Dr. Sagi Jaffe-Dax
I started my academic journey in the department of Cognitive Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I stayed in Jerusalem for a PhD in the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation (ICNC; now known as ELSC for Brain Sciences). Under the advisory of Prof. Merav Ahissar, I studied the Computational Account and Neural Basis of Dyslexia, using computational models that were derived from the framework of reinforcement learning, human electrophysiology (M/EEG), and neuroimaging methods (fMRI).
After completing my PhD, I embarked on the field of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. I went for a post-doc training in the Princeton Babylab, where I worked on the mechanisms that support infants' learning during their first year of life, using computational methods, eyetracking, and infant neuroimaging (fNIRS).
In 2021, I opened the Center for Cognitive Development in the School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University. The center houses cognitive development research from five labs in school, including my own.
Broadly speaking, we study the development of infants, toddlers and children cognitively and perceptually, and how their brain changes to support it. For example, we ask questions such as: How does the visual system affect and is affected by cognitive development? At what age can infants expect stimuli to appear at a regular time? How do toddlers learn to draw conclusions? What neural mechanisms lie in the basis of cognitive development?