2000-2006
PhD - Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot,
Supervisor: Prof. Ehud Ahissar. PhD committee: Prof. Rafael Malach, Prof. Amos Arieli. Awarded: May 2006.

2007-2011
Postdoc - With Stanislas Dehaene (Inserm Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Saclay) and Laurent Cohen (Brain and Spine Institute, ICM, Salpétrière Hospital, Paris, France).

2011-present
Research team leader at the Jagiellonian University

2021-present
Full Professor at the Jagiellonian University

contact: m.szwed {at} uj.edu.pl

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I’ve obtained my MA in psychology (2018) and currently I am a PhD candidate at the Jagiellonian University. My master’s project is focused on rhythm discrimination and neuroplasticity in professional musicians.

The main area of my interest is the neuroplasticity of the brain structures. Moreover, I focus on brain reorganization following long-term training and sensory deprivation. I am interested in the research on congenitally blind and professional musicians. During my PhD studies I continue to study brain plasticity in a group of professional pianists.  I will check whether the auditory cortices activation support visual processing due to extensive training in the domain of musical rhythms perception. Moreover, I have started another project that focuses on the reading mechanism in the congenitally blind.

I studied cognitive science at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and graduated with master's degree in 2015. My master's project considered processes of differentiating phonemes present and not present in native language of the subjects. Experiment that I performed was a pilot experiment for a project concerning development of phonematic hearing and working memory in infants and children. My main field of interest is language, language acquisition and language disorders.

My PhD research focuses on mathematical cognition, the magnitude representation of perceived numerosity in intraparietal sulcus. The main goal is to find whether the neural numerical magnitude representation is modality- independent, or the IPS contains partially distinct representations for different modalities (e.g. tactile and visual modality). For the purpose of this study we will work with a unique group of sighted adult subjects that are able to read Braille. 

I've obtained MSc in psychology (Mismap UW) and MA in philosophy (UW). My main research focus is on the mechanisms underlying cortical, cross-modal reorganisation following deafness. The crucial question is how auditory structures are reprogramming to process another modalities. Does the specific function of the auditory cortices change (pluripotent hypothesis) or remain the same (task-specific hypothesis) when dealing with processing different sensory input? In my doctoral project I continue studying rhythm processing and timing processing in deaf to farther explore the relationship between pluripotent and task-specific mechanism.

Paulina Lewandowska is a member of the neuroimaging team within the NeuroSmog project at the Institute of Psychology of the Jagiellonian University. Her role in the project includes the analysis and interpretation of dMRI (magnetic resonance diffusion imaging) data.

Paulina is a graduate of psychological studies with a specialization in neurocognitive science at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. Before joining the NeuroSmog project, Paulina was involved in researching the relationship between the white matter of the brain and the results achieved in a computer game (StarCraft II) at the Center for Neurocognitive Research in the PlasticityTeam team.

Mikołaj Compa is a member of the neuroimaging team of the NeuroSmog project at the Institute of Psychology at Jagiellonian University. His role within the project includes analysis and interpretation of behavioral and fMRI data. 

Mikołaj is a graduate student in psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. Prior to his collaboration in the NeuroSmog project, he was involved in studying the interaction between attentional networks.

Alicja Żok is a lab and project manager titled: "Engaging the nature vs. nurture debate through the study of cognitive plasticity in blindness and deafness". She is responsible for organization of collaboration with Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig (Germany). She is working on organization and logistic of the study, and also the whole recruitment process of the participants. Before she joined SzwedLab she was working as a theatre coordinator for 7 years.

Yarema Mysak is a data engineer and programmer in the NeuroSmog project at the Institute of Psychology at Jagiellonian University.
During his undergraduate studies in cognitive science, Yarema actively participated in defining and planning the research area, and his thesis provided the theoretical background for the NeuroSmog project protocol.

During the first year of the fellowship, Yarema became a data engineer and programmer for the project. His work is crucial to the project's implementation. He manages the technical side of data collection and handles the initial analysis, creates the measurement tools and controls their correct operation, and prepares the final database with its user interface.

Completed his post-doctoral reaserch at Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory (Alfonso Caramazza's Lab). Currently he is running his own scientific team at Institute of Psychology (PAN) in Warsaw.

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A neuropsychologist, she is a medical neurologist at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital. She completed her doctorate in École des Neurosciences Paris Île-de-France, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epiniere (Brain & Spine Institute), PICNIC LAB,

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Post-doctoral reasercher at Universität Hamburg

 

ResearchGate Profile

PhD student at School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cognition and Computational Brain Lab