UJFALUSSY, Balázs

Name: Balázs Ujfalussy
Current Address: Cambridge University, Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge
Office: Computational and Biological Learning Lab
E-mail: bbu20 at cam dot ac dot uk
Phone: +0044 1223 748515
Fax:

Qualification: biologist
Position: research assistant

Studies

• 1994 - 2000: The Benedictine Boarding School of Pannonhalma
• 2000 - 2005: M.Sc. in Biology at Eötvös University, Budapest, Faculty of Science
• 2005 - 2008: Scholarship at RIPNP of the Hung. Acad. Sci.
• 2005 - 2008: Phd student in Neuroscience at Eötvös University, Faculty of science
• 2006 - 2009: M. Ed. in Biology. Thesis: A gondolkodás biofizikája: Számítógépes szemléltetés az idegrendszer működésének oktatásában.(in Hungarian), Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Natural Sciences,
• 2010: PhD in Neurosciences at the Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Natural Sciences. Thesis: Space and Time in the Hippocampus. advisor: Péter Érdi and Tamás Kiss

Research interests

How does the brain process, represent and store information relevant for making fast and reliable decisions supporting adaptive behavior? How does our brain build models of the environments and use this model to control actions? Animals' ability to update their knowledge about their current position solely by integrating their movements is a particular example of using such models.

To get more insight into the underlying neural computations I build computational models at several levels and study information processing in the mammalian hippocampus. Outstanding questions of my research are: How the brain combines sensory information with internal models to update its current beliefs about the environment? What is the consequence of a local Hebbian plasticity on spatial representation in the hippocampus? How the morphology of the dendritic tree shapes the receptive field of neurons by constraining computations at the single-cell level?

Publications: Peer-reviewed papers

• P. Érdi, B. Ujfalussy, V. Diwadkar: The schizophrenic brain: A broken hermeneutic circle Neural Network Word 19(5):413-427 (2009)
• B. Ujfalussy, T Kiss, P. Érdi: : Parallel Computational Subunits in Dentate Granule Cells Generate Multiple Place Fields PLoS Comput Biol 5(9):e1000500. (2009)
• D. Samu, P. Erős, B. Ujfalussy, T Kiss: Robust path integration in the entorhinal grid cell system with hippocampal feed-back. Biological Cybernetics 101(1):19-34 (2009)
• V.A. Diwadkar, B. Flaugher, T. Jones, L. Zalányi, B. Ujfalussy, M.S. Keshavan, P. Érdi: Impaired associative learning in schizophrenia: Behavioral and computational studies. Cognitive Neurodynamics 2(3): 207-219 (2008)
• B. Ujfalussy, T. Kiss, G. Orbán, WE Hoffmann, P. Érdi, M. Hajós: Pharmacological and Computational Analysis of alpha-subunit Preferential GABAA Positive Allosteric Modulators on the Rat Septo-Hippocampal Activity. Neuropharmacology - 52(3):733-43 (2007)
• B. Ujfalussy and T. Kiss: How do glutamatergic and GABAergic cells contribute to synchronization in the medial septum? Journal of Computational Neuroscience 21,(3):343-357 (2006)
• P. Érdi, T. Kiss, J. Tóth, B. Ujfalussy and L. Zalányi: From systems biology to dynamical neuropharmacology: Proposal for a new methodology IEE Proceedings in Systems Biology 153(4): 299-308 (2006)

Refereed conference proceedings

• B. Ujfalussy, P. Erős, Z. Somogyvári and T. Kiss: Episodes in space: A modelling study of hippocampal place representation M. Asada et al (Eds): SAB 2008, LNAI 5040, pp. 123­-136, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2008.
• Dollé, L.; Sheynikhovich, D.; Girard, B.; Ujfalussy, B.; Chavarriaga, R. and Guillot, A. Analyzing interactions between cue-guided and place-based navigation with a computational model of action selection: Influence of sensory cues and training. Meyer, J.-A; et al. (Eds.) LNAI - Simulation of Adaptive Behavior 6226, 335-346, Springer-Verlag (2010)

Book chapter

• P. Érdi, T. Kiss and B. Ujfalussy. Multi-level Models. in Hippocampal Microcircuits., eds.: V. Cutsuridis; B. Graham; S. Cobb; I. Vida. Springer-Verlag (2010)

Unrefereed conference proceedings (Abstracts)

• B Ujfalussy, T. Kiss and P. Érdi: Does dendritic processing shape spatial representation in the hippocampus? IBRO workshop, Pécs, Hungary (2010)
• Balázs Ujfalussy, Tamás Kiss and Péter Érdi: Parallel computational subunits in dentate granule cells generate multiple place fields, CNS*2009 Berlin, Germany (2009)
• Balázs Ujfalussy, Tamás Kiss and Péter Érdi: Independence of the granule cell's dendritic branches leads to multiple place fields in the dentate gyrus, Proceedings of 5th Cosyne, p213, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008
• Balázs Ujfalussy, Tamás Kiss, Mihály Hajós and Péter Érdi: Theta synchronization in the medial septum and the role of the recurrent connections, MITT Szeged, 2007.01.26.
• Balázs Ujfalussy, Tamás Kiss, Mihály Hajós and Péter Érdi: Theta synchronization in the medial septum and the role of the recurrent connections, CNS Edinburgh 2006.06.18.
• Balázs Ujfalussy, Tamás Kiss and Péter Érdi: Competing Models of Theta Synchronization in the Medial Septum, FENS, Wien, A149.2, 2006.06.11.
• Ujfalussy Balázs, Orbán Gergõ, Kiss Tamás, William E. Hoffmann, Péter Érdi, Hajós Mihály: Anxiolytics and Septo-hippocamapal Oscillation: Pharmacological and Computational Analysis of Action of GABA-A alpha-1 and alpha-2 Receptor Allosteric Modulators, Ideggyógyászati szemle - Clinical Neuroscience 58(1), 2005

Oral Presentations

• Workshop on 'Cortical Oscillations: Mechanistic and Computational Aspects’: How do medial septal neurons pace the hippocampal theta rhythm?, CNS 2009, Berlin; organizer: Caroline Geisler, Horacio G. Rotstein
• PGCN course and workshop on the Hippocampus and Navigation: Clustered plasicity in dentate granule cells leads to multiple place fields, Gulbenkian Institute, Oeiras, Portugal, 2008; organizer: Maté Lengyel and Miguel Remondes
• Workshop on 'Cortico-Hippocampal dynamics: Navigation and Neuromodulation’: Competing Models of Theta Synchronization in the Medial Septum, Budapest (Hungary) 2006; organizer: Péter Érdi

Born: 17th February, 1982, Budapest, Hungary
Languages: English (intermediate), French (intermediate)
Marital status: married, two children