Thilo Womelsdorf
Professor of Psychology
Dr. Womelsdorf is head of the Attention Circuits Control lab studying how neural circuits learn and control attentional allocation in nonhuman primates and humans.
His laboratory uses
• Attention and learning paradigms utilizing 3D virtual reality rendering to understand complex behaviors during reinforcement learning.
• Multi-area electrophysiological recordings to understand cell-to-network activity dynamics subserving learning behaviors.
• Behavioral reinforcement learning modelling to formally grasp the fundamental principles of behavioral control.
• Neuromodulation approaches such as electrical micorstimulation and pharmacological challenges to test causal hypotheses about cell and circuit motifs implementing attentional control and learning functions.
Before arriving at Vanderbilt he led a systems neuroscience lab in Toronto (York Univ.), receiving in 2017 the prestigious E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship for his work bridging the cell- and network- levels of understanding how brain activity dynamics relate to behavior.
Dr. Womelsdorf received his PhD at the German Primate Center (Göttingen University) with Prof. S. Treue on visual attention and spatial tuning. He did his postdoctoral training in the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (Netherlands) with Prof. P. Fries on neuronal communication and synchronization and at the Robarts Research Institute (London, Ontario) with Prof. S. Everling on cognitive control in prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex.
Representative Publications
Boroujeni, K. B., & Womelsdorf, T. (2023). Routing states transition during oscillatory bursts and attentional selection. Neuron, 111(18), 2929-2944.
Hassani SA, Neumann A, Russell J, Jones CK, Womelsdorf T (2023) M1 selective muscarinic allosteric modulation enhances cognitive flexibility and effective salience in nonhuman primates. PNAS, Proceedings National Academy of Science, USA. 120(18), e2216792120.
Oemisch M, Westendorff S, Azimi M, Hassani SA, Ardid S, Tiesinga P, Womelsdorf T (2019) Feature-specific prediction errors and surprise across macaque fronto-striatal circuits. Nature Communications. 10(1), 176.
Voloh B, Oemisch M, Womelsdorf T (2020). Phase of firing coding of learning variables across the fronto-striatal network during feature-based learning. Nature Communications. 11:4669, 1-16.
Banaie Boroujeni K, Tiesinga P, Womelsdorf T (2021). Interneuron Specific Gamma Synchronization Indexes Cue Uncertainty and Prediction Errors in Lateral Prefrontal and Anterior Cingulate Cortex. p. 1-38. 10, e69111. eLife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.69111
Womelsdorf T, Everling S (2015) Long-Range Attention Networks: Circuit Motifs Underlying Endogenously Controlled Stimulus Selection. Trends in Neurosciences 38(11):682-700.
Voloh B, Valiante TA, Everling S, Womelsdorf T (2015) Theta gamma coordination between anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex indexes correct attention shifts. PNAS, Proceedings National Academy of Science, USA. 112(27):8457-62.
Womelsdorf, T., Valiante, T. A., Sahin, N. T., Miller, K. J., & Tiesinga, P. (2014). Dynamic circuit motifs underlying rhythmic gain control, gating and integration. Nature Neuroscience, 17(8), 1031-1039.