CV

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Research Interests:

Systems Neuroscience, Visual Cortex, Visual Perception, Consciousness, Functional MRI, Arousal, Orientation Selectivity, Representational Drift, Hemodynamic Coupling.

Research

• 2023-present: Research Fellow
  • PI: Prof. Liad Mudrik
  • School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University
• 2021-2023: Research Fellow
  • PI: Dr. Elisha Merriam
  • Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
• 2016-2021: Postdoctoral Fellow
  • PI: Dr. Elisha Merriam
  • Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
• 2009-2016: Ph.D. candidate
  • PI: Prof. Ehud Zohary
  • Neurobiology Department & ELSC, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Thesis title: Brain Representations of Visual Percepts
• 2008-2009: Undergraduate intern
  • PI: Prof. Haim Sompolinsky
  • Racah Institute of Physics & ELSC
  • Research topic: Optimal Saccades during Smooth Pursuit

Teaching experience

• 2015-2016: Teacher Assistant
  • Uncovering principles of human vision using fMRI (course no. 76962)
  • Initiated and built course, and delivered lectures
  • ELSC, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 2012-2014: Teacher Assistant
  • Cognitive Processes A (course no. 76912)
  • Transformed course and delivered lectures
  • ELSC, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 2012-2013: Teacher Assistant
  • Data Structures (course no. 10031)
  • Delivered review lectures
  • Azrieli College of Engineering, Jerusalem

Education

• 2018, Summer course:
  • Computational Neuroscience: Vision
  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY
• 2009-2017, Ph.D.:
  • Brain Sciences: Computation and Information Processing
  • ELSC, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 2008, Summer school:
  • Ulpanat De Shalit - Physics
  • Weizmann Institute, Rechovot
• 2006-2009, BSc.:
  • Physics & Computer Science
  • Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Publications

Representations in human primary visual cortex drift over time

Roth, Z.N., & Merriam, E.P. (2023). "Representations in human primary visual cortex drift over time." Nature Communications. 14, 4422.

Natural scene sampling reveals reliable coarse-scale orientation tuning in human V1

Roth, Z.N., Kay, K., & Merriam, E.P. (2022). "Natural scene sampling reveals reliable coarse-scale orientation tuning in human V1." Nature Communications. 13, 6469.

Task-related activity in human visual cortex

Roth, Z.N. Ryoo, M., & Merriam, E.P. (2020). "Task-related activity in human visual cortex." PLOS Biology. 18(11), e3000921.

Stimulus vignetting and orientation selectivity in human visual cortex

Roth, Z.N., Heeger, D.J., & Merriam, E.P. (2018). "Stimulus vignetting and orientation selectivity in human visual cortex." eLife. 7, e37241.

Functional MRI Representational Similarity Analysis Reveals a Dissociation between Discriminative and Relative Location Information in the Human Visual System

Roth, Z.N. (2015). "Functional MRI Representational Similarity Analysis Reveals a Dissociation between Discriminative and Relative Location Information in the Human Visual System." Frontiers in integrative neuroscience. 10, 16.

Position and identity information available in fMRI patterns of activity in human visual cortex

Roth, Z.N., & Zohary, E. (2015). "Position and Identity Information Available in fMRI Patterns of Activity in Human Visual Cortex." Journal of Neuroscience. 35(33), 11559-11571.

Fingerprints of learned object recognition seen in the fMRI activation patterns of lateral occipital complex

Roth, Z.N., & Zohary, E., (2015). "Fingerprints of learned object recognition seen in the fMRI activation patterns of lateral occipital complex." Cerebral Cortex. 25(9), 2427-2439.

Awards

• NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence 2022
• NIMH Intramural Research Program OFT Trainee Travel Award 2019
• VSS 2019 National Eye Institute Postdoctoral Travel Award 2019
• ELSC Postdoctoral Fellowship Abroad scholarship 2016-2017
• ELSC Prize for the first scientific paper based on data collected from the SKYRA magnet 2016
• ELSC Prize for Outstanding Academic Performance for published paper 2014
• Dean’s list, Faculty of Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2007

Talks

• Roth, Z.N. (2022), Orientation selectivity and fMRI redux: what are we actually measuring? Informal CPS Seminar, UT Austin
• Roth, Z.N. (2022), Orientation selectivity and fMRI redux: what are we actually measuring? Perception Lunch, University of Minnesota
• Roth, Z.N., Kay, K., Merriam, E.P. (2022), Orientation selectivity in human V1 revisited. Vision Sciences Society annual meeting.
• Roth, Z.N., Ryoo, M., Merriam, E.P. (2020), Widespread task-related fMRI responses in visual cortex. Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN) 28th Meeting.
• Roth, Z.N., Heeger, D.J., & Merriam, E.P. (2018), Orientation selectivity and stimulus vignetting in human visual cortex. Vision Sciences Society annual meeting. Abstract.
• Roth, Z.N., & Zohary, E. (2016). Location and Identity Information Carried by fMRI Activation Patterns in Human Visual Cortex. ELSC Ein Gedi Retreat.
• Roth, Z.N., & Zohary, E. (2015). Location and identity information carried by fMRI activation patterns in human visual cortex. ISFN 24th Meeting.
• Roth, Z., & Zohary, E. (2012). Learning to recognize degraded objects is associated with a greater match to the objects’ template patterns in lateral occipital cortex. Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN) 21st Meeting.

Posters

• Kim, J.H., Yin C., Merriam, E.P., Roth, Z.N. (2022), Pupil size is sensitive to low-level features, independent of arousal-related modulation. Vision Sciences Society annual meeting.
• Roth, Z.N., Heeger, D.J., & Merriam, E.P. (2020), Stimulus vignetting and orientation selectivity in human visual cortex. Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN) 28th Meeting.
• Roth, Z.N., Steinberg, N.J., Merriam, E.P. (2019), Spatiotopic memory is more precise than retinotopic memory in the context of natural images. Vision Sciences Society annual meeting. Abstract.
• Steinberg, N.J., Roth, Z.N., Movshon, J.A., Merriam, E.P. (2019), Neural correlates of the double-drift illusion. Vision Sciences Society annual meeting. Abstract.
• Roth, Z.N., Heeger, D.J., & Merriam, E.P. (2018), Orientation selectivity and stimulus vignetting in human visual cortex. Cognitive Computational Neuroscience annual meeting. Abstract.
• Ryoo, M., Burlingham, C., Roth, Z., Mirbagheri, S., Heeger, D.J., & Merriam, E. (2018), A widespread task-related hemodynamic response in human V1 is modulated by task difficulty. Vision Sciences Society annual meeting. Abstract.
• Roth, Z.N., & Merriam, E.P. (2017). Stimulus vignetting and coarse-scale biases for orientation in human visual cortex. Society for Neuroscience (SFN) annual meeting.
• Roth, Z.N., & Merriam, E.P. (2017). Stimulus vignetting and orientation selectivity in human visual cortex. NIMH Training Day.
• Roth, Z.N., & Zohary, E. (2016). Position Information in Human Visual Cortex. OHBM Annual Meeting.
• Roth, Z.N., & Zohary, E. (2016). Position Information in Human Visual Cortex. JBC Annual Retreat.
• Roth, Z. N., & Zohary, E. (2014). Position invariance and object affordance in human parietal cortex. European Conference of Visual Perception (ECVP) 2014 Meeting.
• Roth, Z. N., & Zohary, E. (2014). Position Invariance and Object Affordances in Human Parietal Cortex. ELSC Ein Gedi Retreat.
• Roth, Z., & Zohary, E. (2013). Learning to recognize degraded objects is associated with a greater match to the objects’ template fMRI activation patterns in Lateral Occipital Cortex. Vision Sciences Society 2013 Meeting. Abstract.