Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas, PhD
Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas is a Neuroscience Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco - UCSF, in the Department of Neurology – Memory and Aging Center. His research primarily focuses on developing mechanistic models of human intelligence, with a particular emphasis on symbolic reasoning (e.g. mathematics and language) and self-referential reasoning. He combine machine learning, computational modelling, electrophysiological recordings (intracranial EEG, MEG), neuroimaging (fMRI), continuous behavioral measures (trajectory-tracking) and neuropsychology to study the processing stages and representational codes underlying cognitive operations. Complementarily, he use intracranial electrical stimulation to modulate brain activity and behavior.
In recent work, his team has been developing advanced agentic AI systems designed to process multimodal patient data to streamline diagnosis and discovery in neurodegenerative diseases. These innovative systems employ large language models (LLMs) as their primary reasoning mechanism, working in conjunction with specialized agents that process various types of medical data including unstructured clinical notes, cognitive scores, neuroimaging, biomarkers, genetics, and electronic health records. The ultimate goal is to extract meaningful features and generate predictions about clinical syndromes and neuropathology, thereby accelerating breakthroughs in understanding and treating neurodegenerative conditions.