PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Maryam M. Shanechi (shanechi@usc.edu)
Maryam Shanechi is the Alexander A. Sawchuk Chair and Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Neuroscience, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at USC. She is also the Founding Director of the new USC Center for Neurotechnology. See more info here.
RESEARCH
Our laboratory develops neurotechnology and studies the brain through data-driven modeling, decoding and control of neural dynamics. To do so, we work at the interface of machine learning, statistical signal processing, and control theory to develop algorithmic solutions for problems in basic and clinical neuroscience that involve the collection and modulation of neural signals. Our work combines algorithm development with in vivo experimental implementation and testing, and is conducted in close collaboration with a variety of experimental labs. Our lab has developed brain-machine interfaces to restore lost emotional function in mental disorders and lost motor function in neurological injuries and diseases. Some specific problems of interest include dynamical modeling of high-dimensional multiscale brain data, decoding of cognitive, motor, or mood states from neural signals, and developing closed-loop controllers for neural activity patterns such as closed-loop deep brain stimulation systems. These closed-loop neurotechnologies can enable personalized therapies for a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
OPEN POSITIONS
See the open positions page for the list.
ADDRESS
Michelson Hall (MCB), 407
1002 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089
ANNOUNCEMENTS
09/06/2024 Our Nature Neuroscience paper is now published and develops a new deep learning method for dynamical modeling of neural-behavioral data and dissociating behaviorally relevant neural dynamics. Read the USC Viterbi Story here.
07/01/2024 Maryam Shanechi is appointed as the inaugural holder of the Alexander A. Sawchuk Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
06/03/2024 Our Nature Reviews Bioengineering paper on brain-computer interfaces for neuropsychiatric disorders is now published.
05/23/2024 Maryam Shanechi is named the inaugural holder of the Alexander A. Sawchuk Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
05/02/2024 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on event detection and decoding from multimodal time-series data with application to brain data is now published.
02/09/2024 Our PNAS paper on disentangling intrinsic and input-driven brain dynamics is now published. Read the USC Viterbi Story here.
01/24/2024 Our paper made the cover of Nature Biomedical Engineering. It presents an AI algorithm that achieves real-time flexible inference for neurotechnology.
01/01/2024 Maryam Shanechi is elevated to IEEE Fellow.
12/11/2023 Our Nature Biomedical Engineering paper on neural network models with dynamical flexible inference for brain data is now published. Read the USC story here. Read the Nature Behind the Paper Story here.
12/11/2023 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on unsupervised learning of stationary and switching dynamical systems from Poisson observations is now published.
11/28/2023 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on multimodal subspace identification for discrete-continuous signals is now published.
10/23/2023 Our work at the interface of AI and mental health is highlighted by Psychology Today here.
09/19/2023 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on decoding confidence from human EEG activity is not published.
07/26/2023 Maryam Shanechi is named Blavatnik National Awards Finalist, read USC’s story here.
07/01/2023 Maryam Shanechi is appointed to a Dean’s Professorship.
05/22/2023 Our Nature Neuroscience paper on decoding chronic pain from human intracranial brain activity is now published.
05/05/2023 Maryam Shanechi is promoted to Full Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering with tenure.
11/04/2022 Our work on AI-based neurotechnology for brain disorders is highlighted by MIT Technology Review.
10/19/2022 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on switching dynamical systems with multiscale spike-field observations is now published.
08/24/2022 Maryam receives the One Mind Rising Star Award. Read USC’s highlight here.
04/06/2022 Maryam receives the MINS Rising Star Award from the University of Pennsylvania.
03/29/2022 Maryam spoke at MARS 2022 conference, hosted by Jeff Bezos, about next generation neurotechnology. See video highlights here.
03/07/2022 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on modeling multiscale causality in spiking and field-potential networks is now published.
12/21/2021 Our eLife Insight article is now out.
09/24/2021 We are awarded a new NSF CRCNS grant to study the neural basis of naturalistic movements.
05/07/2021 Best Doctoral Dissertation Award at USC Viterbi School of Engineering is awarded to Omid Sani, former PhD student and current postdoc in the lab. Congratulations Omid!
04/16/2021 Our paper on modeling brain network dynamics during stimulation is the cover article for the April issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering here.
![](https://nseip.usc.edu/files/2021/04/Nat_bme_cover-772x1024.jpg)
04/06/2021 We received an R01 grant from NIH/NIMH to work toward “model-based neural control of brain stimulation for neuropsychiatric disorders”. Read USC story here.
03/03/2021 Maryam Shanechi is promoted to Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with Tenure.
02/01/2021 Our Nature Biomedical Engineering paper is now published here. We demonstrate the ability to model & predict the dynamic response of multiregional brain networks to ongoing electrical stimulation. Read the USC Viterbi story here.
01/27/2021 Our Nature Communications paper is now published here. We develop novel multiscale dynamical models and discover a multiscale low-dimensional dynamical mode shared in spiking and LFP population activity that explains naturalistic reach-and-grasp behavior. Read the USC Viterbi story here.
01/20/2021 Maryam Shanechi will receive the 2021 Curtis W. McGraw Research Award of the American Society for Engineering (ASEE), given to one person each year across all domains of engineering at the assistant and associate professor levels.
11/16/2020 Our Nature Neuroscience paper on a new dynamic method that can dissociate and model behaviorally relevant neural dynamics is now published here. Read the USC story here.
10/06/2020 Maryam Shanechi received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Read more here.
11/07/2019 Maryam Shanechi received the Mid-Career Achievement Award from the University of Toronto. Read more here.
10/02/2019 Maryam Shanechi is selected by Science News in the SN10 list of 10 Scientists to Watch. Read more here.
09/24/2019 My Nature Neuroscience perspective article on brain-machine interfaces and how they can extend to the neuropsychiatric domain is now published online here.
09/22/2019 Our work on BCIs for neuropsychiatric disorders is a winner of the 2019 international BCI award. Congratulations to my students Yuxiao Yang and Omid Sani and the entire team! Read more here.
08/22/2019 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on a new method for detecting events from population spike trains is now online here.
05/17/2019 Our papers published in Nature Biotechnology and Journal of Neural Engineering are featured by the IEEE Spectrum here.
05/17/2019 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on estimating functional connectivity in spike-field networks is now published online here.
05/16/2019 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on dynamic network modeling for human ECoG activity is now published online here.
04/25/2019 Our IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering paper develops an unsupervised method to learn multiscale dynamical models for spike-field activity and is now published online here.
04/23/2019 Maryam Shanechi receives the USC Viterbi Junior Research Award.
03/29/2019 Our IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering paper on how to compute multiscale causality graphs in spike-field networks is now published here.
03/18/2019 The joint meeting for two international MURI and BARI initiatives led by Maryam Shanechi is highlighted here.
03/11/2019 Our Journal of Neural Engineering paper on a personalized closed-loop brain interface system for anesthetic delivery is now published online here.
02/15/2019 We held a joint meeting for our MURI and BARI programs at USC with over 60 international experts from academia and government labs in US and UK. Led by Maryam Shanechi, MURI started in 2016 to develop brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) for enhanced decision accuracy and BARI was just kicked off to develop human-AI teams for joint decision making, funded by US DoD and UK MoD. Read more here.
02/11/2019 Science News has featured two of our papers published in Nature Biotechnology and Journal of Neural Engineering in an article about recent advances toward electrical stimulation treatments for depression here.
12/19/2018 Maryam Shanechi receives the ONR Young Investigator Award announced here.
10/24/2018 Our paper on multiscale decoding of spike-field activity is now published in Journal of Neural Engineering here.
10/11/2018 Our mood decoding paper is the cover article for the October issue of Nature Biotechnology here.
![](https://nseip.usc.edu/files/2018/10/nbt_cover_OCT_18_l-01-vhc304-779x1024.jpg)
09/25/2018 DoD announces our new joint US-UK BARI program to build human-machine teams here.
See the news page for more.