Alejandro Tabas
Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor
in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience
Orcid: 0000-0002-8643-1543
Affiliation
Group Leader; Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language; Donostia, Basque Country, Spain
Research Associate; Max Plank Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences; Leipzig, Germany
Keywords: perceptual inference, predictive processing, probabilistic modelling, sensory thalamus, auditory pathway, model-driven fMRI, high-resolution fMRI, auditory cognition
Career
2024-ongoing Group Leader; Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain.
2024-ongoing Research Associate; Max Plank Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany.
2022-2024 Research Associate; University of Cambridge, UK. Supervised by Mate Lengyel, Guillaume Hennequin, and Daniel Wolpert.
2020-2022 Postdoctoral Fellow; Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Supervised by Katharina von Kriegstein.
2017-2019 Postdoctoral Fellow; Max Plank Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany. Supervised by Katharina von Kriegstein.
Education
2013-2017 Doctor of Philosopy; Bournemouth University, UK. Supervised by Emili Balaguer and André Rupp.
2013-2017 Master in Artificial Intelligence; Universität Politècnica de Catalunya + Universität de Barcelona.
2005-2011 Diploma in Theoretical Physics (BSc + MSc equivalent); Universität de Barcelona + Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Grants and awards
2023 ERC Starting Grant (SynPrePro 101115798). European Research Council. 1.5M€ over 5 years to start my own independent research group (March 2024 - March 2029)
2023 Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (ref RYC2022-036078-I). Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain. 244350€ over 5 years to co-finance my salary in a Spanish research institution.
2022 Forschungspool Aid for grant writing Technische Universität Dresden. 8888€ for funding my own position to support the writing of a DFG Grant Proposal
2016 Santander Mobility Award. Santander UK plc. £1000 award for attending international conferences.
2015 Santander Mobility Award. Santander UK plc. £1000 award for a two-months research visit in Heidelberg, Germany
2014 Santander Mobility Award. Santander UK plc. £2500 award for a three-months research visit in Heidelberg, Germany
2008 Erasmus Scholarship; internship in the University of Vienna.
Peer-reviewed publications
- A. Tabas, S. Kiebel, M. Marxen, K. von Kriegstein (2024) Fast frequency modulation is encoded according to the listener expectations in the human subcortical auditory pathway. Imaging Neuroscience (2024) 2: 1–20.
- S. Schelinski, L. Kauffmann, Al. Tabas, C. Müller-Axt, K. von Kriegstein (2024) Functional alterations of the magnocellular subdivision of the visual sensory thalamus in autism. PNAS 121 (47) e2413409121
- A. Tabas, K. von Kriegstein (2023) Multiple concurrent predictions inform prediction error in the human auditory pathway. Journal of Neuroscience JN-RM-2219-22
- J. Stein, K. von Kriegstein, A. Tabas (2022) Predictive encoding of pure tones and FM-sweeps in the human auditory cortex. Cerebral Cortex Communications 3(4):tgac047
- A. Tabas, K. von Kriegstein (2021) Neural modelling of the encoding of fast frequency modulation. PLoS Computational Biology 17(3):e1008787
- A. Tabas, K. von Kriegstein (2021) Adjudicating Between Local and Global Architectures of Predictive Processing in the Subcortical Auditory Pathway. Frontiers in Neural Circuits 15:644743
- S. Schelinski, A. Tabas, K. von Kriegstein (2021) Altered processing of communication signals in the subcortical auditory sensory pathway in autism. Human Brain Mapping 1-18
- A. Tabas, G. Mihai, S. Kiebel, R. Trampel, K. von Kriegstein (2020) Abstract rules drive adaptation in the subcortical sensory pathway. eLife 9:e64501
- A. Tabas, M. Andermann, V. Sebold, H. Riedel, E. Balaguer-Ballester, A. Rupp (2019) Modeling and MEG evidence of early consonance processing in auditory cortex. PLoS Computational Biology 15(2):e1006820
- A. Tabas, A. Rupp, E. Balaguer-Ballaster (2016) Competition Between Cortical Ensembles Explains Pitch-Related Dynamics of Auditory Evoked Fields. In: Villa A., Masulli P., Pons Rivero A. (eds) Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning - ICANN 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9886. Springer, Cham.
- A. Tabas, A. Siebert, S. Supek, D. Pressnitzer, E. Balaguer-Ballaster, A. Rupp (2016) Insights on the neuromagnetic representation of temporal asymmetry in human auditory cortex. PLoS ONE 11(4):e0153947
- E. Balaguer-Ballaster, A. Tabas, M. Budka (2014) Can we identify non-stationary dynamics of trial-to-trial variability? PLoS ONE 9(4):e95648
- A. Tabas, E. Balaguer-Ballaster, L. Igual (2014) Spatial Discriminant ICA for RS-fMRI characterisation Conference Paper. PRNI 2014: International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in Neuroimaging
Supervision
PhD Students
2025-ongoing Ekim Çelikay
2024-ongoing Monika Utroša
2024-ongoing Clémentine Levy-Fidel
2019-ongoing Heidi Järvikylä (second supervisor)
Master Thesis Students
2024-ongoing Pan Zhang
2022-2024 Kenza Garreau (Currently PhD Student at Kaptios)
2022-2023 Heike Sönnichsen (Currently PhD Student at Universität zu Lübeck)
2021-2023 Sandeep Kaur
2021-2022 Hanne Schurig (Currently PhD Student at University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden)
2020-2021 Jasmin Stein (Currently PhD Student at Technische Universität Dresden)
2020-2021 Julia Herrmann
Teaching
2024-ongoing Coordinator: PhD Training Programme - Python; BCBL, Spain
2022-2023 Supervisor and demonstrator: Mathematical methods and Intro to Neuroscience; Cambridge University, UK
2019-2022 Lecturer: Intro to Computational and Neuroscience for Cognitive Neuroscientists. Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
2014-2016 Teaching Assistant and Demonstrator: Maths support for Design and Engeneering; Computers and Networks. Bournemouth University, UK