Overview: My research interests focus on understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms that guide learning about the world around us. My work has sought to answer questions pertaining to two distinct yet integrative learning processes: How does the brain learn to make predictions about the future? How does the brain update erroneous predictions? What is the nature of this learning?
My approach to the study of brain and behaviour is to combine well-controlled behavioural designs informed by formalized theories of learning and causal (chemogenetic, optogenetic and neuropharmacological methods) and correlational (high-density neuronal recording) neuroscience techniques.
Funding: Our research is supported by
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR Project Grant)
Canada Research Chair Tier 2
NSERC Discovery Grant
Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation (NARSAD New Investigator Award)
FRQNT Nouveau Chercheur
Canadian Foundation for Innovation
Concordia University Horizon Postdoctoral Fellowships
Total publication number: 53; h-index: 18 (as of September 2019)
Effects of Chlorophyll Triplet States on the Kinetics of Spectral Hole Growth. A. Trempe, A. Levenberg, A. D. Gonzalez Ortega, M. A. Lujan, R. Picorel, V. Zazubovich, J. Phys. Chem. B 125 (2021) 3278-3285.
Bound Detergent Molecules in Bacterial Reaction Centers Facilitate Detection of Tetryl Explosive. D. Modafferi, V. Zazubovich, L. Kalman, Photosynth. Res., 145 (2020) 145-157.
Simultaneous Spectral Hole Burning Involving Two Tiers of the Protein Energy Landscape in Cytochrome b6f. G. Shafiei, A. Levenberg, M. A. Lujan, R. Picorel and V. Zazubovich. J. Phys. Chem. B 123 (2019) 10930-10938.
· Conformational Changes in Pigment-Protein Complexes at Low Temperatures – Spectral Memory and a Possibility of Cooperative Effects, M. Najafi, N. Herascu, G. Shafiei, R.Picorel and V. Zazubovich, J. Phys. Chem. B 119 (2015) 6930−6940.
· Biophotonics of Photosynthesis, V. Zazubovich and R.Jankowiak; Invited chapter for Photonics: Scientific Foundations,Technology and Applications; D. L. Andrews, Ed.,Vol. 4, Wiley 2015, pp. 129-164.
· Site Selective and Single Complex Laser-Based Spectroscopies: A Window on Excited State Electronic Structure, Excitation Energy Transfer, and Electron-Phonon Coupling of Selected Photosynthetic Complexes (Invited Review) , R. Jankowiak, M. Reppert, V.Zazubovich, J. Pieper, T. Reinot, Chem. Rev. 111 (2011) 4546.
· Detection of Explosive Compounds using Photosystem II-based Biosensor, V.Bhalla, X. Zhao, V. Zazubovich, J. Electroanal. Chem. 657 (2011) 84.
Low-Temperature Protein Dynamics of the B800 Molecules in the LH2 Light-Harvesting Complex: Spectral Hole Burning Study and Comparison with Single Photosynthetic Complex Spectroscopy, D. Grozdanov, N. Herascu, T. Reinot, R.Jankowiak, V. Zazubovich, J. Phys. Chem. B 114 (2010) 3426.
