Paul E. Cisek, Ph.D.

Address:                       Department of Physiology
University of Montréal
C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville
Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 Canada
Phone:  514-343-6111 x4355
FAX: 514-343-2111
E-mail: paul.cisek@umontreal.ca
Web: www.cisek.org/pavel

Personal data:             Born in Giżycko, Poland, on September 25, 1968.

Moved to United States in 1977, naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1981.

Fluent in English, Polish, and Italian. Learning French.

Research Interests

Neural mechanisms of decision-making, planning, and movement control, studied through an approach combining neurophysiology, psychophysics, and computational modeling.

Education & Research Experience

9/1987 - 11/1991:          Bachelor of Science, Computer Science - magna cum laude
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York

9/1992 - 9/1996:            Doctor of Philosophy, Cognitive and Neural Systems
Degree conferred: January 25, 1997
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Thesis: "A neural model of voluntary reaching and postural control"
Supervisors: Daniel Bullock, Stephen Grossberg

11/1996 - 5/1998:          Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisor: Stephen H. Scott
Département de physiologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
Single-unit recording from awake behaving monkeys, investigating the role of primary motor cortex in coordination of multi-joint torque production.

6/1998 - 8/2001:            Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisor: John F. Kalaska
Département de physiologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Single-unit recording from awake behaving monkeys, investigating the role of premotor and parietal cortex in response-selection, planning, and movement execution.

8/2001 - 9/2002:            Research Associate
Département de physiologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Studies of decision-making, planning, and movement control.

11/2002 – 6/2003:          Visiting Researcher
Laboratory of Systems Neuroscience, NIMH, Bethesda, MD
Collaborative behavioral neurophysiological research on movement planning and control in the primate cerebral cortex.

7/2003 – 10/2004:          Research Associate
Département de physiologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Studies of decision-making, planning, and movement control.

11/2004 – present:         Assistant Professor (Research)
Département de physiologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Neurophysiological and computational studies of decision-making, planning, and movement control.

 

Other Work Experience

12/1989 - 2/1990:          PPG Biomedical Corporation - Pleasantville, NY

                                    Wrote machine-level background test software for a cardiopulmonary monitoring system.
(Machine-level EPROM code)

6/1990 - 5/1991:            RIT Research Corporation - Rochester, NY

9/1991 - 11/1991:          Prototyped and developed software applications including an interactive geographical database, a free-text browser, and a virtual memory manager.  (Smalltalk, C, Macintosh)

5/1991 - 8/1991:            American University - Washington, DC

                                    Participated in the “Research Experience for Undergraduates” program in Artificial Intelligence.  Developed a scheme for extending the OPS5 expert system language with a Truth Maintenance System.  Presented this work at the 6th Annual Conference on Undergraduate Research at the University of Minnesota in March, 1992. 
(LISP, OPS5, Unix)

12/1991 - 8/1992:          Microsoft Corporation - Redmond, WA

                                    Developed a general software controller for various types of electronic media, for use with the Encarta electronic encyclopedia.  (C/C++, Windows)

Scholarships and Grants

9/1987 - 11/1991           Empire State Scholarship of Excellence (RIT)                                           US $2000 / year

9/1990 - 8/1991             DuPont Scholarship in Computer Science (RIT)                                                  US $1500

9/1992 - 8/1993             Presidential University Graduate Fellowship (BU)                                US $10,200 + tuition

9/1993 - 9/1996             CNS Graduate Scholarship (BU)                                               US $16,000 / year + tuition

9/1997 - 8/1999             Post-doctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health                  US $22,176 / year

6/1999 - 7/1999             McDonnell-Pew Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience                   tuition + expenses

3/2000 - 3/2001             Post-doctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health                  US $35,232 / year

3/2002 - 3/2007             Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)                                   CAN $243,000 / year
New Emerging Teams Initiative
(in collaboration with J. Kalaska, Y. Bengio, T. Drew, S. Scott)

3/2004 – 9/2004             National Institutes of Health SBIR Phase I Grant                             US $98,868 / 6-months

6/2005                          University of Montréal startup-funds                                                              CAN $60,000

2005 (declined)              Fonds de la Recherche en Santé Québec (FRSQ)                                              (declined)
Chercheur boursier Junior 2 (salary support)

7/2005 – 6/2010             Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)                                     CAN $50,000 / year
New Investigator Award (salary support)

9/2005 – 8/2008             Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)                                     CAN $77,258 / year
Operating grant

2006                             Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI)                                                     CAN $345,182
New Opportunities Fund

2006 – 2011                  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)              CAN $25,000 / year
Discovery Grant

2007 – 2010                  EJLB Foundation                                                                                      CAN $350,000
Scholar Research Programme

Other Distinctions

Dean’s List - Rochester Institute of Technology, all semesters

Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar (RIT)

Phi Kappa Phi (RIT)

Boston University Teaching Fellow Award

Brain Star Award, May 2005 (CIHR Institute of Neuroscience, Mental Health, and Addiction)

Professional Activities

Member: Groupe de recherche sur le système nerveux central, Groupe de recherche en science de la vision, Society for Neuroscience, Neural Control of Movement Society, Society for Mathematical Psychology, Canadian Physiological Society, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Associate

Section editor on computational modeling for the journal Motor Control

Reviewing for:

            Canadian Institutes of Health Research (3), National Science Foundation (2), New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (1), Israel Science Foundation (1), Swiss National Science Foundation (1)

            Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1), Brain Research (1), Cerebral Cortex (1), Experimental Brain Research (3), Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience(2) , Journal of Consciousness Studies (2), Journal of Neurophysiology (5), Journal of Neuroscience (2), Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development (1), Nature (3), Nature Neuroscience (4), Neural Networks (3), Neuron (1), Neurocomputing (1), Neural Computation (1), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (1), Psychological Review (1), Scholarpedia (1), Trends in Neurosciences (1)

Co-Organizer of 28th International Symposium of the GRSNC / CRSN, University of Montréal:
Computational Neuroscience, from theory to neurons and back again
http://www.grsnc.umontreal.ca/XXVIIIs/

Publications (*peer reviewed, †invited)

Peer reviewed journal articles

1.       *Cisek, P. (2007) “Cortical mechanisms of action selection: The affordance competition hypothesis” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 362: 1585-1599.

2.       *Cisek, P. (2006) “Integrated neural processes for defining potential actions and deciding between them: A computational model”. Journal of Neuroscience. 26(38): 9761-9770.

3.       *Cisek, P. & Kalaska, J.F. (2005) “Neural correlates of reaching decisions in dorsal premotor cortex: specification of multiple direction choices and final selection of action”. Neuron. 45(5): 801-814.

4.       *†Cisek, P. (2005) “Neural representations of motor plans, desired trajectories, and controlled objects”. Cognitive Processing. 6: 15-24.

5.       *Cisek, P. & Kalaska, J.F. (2004) “Neural correlates of mental rehearsal in dorsal premotor cortex”. Nature 431: 993-996.

6.       *Graham, K.M., Moore, K.D., Cabel, D.W., Gribble, P.L., Cisek, P., and Scott, S.H. (2003) “Kinematics and kinetics of multi-joint reaching in non-human primates”.  Journal of Neurophysiology. 89 (5): 2667-2677.

7.       *Cisek, P., Crammond, D.J., and Kalaska, J.F. (2003) “Neural activity in primary motor and dorsal premotor cortex in reaching tasks with the contralateral versus ipsilateral arm”. Journal of Neurophysiology. 89 (2): 922-942.

8.       *Cisek, P. and Kalaska, J.F. (2002) “Modest gaze-related discharge modulation in monkey dorsal premotor cortex during a reaching task performed with free fixation”. Journal of Neurophysiology.  88 (2): 1064-1071.

9.       *Cisek, P. and Kalaska, J.F. (2002) “Simultaneous encoding of multiple potential reach directions in dorsal premotor cortex”. Journal of Neurophysiology.  87(2): 1149-1154.

10.   *Cabel, D.W., Cisek, P., and Scott, S.H. (2001) “Neural activity in primary motor cortex related to mechanical loads applied to the shoulder and elbow during a postural task”. Journal of Neurophysiology.  86(4): 2102-2108.

11.   *Cisek, P. and Scott, S.H. (1999) “An alternative interpretation of population vector rotation in macaque motor cortex”. Neuroscience Letters. 272: 1-4.

12.   *†Cisek, P. (1999) “Beyond the computer metaphor: Behaviour as interaction”. Journal of Consciousness Studies. 6(11-12): 125-142.

13.   *†Cisek, P. and Turgeon, M. (1999) “‘Binding through the fovea’: A tale of perception in the service of action”. Psyche, 5. http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v5/psyche-5-34-cisek.html

14.   *Bullock, D., Cisek, P., and Grossberg S. (1998). “Cortical networks for control of voluntary arm movements under variable force conditions”. Cerebral Cortex.  8: 48-62.

15.   *Cisek, P., Grossberg, S., and Bullock, D. (1998) “A cortico-spinal model of reaching and proprioception under multiple task constraints”. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 10(4): 425-444.

Review articles and commentaries

1.       †Cisek, P. (2007) “The currency of guessing”. Nature. 447(7148): 1061-1062.

2.       †Cisek, P. (2006) “Preparing for speed. Focus on ‘Preparatory activity in premotor and motor cortex refle