Navigation

  • Skip to Content
NTNU Home NTNU Home

ntnu.edu

  • Studies
    • Master's programmes in English
    • For exchange students
    • PhD opportunities
    • All programmes of study
    • Courses
    • Financing
    • Language requirements
    • Application process
    • Academic calendar
    • FAQ
  • Research and innovation
    • NTNU research
    • Research excellence
    • Strategic research areas
    • Innovation resources
    • PhD opportunities
  • Life and housing
    • Student in Trondheim
    • Student in Gjøvik
    • Student in Ålesund
    • For researchers
    • Life and housing
  • About NTNU
    • Contact us
    • Faculties and departments
    • Libraries
    • International researcher support
    • Vacancies
    • About NTNU
    • Maps
  1. Employees

Språkvelger

Norsk

Ignacio Polti

Download press photo
Download press photo
Foto:

Ignacio Polti

Postdoctoral researcher
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

ignacio.polti@ntnu.no
+4773413205 3.404 Fred Kavli-bygget, del 1 Øya, Trondheim
Twitter Google Scholar
About Research Publications Outreach

About

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, working in the lab of Nobel laureates May-Britt and Edvard Moser.

Research

The brain’s ability to represent magnitudes such as durations is critical for living organisms to successfully interact with the environment. Time can be considered one of the most prominent dimensions that humans use to describe in an abstract way their interactions with the environment.

My research seeks to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms of time perception using a cross-species approach in humans and rodents, with an emphasis in the role that brain structures such as the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex play in it.

In humans I study sensorimotor timing, i.e., the act of coordinating the timing of motor actions in response to specific sensory events, such as intercepting/avoiding a moving target (e.g., catching a rugby ball) or producing sequences of timed actions (e.g., playing the piano). Specifically, I research how humans flexibly adapt to the statistical properties of a given context to improve the precision of their timed motor actions.

In rodents I study episodic timing, i.e, the estimation of durations from the memory of past events (e.g., how long ago did you have lunch?). In this domain, I research how the process of event segmentation influences the perception of time.

These topics are studied under the computational framework of predictive processing, using a wide range of neuroimaging methods and carefully designed behavioral tasks.

Education

  • PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience | Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • MSc in Cognitive Science | École Normale Supérieure (Paris)
  • MSc in Psychology | Universidad de Buenos Aires

Competencies

  • Bayesian computational modelling
  • Eyetracking
  • High-density extracellular electrophysiology
  • M/EEG
  • Machine Learning
  • Matlab
  • Psychophysics
  • Python
  • R
  • fMRI

Research

  • Moser group | Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
  • Doeller group | Max Planck Institute for Human, Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Entorhinal-hippocampal codes for time

Using multi-site high-density neurophysiological recordings in rodents, we shall ask how experiences influence the activity of time-coding LEC neurons. We will aim to determine if changes in LEC neural dynamics predict biases in time perception.

Mapping of temporal regularities in sensorimotor cognitive maps

Using fMRI recordings in humans, we ask whether the hippocampal formation contributes to the processing of temporal information for human sensorimotor timing behavior.

Publications

  • Chronological
  • By category
  • All publications registered in NVA

2025

  • Kanter, Benjamin Richard; Lykken, Christine Marie; Polti, Ignacio; Moser, May Britt; Moser, Edvard Ingjald. (2025) Event structure sculpts neural population dynamics in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Science
    Academic article

2023

  • Azizi, Leila; Polti, Ignacio; Wassenhove, Virginie van. (2023) Spontaneous alpha brain dynamics track the episodic “when”. Journal of Neuroscience
    Academic article

2022

  • Polti, Ignacio; Nau, Matthias; Kaplan, Raphael; Wassenhove, Virginie van; Doeller, Christian Fritz Andreas. (2022) Rapid encoding of task regularities in the human hippocampus guides sensorimotor timing. eLIFE
    Academic article

2020

  • Bellmund, Jacob Lukas Sarid; Polti, Ignacio; Doeller, Christian Fritz Andreas. (2020) Sequence Memory in the Hippocampal–Entorhinal Region. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
    Academic article

2018

  • Polti, Ignacio; Martin, Benoit; Wassenhove, Virginie van. (2018) The effect of attention and working memory on the estimation of elapsed time. Scientific Reports
    Academic article

Journal publications

  • Kanter, Benjamin Richard; Lykken, Christine Marie; Polti, Ignacio; Moser, May Britt; Moser, Edvard Ingjald. (2025) Event structure sculpts neural population dynamics in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Science
    Academic article
  • Azizi, Leila; Polti, Ignacio; Wassenhove, Virginie van. (2023) Spontaneous alpha brain dynamics track the episodic “when”. Journal of Neuroscience
    Academic article
  • Polti, Ignacio; Nau, Matthias; Kaplan, Raphael; Wassenhove, Virginie van; Doeller, Christian Fritz Andreas. (2022) Rapid encoding of task regularities in the human hippocampus guides sensorimotor timing. eLIFE
    Academic article
  • Bellmund, Jacob Lukas Sarid; Polti, Ignacio; Doeller, Christian Fritz Andreas. (2020) Sequence Memory in the Hippocampal–Entorhinal Region. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
    Academic article
  • Polti, Ignacio; Martin, Benoit; Wassenhove, Virginie van. (2018) The effect of attention and working memory on the estimation of elapsed time. Scientific Reports
    Academic article

Outreach

#34 The Journal of Neuroscience Spotlight: Spontaneous Alpha Brain Dynamics Track the Episodic “When”

Podcast interview from "Neuro Current", the SfN Journals podcast. The Journal of Neuroscience decided to highlight our 2023 research article for receiving the highest marks for both, methodological merit and significance.

With constructive feedback our brain learns the perfect timing

Press release from the Max Planck Institute explaining our research findings in human sensorimotor timing (text in English).

Derfor går tida raskere når du har det travelt

Interview given to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology media team explaining our research findings in human time perception (text in Norwegian).

La experiencia de estudiar bajo cero y con dos premios Nobel de Medicina

Interview given to the Argentine newspaper "La Nación" describing cognitive neuroscience research I carried out in Norway (text in Spanish).

Neurospin: un recorrido por la catedral del cerebro

Interview given to the Argentine newspaper "La Nación" describing cognitive neuroscience research carried out in France (text in Spanish).

2022

  • Poster
    Becu, Marcia Constance Noemi; Bonnevie, Tora; Polti, Ignacio; Jarholm, Jonas Alexander; Grøntvedt, Gøril Rolfseng; Bråthen, Geir. (2022) Entorhinal grid-like representation in early Alzheimer's disease: association with biomarkers concentration and genetic risk. Society for Neuroscience 2022 2022-11-12 - 2022-11-12

2018

  • Poster
    Polti, Ignacio; Nau, Matthias; Kaplan, R; Wassenhove, Virginie van; Doeller, Christian. (2018) The role of hexadirectional coding in spatiotemporal integration. Neuroscience 2018 , San Diego, California 2018-11-03 - 2018-11-07

NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  • For employees
  • |
  • For students
  • |
  • Intranet
  • |
  • Blackboard

Studies

  • Master's programmes in English
  • For exchange students
  • PhD opportunities
  • Courses
  • Career development
  • Continuing education
  • Application process

News

  • NTNU News
  • Vacancies

About NTNU

  • About the university
  • Libraries
  • NTNU's strategy
  • Research excellence
  • Strategic research areas
  • Organizational chart

Contact

  • Contact NTNU
  • Employees
  • Find experts
  • Press contacts
  • Researcher support
  • Maps

NTNU in three cities

  • NTNU in Gjøvik
  • NTNU in Trondheim
  • NTNU in Ålesund

About this website

  • Use of cookies
  • Accessibility statement
  • Privacy policy
  • Editorial responsibility
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Snapchat Tiktok Youtube
Sign In
NTNU logo