Assistant Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Université de Montréal
Google Scholar
I am a neuroscientist and engineer
studying the neural control of behavior
and developing neuroprosthetics.
Long-term stability of cortical population dynamics underlying consistent behavior
Nature Neuroscience (2020)
We showed that latent dynamics in the neural manifold across three cortical areas are stable throughout years of consistent behavior, and posit that these dynamics are fundamental building blocks of learned behavior.
A neural population mechanism for rapid learning
Neuron (2018)
I proposed a neural mechanism to rapidly develop new motor output by leveraging the intrinsically higher dimensionality of cortical regions compared to the behavioral output.
Neural manifolds for the control of movement
Neuron (2017)
We formalized the "neural manifold" framework as an approach to better understand how populations of neurons in the brain generate behavior.
Motor cortical dynamics are shaped by multiple distinct subspaces during naturalistic behavior
bioRxiv (2020)
I show a unique view into motor cortical dynamics that accounts for sensory feedback necessary to correct behavioral errors.
Inferring brain-wide interactions using data-constrained recurrent neural network models
bioRxiv (2020)
We present a novel approach to untangling brain-wide interactions underlying large-scale multi-region neural recordings. (code available at: https://github.com/rajanlab/CURBD)
Education
2017 PhD Northwestern University Biomedical Engineering
2015 MSc Northwestern University Biomedical Engineering
2010 BSc University of Pittsburgh Bioengineering
Experience
2022 - present | Assistant Professor | Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
2022 - present | Associate Member | Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute (Mila), Montréal, Canada
2020 - 2022 | Postdoctoral Fellow | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
Advised by Kanaka Rajan (in collaboration with Karl Deisseroth)
Constructing large-scale, data-driven recurrent neural network (RNN) models of whole-brain larval zebrafish recordings to model interactions between multiple brain regions.
2017 - 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow | University of Geneva, Switzerland
Co-advised by Gregoire Courtine, Marco Capogrosso, and Tomislav Milekovic
Studied sensorimotor integration during reach and grasp using multi-area recordings of sensorimotor cortex, the evolution of neural dynamics throughout functional recovery from cervical spinal cord injury, and developed brain-spine interfaces to restore reaching and grasping after cervical spinal cord injury and alleviate gait deficits in a primate model of Parkinson’s disease.
2011 - 2017 | Doctoral Student | Northwestern University, Chicago
Advised by Lee Miller
Applied the “neural manifold” framework to understand neural population dynamics in behavior and developed population-level analyses to characterize interactions between cortical areas.
2010 - 2011 | Whitaker International Scholar | Blue Brain Project, EPFL, Switzerland
Advised by Henry Markram
Studied models of synaptic plasticity within a large-scale cortical simulation and spiking neural networks.
2008 - 2010 | Undergraduate Research Fellow | University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
Advised by Doug Weber
Developed reservoir computing models to improve limb state decoding from cat Ia afferent recordings
Selected
Publications
Perich MG, Arit C, Soares S, Young ME, Mosher CP, Minxha J, Carter E, Rutishauser U, Rudebeck PH, Harvey CD, Rajan K. (2020) Inferring brain-wide interactions using data-constrained recurrent neural network models. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.18.423348
Perich MG, Conti S, Badi M, Bogaard A, Barra B, Wurth S, Bloch J, Courtine G, Micera S, Capogrosso M#, Milekovic T#. (2020) Motor cortical dynamics are shaped by multiple distinct subspaces during naturalistic behavior. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.30.228767
Perich MG, Rajan K. (2020) Rethinking brain-wide interactions through multi-region ‘network of networks’ models. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 65:146–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.11.003
Gallego JA*, Perich MG*, Chowdhury RH, Solla SA#, Miller LE# (2020) Long-term stability of cortical population dynamics underlying consistent behavior. Nature Neuroscience, 23, 260–270. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0555-4 ( *,#: equal contribution )
Perich MG, Gallego JA, Miller LE (2018) A neural population mechanism for rapid learning. Neuron, 100 (4), 771-773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.09.030
Perich MG & Miller LE (2017) Altered tuning does not account for behavioral adaptation during force field learning. Experimental Brain Research. 235 (9), 2689-2704. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-4997-1
Gallego-Carracedo C, Perich MG, Chowdhury RH, Miller LE, Gallego JA. (2021) Local field potentials reflect cortical population dynamics in a region-specific and frequency-dependent manner. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.31.446454
Barra B*, Conti S*, Perich MG, Zhuang K, Schiavone G, Fallager F, Galan K, James N, Barraud Q, Delacombaz M, Kaeser M, Rouiller EM, Milekovic T, Lacour S, Bloch J, Courtine G, Capogrosso M. Electrical stimulation of the cervical dorsal roots enables functional arm and hand movements in monkeys with spinal cord injury. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.13.379750
Gallego JA, Perich MG, Naufel SN, Ethier CE, Solla SA, Miller LE (2018) Cortical population activity within a preserved neural manifold underlies multiple motor behaviors. Nature Communications, 9, 4233. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06560-z
Glaser JI, Perich MG, Ramkumar P, Miller LE, Körding KP (2018) Population coding of conditional probability distributions in dorsal premotor cortex. Nature Communications, 9, 1788. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04062-6
Lawlor PN, Perich MG, Miller LE, Körding KP (2018) Linear-nonlinear-time-warp-Poisson models of neural activity. Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 45 (3), 173-191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10827-018-0696-6
Gallego JA, Perich MG, Miller LE, Solla SA (2017) Neural manifolds for the control of movement. Neuron, 94 (5), 978-984. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.05.025
Dyer EL, Azar MG, Perich MG, Fernandes HL, Naufel SN, Miller LE, Körding KP (2017) A cryptography-based approach for movement decoding. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 1 (12), 967. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-017-0169-7
Talks
WorldWideNeuro NeuRise - Virtual Seminar - March 2021
Inferring brain-wide interactions using data-constrained recurrent neural network models.
Watch here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wwneurise/4
Cosyne 2020 Main Meeting - Denver - March 2020
Multi-region network models of brain-wide interactions during adaptive and maladaptive state transition
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Wse17mXwQ&t=12321s
Press and Commentaries
Adapting Fine with a Little Help from the Null Space, Neuron, 21 November, 2018
Cracking the Brain's Enigma Code, Scientific American, 27 December, 2017
