People
PAC Lab
Leadership
David Melcher
Principal Investigator
Program Head, Psychology
Co-PI and Theme Director, Center for Brain & Health
Professor of Psychology
Global Network Professor of Psychology
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: PhD Rutgers University
David Melcher investigates the interaction of perception, attention, memory and action within a cognitive neuroscience framework. He received his PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science in 2001 from Rutgers University and, since then, has worked as a researcher and then professor in Italy and the UK. His main research interest is how attention, perception, memory, emotion and self-movement interact in guiding our cognition and actions, as well as the neural underpinnings of these capacities. He has published numerous articles in international, peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Current Biology, PNAS, Trends in Cognitive Science, Cognition, and the Journal of Neuroscience. These studies have used a variety of cognitive neuroscience methods, including fMRI, EEG, MEG, eye-tracking and behavioral studies, as well as the use of computational modeling and cognitive neuropsychological investigations with clinical populations. In 2011, the American Psychological Association recognized the impact of this work in the field of cognitive neuroscience by awarding him a “Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology.” He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Vision, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, the journal Perception, and the open-access journal iPerception. His research has been funded by, among others, the European Research Council, the US National Institutes of Health, the Italian Ministry of Research and Education, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Expert Affairs.
Research Assistants
Irina Trusina
Lab Manager and Research Assistant
Irina graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. In the past, she has conducted research on motion perception in Virtual Reality (VR) and communication difficulties in children with autism. Currently, she works as a Lab Manager and Research Assistant at the Perception and Active Cognition Laboratory, where she oversees research operations.
Her primary research interests lie in perception within different clinical populations, particularly individuals diagnosed with autism.
Research Interests: Brain Oscillations, Perception, Individual Differences, Eye-movements, M/EEG.
Postdoctoral Associates
Gianluca earned a master’s degree in Neuroscience and Neuropsychological Rehabilitation from the University of Padua (Italy). After graduation, he completed a postgraduate internship at the BDACLAB of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University under the supervision of Prof. Luca Ronconi, where he conducted EEG experiments on audiovisual integration processes. His research focused on investigating EEG correlates of visuospatial attentional anomalies in individuals with autism, employing Multivariate Pattern Analysis (MVPA) of EEG data.
Gianluca pursued his PhD at the University of Bologna (Italy), at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in Cesena under the supervision of Prof. Caterina Bertini. His doctoral research explored the role of oscillatory activity in orchestrating visual and audiovisual perception, and he is currently awaiting his dissertation defense (scheduled for March 2025).
At NYU Abu Dhabi, he investigates the relationship between brain oscillations, temporal perception, and visuospatial attentional processes, with a particular focus on individual differences across the autism-schizophrenia continuum. To this end, his research integrates multimodal psychophysical and psychophysiological methods (M/EEG, eye-tracking) along with non-invasive neuromodulation techniques, such as sensory entrainment of neural oscillations.
Research Interests: the study of how the oscillatory brain activity drives visual/audiovisual and attentional performance, the study of potential anomalies in oscillatory activity in patients affected by visual field defects and in neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ASD, SCZ), and the investigation of how brain oscillations can be functionally modulated using sensory entrainment and NIBS techniques.
Yueyang Zhang earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh in 2024, where he used fMRI and ECoG to investigate semantic representation. His research focused on the specializations of the ventral and dorsal visual pathways in processing different semantic features and concept categories.
In 2025, he joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher to use computational modelling and neuroimaging techniques to explore active vision.
Research Interests: vision, semantic, neuroimaging, brain computer interface, deep learning
Graduate Students
Noha Ahmed
Graduate Student
Noha is a Global PhD student specializing in cognition and perception. She earned her BA in psychology from Cairo University and later worked as a teaching assistant at the British University in Egypt. Her PhD research focuses on how aphantasia—the absence of mental imagery—affects emotional responses to aesthetic and artistic experiences like music and storytelling. She is interested in the neural mechanisms of mental imagery and their connections to sensitivity to musical reward and musical anhedonia, which is the inability to derive pleasure from music.
Jiacheng Hao
Graduate Student
Jiacheng is a Global PhD student specializing in cognitive neuroscience. He earned my Bachelor of Science with Honors (BSc Hons) in Psychology from Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada, and later obtained a Master by Research (MRes) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he worked with Dr. Robert McIntosh and Dr. Antimo Buonocore.
His research focuses on eye movements and visual perception, particularly how saccadic eye movements influence visual processing and interact with unexpected external sensory inputs. He is especially interested in the neural mechanisms underlying saccade generation and oculomotor control, and how they shape the way we perceive the world around us.
Capstone Students
Shamsa Alzaabi
Capstone Student
Tarek Nabih
Capstone Student
Tran Nguyen
Capstone Student
Khadija Khalid
Capstone Student
PAC Lab Alumni
Currently in University Positions
Antimo Buonocore, postdoc from 2012 to 2015, now Assistant Professor of Visual Cognition at the University of Naples, Italy.
Jennifer E. Corbett, postdoc from 2011 to 2014, then Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Turkey and the UK, lecturer at Ohio State University and Research Scientist at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Nicola De Pisapia, postdoc from 2011 to 2012. Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento.
Jan Drewes, postdoc from 2013 to 2017. Professor at the Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, China.
Scott Fairhall, postdoc from 2013 to 2015. Now Associate Professor at the University of Trento and PI of the ERC project CRASK.
Alessio Fracasso, PhD with David Melcher from 2008 to 2011, now Senior Lecturer at the Center of Cognitive Neuroimaging, University of Glasgow.
Christoph Huber-Huber, former postdoc (2017-2020), now Assistant Professor at CIMeC University of Trento,
André Knops, post-doc from 2009 to 2010. Since 2018 Associate Research Professor CNRS (tenured), Université de Paris, France
Devpriya Kumar, visiting PhD student, (2015), now Assistant Professor, IIT Kanpur, India.
Shukla Anuj Kumar, Visiting PhD student (2013), now Assistant Professor, NIT Raipur, India.
Maruti Mishra, former ITPAR fellow and Visiting PhD Student (March to July 2014), now Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Bakersfield, CA.
Luca Ronconi, postdoc (2016-2019), Assistant Professor at San Raffaele Medical School, Milan, Italy, now Associate Professor at the University of Trento (Fall 2024).
Rakesh Sengupta, Visiting PhD Student (2014), now Assistant Professor at the Center for Creative Cognition, SR Engineering College, University of Warangal, India.
Elisa Zamboni (Masters Student 2011-2013): awarded PhD from Notthingham University (2017), now Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham (September 2023- present).
Weina Zhu, Visiting Fellow (2013 to 2017), now Professor at Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
Selected Alumni
Lisandro Kaunitz, PhD with David Melcher from 2007 to 2011, then postdocs in Australia and Japan, now CEO at Energy Renovation Studio, Italy.
Gaia Lapomarda, (postdoc, 2022-2024) at PAC Lab, now a postdoctoral fellow at Innsbruck University.
Xiaoyi Liu, (Research Assistant, 2020-2023) at PAC Lab, now a PhD student at Princeton University working with Professor Sabine Kastner.
Evelyn Muschter, was a PhD student with David Melcher, now Research Associate at the Center for Tactile Internet, Technical University of Dresden.
Poppy Sharp, was a PhD student co-supervised by David Melcher (2015-2019), now Associate Scientific Advisor at SciMentum, UK.
Daniel Saunders, postdoc on the ATTEND project from 2014 to 2016, now a data scientist at Wayfair.com.
Martijn Van Koningsbruggen, postdoc from 2012 to 2014, now Team Manager, Data and Analytics at Belastingdienst
Jorien Van Paaschen, postdoc from 2012 to 2013, now Data Analyst/Business Intelligence @ beslist.nl
Andreas Wutz, first as a PhD student with David Melcher, then as a postdoc until 2016, now a Research Fellow at the University of Salzburg, Austria
Denisa Zamfira, previous visiting PhD student from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, currently in her 4th year of PhD program in Cognitive Neuroscience.
Ani Alaberkyan, Postdoctoral Associate from 2023 until 2025, now a Postdoctoral Associate at Objects and Knowledge Lab, under the supervision of Prof. Olivia Cheung, New York University Abu Dhabi.