Lab Members

André M. Bastos, PhD

Principle Investigator

Dr. Bastos received his PhD from the University of California, Davis (2013) where he worked with Drs. Ron Mangun and Marty Usrey on thalamocortical communication. During his PhD, Dr. Bastos was a Fulbright scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Pascal Fries at the F.C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, The Netherlands (and later at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Frankfurt, Germany). His studies with Dr. Fries focused on distinct oscillatory frequencies used in feedforward vs. feedback cortical communication. He was also a visiting student with Dr. Karl Friston at Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, where he first got interested in the theory of predictive coding. André then went on to work as a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Earl Miller at MIT and Dr. Nancy Kopell at Boston University where he used large-scale neuronal recordings to gain insight into predictive processing. He joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 2021 as an Assistant Professor of Psychology and member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute (VBI).

Meet the Team!

Staff

Landon Amonette, BS

Research Assistant I

Landon earned his B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Tennessee Technological University in 2019, graduating Magna Cum Laude with concentrations in Wildlife and Fishery Sciences and Criminal Justice Studies. During his undergraduate studies, he focused on animal behavior and Tennessee’s native biodiversity. Since then, he has applied his education across various environmental roles, including serving as an Interpretive Ranger with Tennessee State Parks and as a Wildland Firefighter with the Tennessee Division of Forestry. In 2021, Landon joined Metro Animal Care and Control in Nashville, where he integrated his interests in animal behavior, sociology, and criminal justice. In April 2025, he joined the Bastos Lab as a research assistant, working with non-human primates (NHPs) to further investigate animal behavior and pursue his growing interest in the brain. Outside the lab, Landon enjoys fishing, sipping coffee, and expanding his collection of musical instruments and vinyl records.

Graduate Students

Yihan (Sophy) Xiong, BA/BS

PhD Student
Sophy received her BS in Psychobiology and BA in Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. Her undergraduate research work involved novel treatments for mood disorders (under Drs. Michelle Craske and Eliza Congdon), and neurogenetics of autism using rodent models (under Drs. Daniel Geschwind and Katrina Choe). She then worked as a research assistant in addiction and emotion regulation research using human neuroimaging methods (under Dr. Hedy Kober) at Yale University. She joined the Bastos Lab in Fall 2021 to pursue her PhD in Psychological Sciences, starting her training in non-human primate research and investigating the neurophysiology of prediction in the brain. When not in lab, she can be found salsa-dancing, video-gaming, and trapeze-flying.
Hamed Nejat, BS

PhD Student
Hamed received his BSc in Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology (Iran) in 2021. His undergraduate was focused on Bio-electrical engineering and electrophysiology. For his thesis, he worked on EEG functional connectivity graph analysis with Dr. Hajipour in SUT and published his work on IEEE (ICBME-2021). He also worked on AI-based painter robot interface software for international telecom fair 2018 as part of SUT research and development team. Since early 2022, he started working with Dr. Bastos and Dr. Sherfey on DynaSim toolbox on Matlab with focus on extending it and implementation of reinforcement learning tools for dynamic neural models. He joined the Bastos Lab in Fall 2022 to pursue his PhD in Psychological Sciences, continue his work on neural simulation, training in non-human primate research, and modeling brain circuits with focus on predictive coding. He is also a violinist. When he’s not in the lab, he enjoys coffee time, talking to others, and learning how to dance.

Undergraduate Students

Mazyar Azmi

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Mazyar is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Neuroscience with minors in Data Science and Digital Fabrication. He assists with in-house computer aided design of implant components, as well as behavioral training interface design for NHPs. Over the following semesters, he will conduct several data driven projects using MATLAB, R, and Python to answer specific questions about cortical attentional control. In his free time, he enjoys DJing, working on his car, and playing video games.
Jadyn Collado

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Jadyn is a senior honors Psychology student at Vanderbilt University, with a second major in Human and Organizational Development and a minor in Data Science. Under the mentorship of Dr. Andre Bastos, she aids in investigating the neural basis of schizophrenia, focusing on how changes in interneuron density and neural oscillations contribute to symptoms. Her contributions involve data-driven projects to explore neuron density and its relationship to predictive coding models. In her free time, Jadyn enjoys reading and going to the gym.
Andrew Salyer

Undergrad Research Assistant

Andrew is a junior at Vanderbilt University, majoring in Neuroscience as well as Medicine, Health, and Society. He assists with the behavioral training of non-human primates and, using MATLAB, is working on a project that will analyze a combination of previously recorded neuronal spike data and local field potentials to better predict surprising stimuli, building on previous research in the field of predictive coding. In his free time, Andrew enjoys spending time with friends, watching sports, and playing chess.
Ashton Kroeger

Undergrad Reseach Assistant

Where we Hail From

Explore the diverse experiences of our lab members via the interactive map. Blue pins indicate the hometowns or countries of origin of our lab members. Red pins mark locations where we have presented our scientific findings at various conferences. We encourage you to click on both types of pins to understand the unique backgrounds and culture that enhance the innovative work at Bastos Lab, as well as the reach of our research!

In the Bastos Lab, it is our belief that without a diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds, and cultural perspectives, we miss out on the full picture in both science and life. In order for scientific discovery to be broadly shared and impactful to all of society, science itself needs improve its diversity and inclusion. This should begin with the composition of our work force, where to this day the majority of scientists come from privileged backgrounds and represent only a sliver of society. Therefore, we are committed to increasing the participation of under-represented groups within science, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Scientific discovery is an intensely human process, because scientists are people. Anyone can contribute to scientific progress. If you have a curiosity and drive for knowledge and wonder about “how things work”, and if you endeavor to apply yourself towards a problem with passion and resolve, you can contribute to scientific discovery. Few things in life are as exhilarating as seeing new data and reaching a new conclusion, especially when it comes to the brain. A diversity of ideas driven by people from different backgrounds and all aspects of diversity are the sparks of light that feed the fire of scientific discovery. We invite you to be a part of it at the Bastos Lab.