Dengzhe Hou (侯登哲)
I am an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Information Sciences (GSIS), Tohoku University, Japan, affiliated with the Yamada Laboratory and the International Liaison Office (ILO). I also hold a concurrent appointment in the Social Integration Research Division of the Unprecedented-scale Data Analytics Center (UDAC) (from April 2026), and I take part in its TechGov initiative (from May 2026). I am supported by a JSPS DC2 Research Fellowship (2025–2026).
My research bridges cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I am broadly interested in aligning brain signals (EEG, fMRI) with large-scale AI models (LLMs, vision-language models) to compare their internal representations, and in using insights from cognitive science and neuroscience to guide the design and optimization of AI systems. A continuing thread of my work investigates the neural mechanisms of voluntary, self-initiated attentional control using EEG/sEEG recordings, eye-tracking, and computational modeling.
I received my Ph.D. and M.S. from Tohoku University GSIS under Prof. Satoshi Shioiri at the Visual Cognition and Systems Laboratory. Previously, I was a Visiting PhD Scholar at Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital (Aug 2024 – Jan 2025) in the Sydney Cash Lab, supervised by Dr. Jing (Jill) Cai, training in stereo-EEG (sEEG), hyperscanning, and the neural mechanisms of speech and interactive communication.
Research Interests
- Neural–AI alignment: comparing representations in EEG/fMRI and large language/vision models
- Brain-inspired AI: using cognitive and neural principles to optimize AI architectures
- Visual attention and self-initiated attentional control (EEG + eye movements; gaze-contingent paradigms; saccade and microsaccade dynamics)
- Computational modeling and neural decoding (EEG, sEEG, MEG, hyperscanning; accumulation-to-bound, time–frequency analysis)
News
| Jun 2026 | PVIR poster presented at CVPR 2026 Workshop VGBE, Denver, Colorado |
| May 2026 | Joined the TechGov initiative at UDAC, Tohoku University |
| May 2026 | New preprint on arXiv: Subject-Specific Analysis of Self-Initiated Attention Shifts from EEG — SHAP-based within-subject decoding of self-initiated attention |
| May 2026 | New preprint on arXiv: Same Brain, Different Prediction — preprocessing pipelines flip up to 42% of EEG decoding predictions; we introduce a diagnostic + regularization fix |
| May 2026 | Updated preprint: WMF-AM v2 reframes our LLM probe around working-memory depth and isolates cumulative state tracking as the dominant bottleneck |
| Apr 2026 | Collaborator on new preprint: Vibe Medicine: Redefining Biomedical Research Through Human-AI Co-Work — under review at Meta-Radiology |
| Apr 2026 | Started as Assistant Professor at GSIS, Tohoku University (Yamada Lab, ILO) with concurrent appointment at UDAC Social Integration Research Division |
| Apr 2026 | Teaching Machine Learning Basics at GSIS, Tohoku University |
| Mar 2026 | Paper accepted at CVPR 2026 Workshop VGBE: Physics-Aware Video Instance Removal Benchmark |
| Mar 2026 | New preprint on arXiv: Beyond Completion: Probing Cumulative State Tracking to Predict LLM Agent Performance |
| Feb 2026 | Participated in Qualia Structure Grant Meeting |
| Feb 2026 | Appeared in Journal Club: The Proliferation of Consciousness Theories: What can we do next? (Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure) |
| Dec 2025 | Paper published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: frontal-midline theta ramping indexes self-initiated attention shifts |
Earlier news (2025 and before)
| Apr 2025 | Awarded JSPS DC2 Research Fellowship |
| Jan 2025 | Returned from visiting scholar position at Harvard Medical School / MGH (Sydney Cash Lab, supervised by Dr. Jing (Jill) Cai) |
| Dec 2024 | Best Presentation Award, 32nd Doctoral Student Presentation, Tohoku University |
| Oct 2024 | Presented two posters at Society for Neuroscience 2024 |
| Jul 2024 | Two presentations at APCV 2024 (The 16th Asia Pacific Conference on Vision) |
| Aug 2023 | Oral presentation at ECVP 2023, Paphos, Cyprus; awarded ECVP Student Travel Award |
Education
| Ph.D. | Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University | Apr 2023 – Mar 2026 |
| Visual Cognition and Systems Lab · Graduate Program in Data Science (GPDS) | ||
| JST Next Generation Researcher Challenging Research Program | ||
| Thesis: Exploring Brain Mechanisms of Self-Initiated Attention Shift: Simultaneous Recording of EEG and Eye Movements | ||
| Advisors: Prof. Satoshi Shioiri, Prof. Shuichi Sakamoto, Prof. Chia-huei Tseng | ||
| M.S. | Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University | Apr 2021 – Mar 2023 |
| Visual Cognition and Systems Lab · GPDS (joined Apr 2022) | ||
| Advisors: Prof. Satoshi Shioiri, Prof. Chia-huei Tseng | ||
| B.Eng. | Electronic and Information Engineering (Automation), Tongji University | Sep 2016 – Jul 2020 |
| Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Xia Zhao | ||
| GPA 4.15 / 5.0 |
Teaching
Instructor, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University
| Machine Learning Basics | GSIS, Tohoku University (GPDS) | Apr 2026 – present |
| Course materials adapted from Samy Baladram |
Teaching Assistant, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University (2022 – 2025)
Supervisors: Prof. Kazunori Yamada, Assoc. Prof. Samy Baladram
- Spring 2024: Machine Learning Basics, Data Science Programming Basics, Data Engineering, Data Science Training I & II
- Fall 2023: Data Science Basics
- Spring 2022: Data Science Training I, Data Science Skill Up Exercise
Fellowships & Awards
| 2026 | Kaggle Expert – Bronze Medal, CSIRO Image2Biomass Prediction (355/3805) |
| 2025 | JSPS DC2 Research Fellowship |
| 2025 | Kaggle Bronze Medal, Santa 2024: The Perplexity Permutation Puzzle (148/1514) |
| 2024–2028 | KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A): 自発的脳機能の神経基盤理解 (PI: Prof. Satoshi Shioiri) |
| 2024 | Best Presentation Award, 32nd Doctoral Student Presentation, Tohoku University |
| 2023 | ECVP Student Travel Award |
| 2023–2025 | JST Next Generation Researcher Challenging Research Program |
| 2022–present | Tohoku University GPDS Research Assistant |
| 2021–2023 | Kamei Memorial Foundation Scholarship for International Students (公益財団法人亀井記念財団) |
| 2016 | Tongji University Undergraduate Entrance Scholarship |
Reviewer
- Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
- Scientific Reports
- Discover Neuroscience
- European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD 2026)
- International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN)
Links
- International Liaison Office (ILO)
- Graduate Program in Data Science (GPDS)
- Yamada Laboratory
- TOHOKU AI GROUP — Artificial Intelligence Research Group at Tohoku University
- Graduate School of Information Sciences (GSIS), Tohoku University
- Unprecedented-scale Data Analytics Center (UDAC) — Social Integration Research Division
- Collaborative Research Laboratory for Technology Governance (TechGov) — Tohoku University × NTT Data Group