Samuel Norman-Haignere, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Ph.D. (2015) Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Contact Information

University of Rochester
Dept of Biostatistics and Computational Biology
265 Crittenden Boulevard, CU 420630
Rochester, New York 14642-0630
 
Office: Saunders Research Building 4169
Phone: (585) 275-6696
Fax: (585) 273-1031
E-mail: Samuel_Norman-Haignere@urmc.rochester.edu

Research Interests

My research focuses on developing computational and experimental methods to understand how complex, natural stimuli like speech and music are coded in the human brain. I have developed statistical methods for revealing latent structure from high-dimensional neuroimaging and electrophysiology recordings, and the findings from this work have revealed distinct neural populations in the high-level auditory cortex that respond selectively to speech, music, and song. My group is working on developing better computational models that can predict the response of these high-level neural populations and link their responses with human perception and behavior. My lab has a strong experimental component, in addition to our methodological interests. We conduct neuroimaging experiments using the 3T MRI scanner at UR CABIN, and we collaborate closely with neurologists and neurosurgeons at the medical center to record responses intracranially from neurosurgical patients. Our methodological work is motivated in part by the limitations of these methods and the need to make the most of their relative strengths.

Visit Dr. Norman-Haignere's Lab Website

Full List of Publications

My most recent and complete publication list can be found here.

Selected Publications

• Landemard A, Bimbard C, Demené C, Shamma S, Norman-Haignere S, Boubenec Y. "Distinct higher-order representations of natural sounds in human and ferret auditory cortex." eLife.. 2021 Nov 18; 10Epub 2021 Nov 18.
• Traer J, Norman-Haignere SV, McDermott JH. "Causal inference in environmental sound recognition." Cognition.. 2021 Sep 0; 214:104627. Epub 2021 May 24.
• Boebinger D, Norman-Haignere SV, McDermott JH, Kanwisher N. "Music-selective neural populations arise without musical training." Journal of neurophysiology.. 2021 Jun 1; 125(6):2237-2263. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
• Norman-Haignere SV, Kanwisher N, McDermott JH, Conway BR. "Divergence in the functional organization of human and macaque auditory cortex revealed by fMRI responses to harmonic tones." Nature neuroscience.. 2019 Jul 0; 22(7):1057-1060. Epub 2019 Jun 10.
• Albouy P, Caclin A, Norman-Haignere SV, Lévêque Y, Peretz I, Tillmann B, Zatorre RJ. "Decoding Task-Related Functional Brain Imaging Data to Identify Developmental Disorders: The Case of Congenital Amusia." Frontiers in neuroscience.. 2019 13:1165. Epub 2019 Oct 30.
• Norman-Haignere SV, McDermott JH. "Neural responses to natural and model-matched stimuli reveal distinct computations in primary and nonprimary auditory cortex." PLoS biology.. 2018 Dec 0; 16(12):e2005127. Epub 2018 Dec 03.
• Kell AJE, Yamins DLK, Shook EN, Norman-Haignere SV, McDermott JH. "A Task-Optimized Neural Network Replicates Human Auditory Behavior, Predicts Brain Responses, and Reveals a Cortical Processing Hierarchy." Neuron.. 2018 May 2; 98(3):630-644.e16. Epub 2018 Apr 19.
• Norman-Haignere S, McDermott JH. "Distortion products in auditory fMRI research: Measurements and solutions." NeuroImage.. 2016 Apr 1; 129:401-413. Epub 2016 Jan 28.
• Norman-Haignere SV, Albouy P, Caclin A, McDermott JH, Kanwisher NG, Tillmann B. "Pitch-Responsive Cortical Regions in Congenital Amusia." The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.. 2016 Mar 9; 36(10):2986-94.
• Norman-Haignere S, Kanwisher NG, McDermott JH. "Distinct Cortical Pathways for Music and Speech Revealed by Hypothesis-Free Voxel Decomposition." Neuron.. 2015 Dec 16; 88(6):1281-1296.