Ben Lahner

Linkedin | Google scholar | Github I am a final year PhD student studying computational neuroscience in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), where I am advised by Aude Oliva. Using machine learning and neural networks, I model experimental data (fMRI and MEG) to uncover insights into human visual memory and perception. I also have a passion for human factors engineering and device design, and I have been fortunate enough to gain industry experience at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Prior to joining MIT, I graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in biomedical engineering. During my undergrad years I was first introduced to research through Professor Robert Reinhart and Professor John White.

I am looking for a full time industry job starting summer 2025 that would value my expertise in AI, cognitive science, and product design. Feel free to reach out!
Publications
2024
Modeling short visual events through the BOLD moments video fMRI dataset and metadata.
Benjamin Lahner, Kshitij Dwivedi, Polina Iamshchinina, Monika Graumann, Alex Lascelles, Gemma Roig, Alessandro Thomas Gifford, Bowen Pan, SouYoung Jin, Ratan Murty, Kendrick Kay, Aude Oliva+, Radoslaw Cichy+.
Nature Communications, 2024
Paper | Project page | Dataset Repository
Brain Netflix: Scaling Data to Reconstruct Videos from Brain Signals.
Camilo Fosco*, Benjamin Lahner*, Bowen Pan, Alex Andonian, Emilie Josephs, Alex Lascelles, and Aude Oliva.
European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), 2024
Paper | Project page
Visual perception of highly memorable images is mediated by a distributed network of ventral visual regions that enable a late memorability response.
Benjamin Lahner*, Yalda Mohsenzadeh*, Caitlin Mullin*, and Aude Oliva.
PLOS Biology, 2024
Paper | Project page | Repository | MIT news
Digital wearable insole-based identification of knee arthropathies and gait signatures using machine learning.
Matthew F. Wipperman*, Allen Z. Lin*, Kaitlyn M. Gayvert*, Benjamin Lahner, ... , and Olivier Harari.
eLife, 2024
Paper
A mechanical device for precise self-administration of ocular drugs.
Jesse George-Akpenyi*, Benjamin Lahner*, Seung Hyeon Shim*, Carly Smith*, Nakul Singh, Matt Murphy, Leroy Sibanda, Giovanni Traverso, and Nevan C. Hanumara.
Human Factors in Healthcare, 2024
Patent Pending
Paper | Repository
2023
Theta-phase-specific modulation of dentate gyrus memory neurons.
Bahar Rahsepar, Jad Noueihed, Jacob F. Norman, Benjamin Lahner, Melanie H. Quick, Kevin Ghaemi, Aashna Pandya, Fernando R. Fernandez, Steve Ramirez, and John A. White.
eLife, 2023
Paper
The Algonauts Project 2023 Challenge: How the Human Brain Makes Sense of Natural Scenes.
Allesandro T. Gifford, Benjamin Lahner, Sari Saba-Sadiya, Martina G. Vilas, Alex Lascelles, Aude Oliva, Kendrick Kay, Gemma Roig, Radoslaw M. Cichy.
arXiv, 2023
Paper | Project page
2022
Cochlea to categories: The spatiotemporal dynamics of semantic auditory representations.
Matthew X. Lowe*, Yalda Mohsenzadeh*, Benjamin Lahner, Ian Charest, Aude Oliva and Santani Teng.
Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2022
Paper | Project page | Fusion video
2021
The Algonauts Project 2021 Challenge: How the Human Brain Makes Sense of a World in Motion.
Radoslaw Martin Cichy, Kshitij Dwivedi, Benjamin Lahner, Alex Lascelles, Polina Iamshchinina, M Graumann, Alex Andonian, NAR Murty, K Kay, Gemma Roig, Aude Oliva.
arXiv, 2021
Paper | Project page
2020
Emergence of visual center-periphery spatial organization in deep convolutional neural networks.
Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Caitlin Mullin, Benjamin Lahner, and Aude Oliva.
Scientific Reports, 2020
Paper | Project page (under construction)
2019
Reliability and generalizability of similarity-based fusion of fMRI and MEG data in the ventral and dorsal visual streams.
Yalda Mohsenzadeh*, Caitlin Mullin*, Benjamin Lahner, Radoslaw Cichy, and Aude Oliva.
Vision, 2019
Paper | Project page | Fusion video
The Algonauts Project: A platform for communication between the sciences of biological and artificial intelligence.
Radoslaw Martin Cichy, Gemma Roig, Alex Andonian, Kshitij Dwivedi, Benjamin Lahner, Alex Lascelles, Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Kandan Ramakrishnan, and Aude Oliva.
arXiv, 2019
Paper | Project page
Selected Conference Abstracts
  • A Systematic Comparison of fMRI-to-video Reconstruction Techniques.
    Camilo Fosco*, Benjamin Lahner*, Bowen Pan, Alex Andonian, Emilie Josephs, Alex Lascelles, and Aude Oliva.
    International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Vienna, Austria (2024)
  • A mechanical device for precise self-administration of ocular drugs.
    Jesse George-Akpenyi*, Benjamin Lahner*, Seung Hyeon Shim*, Carly Smith*, Nakul Singh, Matt Murphy, Leroy Sibanda, Giovanni Traverso, and Nevan C. Hanumara.
    Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Conference, Cambridge, MA (2024) (oral)
  • The Emergence of Early Sound Categorical Responses in the Human Brain.
    Benjamin Lahner, Santani Teng, Matthew X. Lowe, Ian Charest, Aude Oliva, Yalda Mohsenzadeh.
    NeurIPS SVRHM Workshop, Vancouver, Canada (2019)
Active Community Involvement
  • Education Volunteer, The Educational Justice Institute (TEJI) at MIT
    I teach MIT computer programming courses to inmates. They learn foundational computer skills that will be essential in their day-to-day lives, continued education, or even careers in tech.
    See the Fundamentals of Neural Networks tutorial I developed with this population in mind.
  • Mentor, Project Short
    I mentor one prospective graduate student per application cycle through the graduate school application process. I assist with SOPs, mock interviews, networking, and any general advice.
Awards and Achievements
  • MIT Open Data Competition - Honorable Mention (2022)
    The competition highlights open and publicly accessible data with a large potential for scientific impact. My submission of our large-scale fMRI dataset of video event understanding (Algonauts 2021, see above) won runner up against over 70 submissions across all of MIT.
  • EECS MathWorks Fellowship (2022)
    Full graduate student financial support for an academic year awarded to select MIT EECS graduate students using MATLAB to further novel and impactful scientific research.
  • Best Biomedical Engineering Senior Design Project (2019)
    Awarded best biomedical engineering senior design project out of 42 other projects by Boston University engineering faculty. The project delivered a low-latency (~20ms) algorithm to manipulate a mouse's neural signals in real-time. This project resulted in a publication in eLife.
Featured Blog Posts
How to Build Your Own Ticket Bot
A walkthrough of how to build a ticket bot that notifies you by email and text when your tickets are available.
Article | Code
Curious George Discovers the Infinite Monkey Theorem
How long would it take Curious George to write a Curious George book?
Article | Code
The Fundamentals of Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Tutorial Without Internet or GPUs
A step-by-step guide through neural networks' mathematical, NumPy, and PyTorch implementations.
Article | Code
18 Million Brackets Later, Here Are the Best - and Worst - Ways to Fill Out Your March Madness Bracket
Fill out your Men's and Women's March Madness bracket with a click of a button.
Article | Code | Website
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