains, It Doesn't Matter
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The Daily Californian: “UC Berkeley study finds human brains similarly stimulated by reading, listening”
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The Telegraph: “End of audiobook snobbery as scientists find reading and listening activates the same parts of the brain”
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UA Magazine: “Paper or Audio? It’s All the Same to your Brain. End of Story”
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ScienceDaily: “A map of the brain can tell what you're reading about”
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Medical News Today: “Listening and reading evoke almost identical brain activity”
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PhillyVoice: “Reading and listening to books stimulates the same areas of the brain"
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India Today: “Whether you are reading or listening, your brain responds the same way to similar content"
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MedicalXpress: “A map of the brain can tell what you're reading"
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Heise Magazine Technology Review: "Hirnscan verrät, was Menschen lesen" (in German)