Dr. Kwag received her BA in Mathematics from University of Oxford, after which she pursued research degrees in neuroscience by receiving MSc in Neuroscience and DPhil in Physiology from University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar. She was a faculty member at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea University from 2010 before joining BCS in 2022. She uses interdisciplinary approaches including in vitro electrophysiology, in vivo calcium imaging and in silico computational neural network modeling to elucidate how the complex neural circuits of the brain perform efficient neural computation and memory processing. Recent research interests are neural circuit mechanisms of memory with Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics applications and neuroscience-inspired computational models of memory/sensory perception for AI applications.

Dr. Kim is a psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist studying the neural mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and human brain function, with a particular focus on schizophrenia, clinical high risk for psychosis, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Her research uses multimodal brain imaging and neurophysiological approaches, including MRI, PET, and EEG/ERP, together with neurostimulation approaches to identify brain-based biomarkers of psychopathology, prognosis, and treatment response, and to develop personalized neuromodulation strategies.

Dr. Lee’s laboratory combines fMRI, computational modeling, and psychophysics to address how sensory and non-sensory information flows in the human brain for decisive resolution of perceptual choices under an environment with high degree of uncertainty. Recent publications involve computational neuroimaging studies of cortical point spread functions, choice probability, motion adaptation and time perception in the human visual cortex.

Dr. Lee is interested in how the brain remembers episodic events (involving objects and places) and use it for adaptive behavior. Animal models are used with memory tasks to uncover the functional relationships between hippocampal memory systems and cognitive functions. Drug injections and neurotoxic lesions are used in addition to electrophysiological techniques in freely moving animals in VR environments.

The most fundamental role of the brain is to seek and consume energy for survival. Dr. Choi is deeply interested in the psychological and neural mechanisms that orchestrate these motivated behaviors. His main research topics include: (1) brain circuits involved in hunger, desire, pleasure, and addiction, and (2) the development of appetite suppressant drugs, medical devices, and digital therapeutics. His research methods span a wide range of advanced techniques, including optogenetics, chemogenetics, miniscopes, fiber photometry, neuropeptide sensors, behavioral experiments, Arduino-based tools, deep learning for behavior analysis, electroceutical devices, and digital therapeutics. Dr. Choi’s translational research bridges studies across mice, monkeys, and humans to better understand and develop therapeutics targeting motivated behavior.

Dr. Chung’s laboratory focuses on the neural and psychological foundations of valuation and decision-making in social settings. Social factors (e.g., presence of social others, repeated social interaction, etc.) can influence individual perceptions and choices, and his work seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying such influence. To expand our understanding of human information processing in various contexts, his lab has examined social and economic human decision behaviors, as well as individuals’ affective responses in three streams of inquiry: (i) decision-making processes and neural cognitive mechanisms, (ii) neurobehavioral abnormalities in psychopathology, and (iii) behavioral and psychological responses under a natural socioeconomic stressor. At his lab, Dr. Chung takes a multidisciplinary approach, integrating methods from behavioral economics, neuroimaging, decision neuroscience, social psychology, and computational modeling.