Dr. Nitin Williams completed his Ph.D. from University of Reading, UK, in 2011, on developing novel signal processing methods to analyse human neuroscience data. He continued this line of research during his first post-doctoral period under Prof. Richard Henson at MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK. This period resulted in several important publications, e.g. in Nature Communications, Brain, Human Brain Mapping, from his involvement on the large Cam-CAN project*. The cross-cutting theme of his work is on developing novel computational methods and models to analyze human Neuroscience data. He has several publications in this field (h-index=14, citations=1048), and has published in prestigious avenues including Nature Communications, Brain and Human Brain Mapping.
Nitin is currently funded by HIIT, working with Prof. Samuel Kaski at the Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Finland. His project is on using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) methods to estimate parameters of biologically plausible models of human neuroscience data. Current methods to analyse human neuroscience use abstract statistical models, hence do not furnish information about biological mechanisms producing these data. During his exciting project with Prof. Samuel Kaski and Dr. Matias Palva, Nitin will 1) build biologically plausible models of human neuroscience data, and 2) employ advanced Bayesian methods to fit these biologically plausible models to experimental human Neuroscience data. Models and methods from the project will advance Cognitive Neuroscience, by providing researchers with tools to gain insight into mechanisms underpinning their data.
Dr. Williams’ work in 2021 culminated in a novel, biologically plausible model of experimentally observed human Neuroscience data [1] (press release: https://www.hiit.fi/brain-model/). He also presented this work as a poster at AI Day 2021. Further, Dr. Williams’ Docentship was approved by the Faculty of Science, Helsinki University, Finland. Finally, he accepted to be Associate Editor of the journal Network: Computation in Neural Systems, and was actively involved in supervising two B.Sc. theses.
Publications in 2021:
[1] Williams N, Toselli B, Siebenhühner F, Palva S, Arnulfo G, Kaski S*, Palva M* (2021) “Biophysical network models of phase-synchronization in MEG resting-state” bioRxiv 2021.08.04.455014
[2] Williams N, Wang S, Arnulfo G, Nobili L, Palva S, Palva M (2021) “Modules in connectomes of phase-synchronization comprise anatomically contiguous, functionally related regions” bioRxiv 2021.06.24.449415
[3] Elumalai P, Yadav Y, Williams N, Saucan E, Jost J, Samal A (2021) “Graph Ricci curvatures reveal atypical functional connectivity in Autism Spectrum Disorder” bioRxiv 2021.11.28.470231
*Cam-CAN author list: Lorraine K. Tyler, Carol Brayne, Edward T. Bullmore, Andrew C. Calder, Rhodri Cusack, Tim Dalgleish, John Duncan, Richard N. Henson, Fiona E. Matthews, William D. Marslen-Wilson, James B. Rowe, Meredith A. Shafto, Karen Campbell, Teresa Cheung, Simon Davis, Linda Geerligs, Rogier Kievit, Anna McCarrey, Abdur Mustafa, Darren Price, David Samu, Jason R. Taylor, Matthias Treder, Kamen Tsvetanov, Janna van Belle, Nitin Williams, Lauren Bates, Tina Emery, Sharon Erzinlioglu, Andrew Gadie, Sofia Gerbase, Stanimira Georgieva, Claire Hanley, Beth Parkin, David Troy, Tibor Auer, Marta Correia, Lu Gao, Emma Green, Rafael Henriques, Jodie Allen, Gillian Amery, Liana Amunts, Anne Barcroft, Amanda Castle, Cheryl Dias, Jonathan Dowrick, Melissa Fair, Hayley Fisher, Anna Goulding, Adarsh Grewal, Geoff Hale, Andrew Hilton, Frances Johnson, Patricia Johnston, Thea Kavanagh-Williamson, Magdalena Kwasniewska, Alison McMinn, Kim Norman, Jessica Penrose, Fiona Roby, Diane Rowland, John Sargeant, Maggie Squire, Beth Stevens, Aldabra Stoddart, Cheryl Stone, Tracy Thompson, Ozlem Yazlik, Dan Barnes, Marie Dixon, Jaya Hillman, Joanne Mitchell, Laura Villis.