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Dr Marcelo Montemurro

Marcelo Montemurro

Profile summary

  • Staff Tutor in Mathematics and Statistics
  • Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
  • School of Mathematics & Statistics

Professional biography

Over the past twenty years I have been affiliated with the following institutions (in loose chronological order):

National University of Córdoba (Córdoba, Argentina) – PhD in Theoretical Physics (Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy).

International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy) – Research fellow (condensed-matter physics)

University of Manchester – Research fellow and then Lecturer (Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health).

University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy) – Associate Professor (Physics department)

The Open University – Associate Lecturer, and then Staff Tutor from the summer of 2021 (School of Mathematics & Statistics – Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics group)

Research interests

A rather incomplete summary of interests is as follows:

Condensed-matter and statistical physics: out of equilibrium dynamics of spin-glasses and ultra-thin magnetic systems with competing interactions; dynamics of neural networks and systems with long-range interactions; algorithms for fast Monte Carlo simulations of systems with long-range interactions.

Complex systems: scaling and fractal properties of human language; characterisation of the information content of semantic structures in human language; complex networks; modelling of biological invasions;  modelling and quantification of information processing in neural systems; neural coding; measures of complexity based on information theory.

I am also interested in the relationship between information and thermodynamics, both in classical and quantum systems.

 

Teaching interests

Over the years, I have taught undergraduate courses in various areas of physics and mathematics, including foundation mathematics, linear algebra, thermodynamics, mechanics, optics, and quantum mechanics. My teaching experience also extends to postgraduate courses in information theory and mathematical modelling in neuroscience.

Currently, I am part of the module teams for MST210 (Mathematical Methods, Models and Modelling), MST224 (Mathematical Methods), and MST374 (Computational Applied Mathematics). At the advanced undergraduate level, I teach Quantum Mechanics (SM380) and contribute to the physics project course (SXP390 - Radiation and Matter). I have previously taught Electromagnetism (SM381) at this level.

Additionally, I teach on the postgraduate module SM880, 'Quantum and Statistical Mechanics of Matter,' which is shared by both the MSc in Mathematics and MPhys programmes.

External collaborations

My main current external collaborators are Prof. Mirko Degli Esposti (University of Bologna, Italy), Dr Giampaolo Cristadoro (University of Milano Bicocca, Italy),  and Dr Fernando Montani (National University of La Plata, Argentina).

Publications

Noise-modulated multistable synapses in a Wilson-Cowan-based model of plasticity (2023)
Lea-Carnall, Caroline A.; Tanner, Lisabel I. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 17

High-frequency oscillations in the ripple bands and amplitude information coding: Toward a biomarker of maximum entropy in the preictal signals (2022-09)
Granado, Mauro; Collavini, Santiago; Baravalle, Roman; Martinez, Nataniel; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Rosso, Osvaldo A. and Montani, Fernando
Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, 32, Article 93151(9)

GABA Modulates Frequency-Dependent Plasticity in Humans (2020-11-20)
Lea-Carnall, Caroline A.; Williams, Stephen R.; Sanaei-Nezhad, Faezeh; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson J.; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; El-Deredy, Wael and Parkes, Laura M.
iScience, 23, Article 101657(11)

Pattern separation underpins expectation-modulated memory (2020-04-22)
Frank, Darya; Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Montaldi, Daniela
Journal of Neuroscience, 40(17) (pp. 3455-3464)

Natural language statistical features of LSTM-generated texts (2019-04-03)
Lippi, Marco; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Esposti, Mirko Degli and Cristadoro, Giampaolo
IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 30(11) (pp. 3326-3337)

Evidence for frequency-dependent cortical plasticity in the human brain (2017-08-15)
Lea-Carnall, Caroline A.; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson J.; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; El-Deredy, Wael and Parkes, Laura M.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(33) (pp. 8871-8876)

Modulation of Fast Narrowband Oscillations in the Mouse Retina and dLGN According to Background Light Intensity (2017-01-18)
Storchi, Riccardo; Bedford, Robert A.; Martial, Franck P.; Allen, Annette E.; Wynne, Jonathan; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Petersen, Rasmus S. and Lucas, Robert J.
Neuron, 93(2) (pp. 299-307)

Bursting Neurons in the Hippocampal Formation Encode Features of LFP Rhythms (2016-12)
Constantinou, Maria; Cogno, Soledad Gonzalo; Elijah, Daniel H.; Kropff, Emilio; Gigg, John; Samengo, Inés and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 10, Article 133

FPGA Hardware Acceleration of Monte Carlo Simulations for the Ising Model (2016-09-01)
Ortega-Zamorano, Francisco; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Cannas, Sergio Alejandro; Jerez, José M. and Franco, Leonardo
IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 27(9) (pp. 2618-2627)

Cortical Resonance Frequencies Emerge from Network Size and Connectivity (2016-02)
Lea-Carnall, Caroline A.; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson.J.; Parkes, Laura M. and El-Deredy, Wael
PLoS Computational Biology, 12(2)

Coherent oscillations in word-use data from 1700 to 2008 (2016)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Zanette, Damián H.
Palgrave Communications, 2, Article 16084

Melanopsin-driven increases in maintained activity enhance thalamic visual response reliability across a simulated dawn (2015-10-20)
Storchi, Riccardo; Milosavljevic, Nina; Eleftheriou, Cyril G.; Martial, Franck P.; Orlowska-Feuer, Patrycja; Bedford, Robert A.; Brown, Timothy M.; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Petersen, Rasmus S. and Lucas, Robert J.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(42) (E5734-E5743)

Phase-locking of bursting neuronal firing to dominant LFP frequency components (2015-10)
Constantinou, Maria; Elijah, Daniel H.; Squirrell, Daniel; Gigg, John and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
BioSystems, 136 (pp. 73-79)

Thalamic neuron models encode stimulus information by burst-size modulation (2015-09)
Elijah, Daniel.H.; Samengo, Inés and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 9, Article 113

Melanopsin-Driven Light Adaptation in Mouse Vision (2014-11-03)
Allen, Annette E.; Storchi, Riccardo; Martial, Franck P.; Petersen, Rasmus S.; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Brown, Timothy M. and Lucas, Robert J.
Current Biology, 24(21) (pp. 2481-2490)

Quantifying the information in the long-range order of words: Semantic structures and universal linguistic constraints (2014-06)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Cortex, 55(1) (pp. 5-16)

Linking dynamical and functional properties of intrinsically bursting neurons (2013-10)
Samengo, Inés; Mato, Germán; Elijah, Daniel H.; Schreiber, Susanne and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 35(2) (pp. 213-230)

Keywords and Co-Occurrence Patterns in the Voynich Manuscript: An Information-Theoretic Analysis (2013-06)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Zanette, Damián H.
PLoS ONE, 8, Article e66344(6)

Information coding in a laminar computational model of cat primary visual cortex (2013-04)
Basalyga, Gleb; Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Wennekers, Thomas
Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 34(2) (pp. 273-283)

Comparing short and long-distance dispersal: Modelling and field case studies (2011-08)
Marco, Diana E.; Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Cannas, Sergio A.
Ecography, 34(4) (pp. 671-682)

Universal entropy of word ordering across linguistic families (2011-05)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Zanette, Damián H.
PLoS ONE, 6, Article e19875(5)

Conversion of phase information into a spike-count code by bursting neurons (2010-03)
Samengo, Inés and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
PLoS ONE, 5, Article e9669(3)

Towards the quantification of the semantic information encoded in written language (2010)
Montemurro, M. A. and Zanette, D. H.
Advances in Complex Systems, 13(2) (pp. 135-153)

The statistics of meaning: Darwin, Gibbon and Moby Dick (2009-12)
Montemurro, Marcelo and Zanette, Damián
Significance, 6(4) (pp. 165-169)

Spike-Phase Coding Boosts and Stabilizes Information Carried by Spatial and Temporal Spike Patterns (2009-02-26)
Kayser, Christoph; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Logothetis, Nikos K. and Panzeri, Stefano
Neuron, 61(4) (pp. 597-608)

Comparable ecological dynamics underlie early cancer invasion and species dispersal, involving self-organizing processes (2009-01-07)
Marco, Diana E.; Cannas, Sergio A.; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Hu, Bo and Cheng, Shi-Yuan
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 256(1) (pp. 65-75)

Low-Frequency Local Field Potentials and Spikes in Primary Visual Cortex Convey Independent Visual Information (2008-05-28)
Belitski, Andrei; Gretton, Arthur; Magri, Cesare; Murayama, Yusuke; Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Logothetis, Nikos K. and Panzeri, Stefano
Journal of Neuroscience, 28(22) (pp. 5696-5709)

Phase-of-Firing Coding of Natural Visual Stimuli in Primary Visual Cortex (2008-03-11)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Rasch, Malte J.; Murayama, Yusuke; Logothetis, Nikos K. and Panzeri, Stefano
Current Biology, 18(5) (pp. 375-380)

Information-theoretic sensitivity analysis: A general method for credit assignment in complex networks (2008-02-06)
Lüdtke, Niklas; Panzeri, Stefano; Brown, Martin; Broomhead, David S.; Knowles, Joshua; Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Kell, Douglas B.
Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 5(19) (pp. 223-235)

Diverse and Temporally Precise Kinetic Feature Selectivity in the VPm Thalamic Nucleus (2008)
Petersen, Rasmus S.; Brambilla, Marco; Bale, Michael R.; Alenda, Andrea; Panzeri, Stefano; Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Maravall, Miguel
Neuron, 60(5) (pp. 890-903)

Tight data-robust bounds to mutual information combining shuffling and model selection techniques (2007-11)
Montemurro, M.A.; Senatore, R. and Panzeri, S.
Neural Computation, 19(11) (pp. 2913-2957)

Role of precise spike timing in coding of dynamic vibrissa stimuli in somatosensory thalamus (2007-10-01)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Panzeri, Stefano; Maravall, Miguel; Alenda, Andrea; Bale, Michael R.; Brambilla, Marco and Petersen, Rasmus S.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 98(4) (pp. 1871-1882)

Correcting for the sampling bias problem in spike train information measures (2007-09)
Panzeri, Stefano; Senatore, Riccardo; Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Petersen, Rasmus S.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 98(3) (pp. 1064-1072)

Long range dispersal and spatial pattern formation in biological invasions (2006-10)
Cannas, Sergio A.; Marco, Diana E. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Mathematical Biosciences, 203(2) (pp. 155-170)

Aging and coarsening in an ultra-thin film model (2006-09-15)
Gleiser, Pablo M. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 369(2) (pp. 529-534)

Optimal tuning widths in population coding of periodic variables (2006-07)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Panzeri, Stefano
Neural Computation, 18(7) (pp. 1555-1576)

Stimulus specificity of cortico-cortical connections optimizes information transmission (2006-06)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Panzeri, Stefano
Neurocomputing, 69(10-12) (pp. 1203-1205)

Dynamics of Text Generation with Realistic Zipf's Distribution (2005)
Zanette, Damián and Montemurro, Marcelo
Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 12(1) (pp. 29-40)

A note on non-thermodynamical applications of non-extensive statistics (2004-04-26)
Zanette, Damián H. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics, 324(5-6) (pp. 383-387)

Slow dynamics in a two-dimensional Ising model with competing interactions (2003-10-01)
Gleiser, Pablo M.; Tamarit, Francisco A.; Cannas, Sergio A. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 68, Article 134401(13)

Thermal measurements of stationary nonequilibrium systems: A test for generalized thermostatistics (2003-09-22)
Zanette, Damián H. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics, 316(3-4) (pp. 184-189)

Aging dynamics of Edwards-Anderson spin glasses (2003-04)
Stariolo, D.A.; Montemurro, M.A. and Tamarit, F.A.
European Physical Journal B, 32(3) (pp. 361-367)

Aging in an infinite-range Hamiltonian system of coupled rotators (2003-03-28)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Tamarit, Francisco A. and Anteneodo, Celia
Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics, 67, Article 31106(3)

Aging in a one-dimensional Edwards-Anderson spin-glass model with long-range interactions (2003-03)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Tamarit, Francisco A.
International Journal of Modern Physics C, 14(3) (pp. 257-265)

Dynamics and nonequilibrium states in the Hamiltonian mean-field model: A closer look (2003-03)
Zanette, Damián H. and Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics, 67, Article 31105(3)

Long-range fractal correlations in literary corpora (2002-12)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Pury, Pedro A.
Fractals, 10(4) (pp. 451-461)

Entropic analysis of the role of words in literary texts (2002-03)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Zanette, Damián H.
Advances in Complex Systems, 5(1) (pp. 7-17)

Beyond the Zipf-Mandelbrot law in quantitative linguistics (2001-11-15)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 300(3-4) (pp. 567-578)

Aging in the retrieval phase of the Hopfield model (2001-06-01)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Tamarit, Francisco A.
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 295(1-2) (pp. 108-113)

An efficient dilution strategy for constructing sparsely connected neural networks (2001-05-15)
Montemurro, Marcelo A. and Tamarit, Francisco A.
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 294(3-4) (pp. 340-350)

Out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the Hopfield model in its spin-glass phase (2000-10-01)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Tamarit, Francisco A.; Stariolo, Daniel A. and Cannas, Sergio A.
Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics, 62(4 B) (pp. 5721-5728)

Complexity and Universality in the Long-Range Order of Words (2016)
Montemurro, Marcelo Alejandro and Damian, H Zanette
In: Degli Esposti, Mirko; Altmann, Eduardo G and Pachet, Fracoise-David eds. Creativity and Universality in Language. Lecture notes in Morphogenesis (pp. 27-41)
ISBN : 978-3-319-24403-7 | Publisher : Degli Esposti M., Altmann E., Pachet F. | Published : Bologna

Spike-train analysis (2013)
Samengo, I.; Elijah, D. and Montemurro, M.A.
In: Quian Quiroga, Rodrigo and Panzeri, Stefano eds. Principles of Neural Coding (pp. 75-96)
ISBN : 9780429106866 | Publisher : Taylor and Francis | Published : Boca Raton

A Generalization of the Zipf-Mandelbrot Law in Linguistics (2004)
Montemurro, Marcelo A.
In: Gell-Mann, Murray and Tsallis, Constantino eds. Nonextensive Entropy: Interdisciplinary Applications. Santa Fe Institute studies of Complexity (pp. 347-356)
ISBN : 9780195159769 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : New York