Jonathan Kao, Ph.D.

A Short Biography:

Dr. Jonathan Kao’s lab is interested in using statistical signal processing and machine learning techniques to analyze neural population activity. His lab aims to study structure and dynamics of neural circuits, and how they carry out everyday behaviors. His lab also seeks to translate these insights into the design of neural prostheses.

Work Titles
UCLA Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering Member, Brain Research Institute Member, Neuroscience GPB Home Area
Education:
Degrees:
Ph.D.

Contact Information:

Detailed Biography:

Dr. Jonathan Kao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in 2016 in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University working with Dr. Krishna Shenoy, where he developed algorithms for brain-machine interfaces. He continued his post-doctoral research in the same lab, using statistical and machine learning techniques to analyze the dynamics of neural populations. His lab is interested in computational techniques to elucidate computational mechanisms in neural populations as well as designing algorithms for neural prostheses.

Publications:

A selected list of publications:

O'Shea Daniel J, Trautmann Eric, Chandrasekaran Chandramouli, Stavisky Sergey, Kao Jonathan C, Sahani Maneesh, Ryu Stephen, Deisseroth Karl, Shenoy Krishna V   The need for calcium imaging in nonhuman primates: New motor neuroscience and brain-machine interfaces Experimental neurology, 2016; .
Kao Jonathan C, Nuyujukian Paul, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   A high-performance neural prosthesis incorporating discrete state selection with hidden Markov models IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, 2016; .
Kao Jonathan C, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   Leveraging historical knowledge of neural dynamics to rescue decoder performance as neural channels are lost: "Decoder hysteresis" Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference, 2015; 2015: 1061-6.
Kao Jonathan C, Nuyujukian Paul, Ryu Stephen I, Churchland Mark M, Cunningham John P, Shenoy Krishna V   Single-trial dynamics of motor cortex and their applications to brain-machine interfaces Nature communications, 2015; 6: 7759.
Stavisky Sergey D, Kao Jonathan C, Nuyujukian Paul, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   A high performing brain-machine interface driven by low-frequency local field potentials alone and together with spikes Journal of neural engineering, 2015; 12(3): 036009.
Even-Chen Nir, Stavisky Sergey D, Kao Jonathan C, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   Auto-deleting brain machine interface: Error detection using spiking neural activity in the motor cortex Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference, 2015; 2015(3): 71-5.
Nuyujukian Paul, Fan Joline M, Kao Jonathan C, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   A high-performance keyboard neural prosthesis enabled by task optimization IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, 2015; 62(1): 21-9.
Nuyujukian Paul, Kao Jonathan C, Fan Joline M, Stavisky Sergey D, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   Performance sustaining intracortical neural prostheses Journal of neural engineering, 2014; 11(6): 066003.
Stavisky Sergey D, Kao Jonathan C, Nuyujukian Paul, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   Hybrid decoding of both spikes and low-frequency local field potentials for brain-machine interfaces Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference, 2014; 2014(1): 3041-4.
Fan Joline M, Nuyujukian Paul, Kao Jonathan C, Chestek Cynthia A, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   Intention estimation in brain-machine interfaces Journal of neural engineering, 2014; 11(1): 016004.
Kao Jonathan C, Nuyujukian Paul, Stavisky Sergey, Ryu Stephen I, Ganguli Surya, Shenoy Krishna V   Investigating the role of firing-rate normalization and dimensionality reduction in brain-machine interface robustness Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference, 2013; 2013(1): 293-8.
Gilja Vikash, Nuyujukian Paul, Chestek Cindy A, Cunningham John P, Yu Byron M, Fan Joline M, Churchland Mark M, Kaufman Matthew T, Kao Jonathan C, Ryu Stephen I, Shenoy Krishna V   A high-performance neural prosthesis enabled by control algorithm design Nature neuroscience, 2012; 15(12): 1752-7.
Sussillo David, Nuyujukian Paul, Fan Joline M, Kao Jonathan C, Stavisky Sergey D, Ryu Stephen, Shenoy Krishna   A recurrent neural network for closed-loop intracortical brain-machine interface decoders Journal of neural engineering, 2012; 9(2): 026027.

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