Dr. Amir Amedi

Senior Lecturer , Medical Neurobiology, IMRIC
Department of Medical Neurobiology, IMRIC and The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
IMRIC Researcher

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Why I became a researcher: 

Brain research is the adventure of our generation.  I became a researcher because it is the most interesting job you can have, they actually pay you to do interesting things every day and work with wonderful people you choose to work with.

The brain and nervous system have always interested me, and IMRIC affords me the opportunity to study brain imaging techniques, and develop novel therapies for the blind through its interdisciplinary approach and by combining basic and clinical research.

My IMRIC research interests include sight restoration in blind and visually impaired individuals using artificial vision/sensory substitution, brain plasticity and mapping brain dynamics and anatomical and effective connectivity, multisensory interactions and object recognition using vision, audition and touch.

I'm hoping that my IMRIC research will not only help people, but also identify and promote new collaborations that cut across traditional borders and disciplines.

Education: 

2005-2007: Post-Doctoral training, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Boston, MA, USA

2003-2004: Internship/collaboration, National Institute of Health (NIH), Washington, DC

2005: PhD in computational Neuroscience, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

1998: BA in Biology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Selected Awards and Honors: 
2012: Prototype demo of our virtual-cane/sensory-substitution-device hybrid was selected to feature in Microsoft ThinkNext 2012 exhibition
2011: The Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, the Wolf Foundation (04/2011 selected to give the speech on behalf of the awardees, Wolf foundation ceremony)
2011: James S. McDonnell Foundation 2011 Scholar Award in Understanding Human Cognition
2011: Dean of The Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine Young Investigator Award in the memory of Prof. Yaacov Matzner
2010: The Avraham Shalmon Teva company founders award for “imaging of diseases”
2010: The Sieratzki-Korczyn Prize for advances in Neuroscience. ("In recognition of his excellent and promising achievements in the field of neuroscience, in particular his contribution towards better understanding of brain reorganizing after injury or damage")
2010: Prototype demo of our sensory substitution device was selected to feature in Microsoft ThinkNext 2010 exhibition
2009: Research was featured in the Presidential annual report of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2009: International Human Frontiers Science Program Career Development Award
2008: Alon fellow, Council for Higher Education, Israel [Awarded for top Israeli young tenure track lecturers in all fields and universities]
2008: Golda Meijer foundation tenure track lecturer fellow
2007: Award for outstanding Israeli projects proposals in the “EU 7th Framework Programme for Research & Technological Development"
2007: Research featured in the International Human Frontiers Science Program Organization annual report
2007: Invited plenary keynote speaker in the Georgetown Cognitive Sciences Spring Symposium
2007: Presidential absorptions grant, the President of the Hebrew University
2005: Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience fellowship, Dartmouth College, USA
2005-2007: International Human Frontiers Science Program Long-Term Post-doctoral fellowship award
2004: Travel Fellowship Award to attend the Human Brain Mapping Meeting
2001-2004: The Horowitz Foundation Scholarship for outstanding Ph.D. students
1999-2004: Inter-disciplinary center for neuronal computation (ICNC) fellow
1998: B.Sc. graduated magna cum laude, cited on the Dean's list (1996, 1997) for academic achievements, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Publications: 
The occipital lobe and language (2011). In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences
Extensive cochleotoc mapng of human auditory cortical fields obtained with phase-encoding fMRI (2011).
Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying plastic changes and rehabilitation following sensory loss in blindness and deafness (2011). In: Frontiers in the Neural Bases of Multisensory Processes
Pictorial art beyond sight: revealing the mind of a blind painter (2011). In: Art and the Senses
A Ventral Visual Stream Reading Center Independent of Visual Experience (2011).
Large-scale brain plasticity following blindness and the use of sensory substitution devices (2010). In: Multisensory object perception in the primate brain
Disentangling unisensory and multisensory components in audiovisual integration using a novel multi-frequency fMRI spectral analysis (2010).
Cortical activity during tactile exploration of objects in blind and sighted humans (2010).
Multisensory visual-tactile object related network in humans: insights gained using a novel crossmodal adaptation approach (2009).
Negative BOLD in Sensory Cortices During Verbal Memory: A Component in Generating Internal Representations? (2009)
Neural and behavioral correlates of drawing in an early blind painter: a case study (2008)
Spontaneous fluctuations in posterior & alpha-band EEG activity reflect variability in excitability of human visual areas (2008).
Novelty seeking modulates medial prefrontal activity during the anticipation of emotional stimuli (2008).
The plastic human brain in blind individuals: The cause of disability and the opportunity for rehabilitation (2008). In: Blindness and brain plasticity in navigation and object perception
Shape conveyed by visual-to-auditory sensory substitution activates the lateral occital complex (2007).
Activation of the Primary Visual Cortex by Braille reading in Blind Subjects (2006). In: Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex, plasticity following central and peripheral lesions
Visual phosphene perception modulated by sub-threshold cross-modal sensory stimulation (2007).
Combined activation and deactivation of visual cortex during tactile sensory processing (2007).
Attention Modulation of Emotional Stimulus Processing-An fMRI Study Using Emotional Expectancy (2006).
Dissociable Networks for the Expectancy and Perception of Emotional Stimuli in the Human Brain (2006).
Negative BOLD differentiates visual imagery and perception (2005).
V1 activation in congenitally blind is associated with esodic retrieval (2005).
Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the occital pole interferes with verbal processing in blind subjects (2004).
Early ‘visual’ cortex activation correlates with superior verbal-memory performance in the blind (2003).
Convergence of visual and tactile shape processing in the human lateral occital complex (2002).
Visuo-haptic object-related activation in the ventral visual pathway (2001).
Related Links: 
Amir Amedi's Lab
Contact: 
amir [dot] amedi [at] ekmd [dot] huji [dot] ac [dot] il
Projects

Visual Impairment Research

At IMRIC, we are training people to ‘see’ by transmitting sound along these axes and modulating the frequencies to create 2D and 3D sound images that the brain interprets in much the same way as it would with eyes.

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