Ellen Boven

Postdoctoral research associate

Neural & machine learning group
[w/ Richard Apps]

I did my PhD with the NMLG group and I am now a short-term postdoc in the same group. I am interested in understanding how different brain areas cooperate during learning and behaviour. My work combines techniques from systems and computational neuroscience to study how the cerebellum contributes to the learning of goal directed behaviours. In order to develop a functional view on how the cerebellum and the cortex cooperate during learning of cognitive tasks I combine methods from machine learning, supervised learning and neural modelling. Experiments can then be used to inform this model on the type of interactions between these networks and how such neural activity contributes to learning and behaviour.

Previously I did a bachelor in biology from University of Ghent followed by a master in Neurosciences at the University of Antwerp. Before starting my PhD in Bristol I obtained a studentship which enabled me to get more hands on experience in an experimental neuroscience lab at the UCL.