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Ian Charest

Associate Academic Member
Assistant Professor, Université de Montréal, Department of Psychology
Research Topics
Computational Neuroscience
Computer Vision
Deep Learning
Natural Language Processing
Website

Biography

Ian Charest is a cognitive computational neuroscientist whose general research interests are high-level vision and audition.

He leads the Charest Lab at the Université de Montréal, where he and his team investigate visual recognition in the brain using neuroimaging techniques, such as magneto-electroencephalography (M-EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Charest’s work makes use of advanced computational modelling and analysis techniques, including machine learning, representational similarity analysis (RSA) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), to better understand human brain function.

Current topics of research in the lab include information processing in the brain during perception, memory, and visual consciousness when recognizing and interpreting natural scenes and visual objects.

The Charest lab is currently funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant to study the interaction between vision and semantics. Charest also holds a Courtois chair in cognitive and computational neuroscience, which is supporting the development of an online platform for the cross-disciplinary investigation of behavioural, computational and neuroimaging datasets.

Current Students

Peter Brotherwood Brotherwood
PhD - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
Shahab Bakhtiari
Website
Github
Google Scholar
Morteza Mahdiani
Master's Research - Université de Montréal
Website
Google Scholar

Publications

Are vividness judgments in mental imagery correlated with perceptual thresholds?
Ian Charest
Clémence Bertrand Pilon
Hugo Delhaye
Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel
Frédéric Gosselin
2023-07-31
Journal of Vision (published)
doi.org
Neural representation of occluded objects in visual cortex
Courtney Mansfield
Tim Kietzmann
Jasper JF van den Bosch
Ian Charest
Marieke Mur
Nikolaus Kriegeskorte
Fraser Smith
2023-07-31
Journal of Vision (published)
doi.org
Reconstructing mental images using Bubbles and electroencephalography
Audrey Lamy-Proulx
Jasper van den Bosch
Catherine Landry
Peter Brotherwood
Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel
Frédéric Gosselin
Ian Charest
2023-07-31
Journal of Vision (published)
doi.org
The semantic distance between a linguistic prime and a natural scene target predicts reaction times in a visual search experiment
Katerina Marie Simkova
Jasper JF van den Bosch
Damiano Grignolio
Clayton Hickey
Ian Charest
2023-07-31
Journal of Vision (published)
doi.org
Do visual mental imagery and exteroceptive perception rely on the same mechanisms?
Catherine Landry
Jasper JF van den Bosch
Ian Charest
Frédéric Gosselin
Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel
2023-07-31
Journal of Vision (published)
doi.org
Computational brain dynamics in prosopagnosia
Simon Faghel-Soubeyrand
Anne-Raphaelle Richoz
Delphine Waeber
Jessica Woodhams
Frédéric Gosselin
Roberto Caldara
Ian Charest
2022-12-04
Journal of Vision (published)
doi.org
Improving the accuracy of single-trial fMRI response estimates using GLMsingle
Jacob S Prince
Ian Charest
Jan W Kurzawski
John A Pyles
Michael J Tarr
Kendrick Kay
2022-11-28
eLife (published)
doi.org
Re-expression of CA1 and entorhinal activity patterns preserves temporal context memory at long timescales
Futing Zou
Wanjia Guo
Emily J. Allen
Yihan Wu
Ian Charest
Thomas Naselaris
Kendrick Kay
Brice A. Kuhl
J. Benjamin Hutchinson
Sarah DuBrow
Converging, cross-species evidence indicates that memory for time is supported by hippocampal area CA1 and entorhinal cortex. However, limit… (see more)ed evidence characterizes how these regions preserve temporal memories over long timescales (e.g., months). At long timescales, memoranda may be encountered in multiple temporal contexts, potentially creating interference. Here, using 7T fMRI, we measured CA1 and entorhinal activity patterns as human participants viewed thousands of natural scene images distributed, and repeated, across many months. We show that memory for an image’s original temporal context was predicted by the degree to which CA1/entorhinal activity patterns from the first encounter with an image were re-expressed during re-encounters occurring minutes to months later. Critically, temporal memory signals were dissociable from predictors of recognition confidence, which were carried by distinct medial temporal lobe expressions. These findings suggest that CA1 and entorhinal cortex preserve temporal memories across long timescales by coding for and reinstating temporal context information.
2022-09-02
bioRxiv (preprint)
doi.org
Researcher perspectives on ethics considerations in epigenetics: an international survey
Charles Dupras
Terese Knoppers
Nicole Palmour
Elisabeth Beauchamp
Stamatina Liosi
Reiner Siebert
Alison May Berner
Stephan Beck
Ian Charest
Yann Joly
Over the past decade, bioethicists, legal scholars and social scientists have started to investigate the potential implications of epigeneti… (see more)c research and technologies on medicine and society. There is growing literature discussing the most promising opportunities, as well as arising ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI). This paper explores the views of epigenetic researchers about some of these discussions. From January to March 2020, we conducted an online survey of 189 epigenetic researchers working in 31 countries. We questioned them about the scope of their field, opportunities in different areas of specialization, and ELSI in the conduct of research and knowledge translation. We also assessed their level of concern regarding four emerging non-medical applications of epigenetic testing—i.e., in life insurance, forensics, immigration and direct-to-consumer testing. Although there was strong agreement on DNA methylation, histone modifications, 3D structure of chromatin and nucleosomes being integral elements of the field, there was considerable disagreement on transcription factors, RNA interference, RNA splicing and prions. The most prevalent ELSI experienced or witnessed by respondents were in obtaining timely access to epigenetic data in existing databases, and in the communication of epigenetic findings by the media. They expressed high levels of concern regarding non-medical applications of epigenetics, echoing cautionary appraisals in the social sciences and humanities literature.
2022-09-01
Clinical Epigenetics (published)
doi.org
Sleep spindles track cortical learning patterns for memory consolidation
Marit Petzka
Alex Chatburn
Ian Charest
George M. Balanos
Bernhard P. Staresina
2021-09-02
Current Biology (published)
doi.org
Meeting and Missing Minds: Children and Adults Use Alignment of Intuitions to Solve Pure Coordination Games
Daniel Perez-Zapata
Xavia McKenzie-Smart
Ian Charest
Ian Apperly
In pure coordination games players seek to coordinate responses with one another without communicating. Without a logically correct response… (see more), success depends upon players intuiting a response that is mutually obvious. Previous work suggests that such coordination requires a distinctive form of “group” thinking and sufficient mutual knowledge, but reveals little about the basis for the intuitive judgements themselves. Here, that question was addressed for the first time by examining the basis of coordination performance of groups whose intuitions might plausibly differ: children versus adults. Twenty-five 5-year-olds, 30 7-year-olds, and 25 adults undertook four types of coordination game, and novel metrics allowed “intuitive alignment” in responses to be evaluated within- and between-groups. All groups performed above chance, and adults showed higher levels of alignment than children, but adults and children showed different patterns in their intuitions. Implications for intergenerational understanding and mis-understanding are discussed.
2021-07-02
Journal of Cognitive Psychology (published)
doi.org