Reichman University · Herzliya, Israel

The Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology

Led by its Founding Director, Prof. Amir Amedi, our multidisciplinary lab studies how experience, sensory input and technology reshape the human brain. From our immersive Ambisonic Room and advanced MRI center to our research collaborations with Remepy and other academic and industry partners, we connect fundamental neuroscience with tools that can improve human health and experience.

Brain visualization from the Amedi Lab

Featured publications

Translational work, multisensory discovery and human neuroplasticity

2026

Neural correlates of Parkinson’s improvements after combined digital-levodopa therapy: a pilot study

Brain Communications

2026

Local and global microstructural and functional thalamomotor connectivity alterations in Parkinson’s disease following motor learning

npj Parkinson’s Disease

2025

Mobile application leads to psychological improvement and correlated neuroimmune function change in subjective cognitive decline

npj Digital Medicine

2025

Brain connectivity correlates of the impact of a digital intervention for individuals with subjective cognitive decline on depression and IL-18

Scientific Reports

2024

Perceptual learning and neural correlates of virtual navigation in subjective cognitive decline: A pilot study

iScience

2025

Feeling the music: exploring emotional effects of auditory-tactile musical experiences

Frontiers in Virtual Reality

2026

Digital neuroplasticity modulation of the brain-immune axis: Translational strategies for neurodegenerative, psychiatric, and aging-related conditions

Neural Regeneration Research

2005

The plastic human brain cortex

Annual Review of Neuroscience

About the institute

Science that moves between senses, disciplines and real life

The Baruch Ivcher Institute brings together neuroscience, psychology, engineering, medicine and design to understand the organizing principles of the human brain—and to turn that knowledge into new forms of rehabilitation, communication and care.

Prof. Amir Amedi

Founding Director

Prof. Amir Amedi

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Remepy; Professor, School of Medicine and School of Psychology, Reichman University; Founding Director, Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology and Ruth and Meir Rosental Brain Imaging Center

Amir Amedi co-founded Remepy, pioneer of Hybrid Drugs, where his research spans disease areas in which integrating multisensory top-down and bottom-up digital interventions can improve clinical outcomes. At Reichman University his institute studies the human brain in health and disease and its interface with technology.

He was previously Professor of Medical Neurobiology and Cognitive Sciences at the Hebrew University, where he completed his PhD in computational neuroscience (2005). His training spans computational neuroscience, brain imaging, neurology (as a visiting fellow at NIH/NINDS and Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School) and music.

He has published over 150 papers and book chapters, including more than 50 in top-quartile journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications and npj Digital Medicine, and holds over 20 patents (granted or under review). Awards include the Wolf Foundation's Krill Prize (2011), the McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award (2011), Human Frontier Science Program fellowships (2004, 2009), and European Research Council Starting (2013), Consolidator (2017) and Proof of Concept (2023) grants.

Follow Prof. Amedi

Our work asks a deceptively simple question: how does the brain represent the world when information arrives through different senses, technologies or learned experiences? We study people with and without sensory loss to reveal how the cortex reorganizes, how multisensory signals are integrated and how new sensory channels can be learned.

Experiments range from behavioral and virtual-reality paradigms to high-resolution fMRI and immersive audio-tactile environments. The institute’s unique Ambisonic Room allows precisely controlled three-dimensional sound, motion capture, tactile stimulation and physiological monitoring, while the Ruth and Meir Rosental Brain Imaging Center enables advanced mapping of brain structure, function and connectivity.

This scientific foundation also supports translational collaboration. With Remepy—an independent therapeutics company co-founded by Prof. Amedi—the institute investigates neuroplasticity and brain–immune mechanisms relevant to Hybrid Drugs. Partnerships with other laboratories, hospitals and companies—including brain.space and Woojer—help us test new measurement tools, multisensory products and research approaches beyond the boundaries of a traditional lab.

Multisensory research

A 97-speaker Ambisonic Room for immersive studies of sound, touch, vision and movement.

Advanced neuroimaging

Research supported by the Ruth and Meir Rosental Brain Imaging Center at Reichman University.

Translational neuroscience

Research with Remepy connects mechanisms of neuroplasticity with the science behind Hybrid Drugs™.

A collaborative network

Partnerships with academic labs, clinicians and technology companies expand what we can study and build.

Industry collaboration

Remepy

Remepy is an industry-defining private therapeutics company pioneering Hybrid Drugs™—a new treatment category that combines pharmaceuticals with targeted digital interventions. The company conducts research in collaboration with the Baruch Ivcher Institute, and Prof. Amir Amedi is a co-founder and its Chief Scientific Officer.

Remepy

About Remepy

Redefining medicine through Hybrid Drugs™

Remepy is pioneering a new category of therapy by combining pharmaceuticals with targeted digital interventions. Its mission is to deliver more personalized, adaptive and effective care—helping patients heal through the unified power of biology, behavior and technology.

Remepy recently raised $36 million in Series A funding as it prepares its AI-driven Parkinson’s treatment for Phase III clinical development.

The company brings together scientists, technologists, physicians and creators around the belief that the future of medicine is multidimensional. Its Hybrid Drugs integrate traditional medication with evidence-based, app-delivered digital protocols designed to complement pharmacological treatment and improve clinical outcomes.

Research conducted with the institute draws on neuroplasticity, multisensory integration, brain imaging and brain–immune mechanisms. Prof. Amedi contributes to this work as Remepy’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer while continuing to lead the Baruch Ivcher Institute.

Visit Remepy

Media & Highlights

See, hear and share the lab’s work

A showcase hub for featured talks, interviews, podcasts, coverage, public initiatives, news, a press kit and the lab’s social channels.

לגעת במוזיקה: הפיתוח שעוזר לשקם נפגעי טראומה של 7 באוקטובר

Touching Music: a multisensory approach to trauma rehabilitation

KAN News visits the lab’s audio-tactile work and its use in supporting people affected by trauma.

Watch on YouTube

Transcript coming soon

TEDxJerusalem

Seeing with the Ears, Hands and Bionic Eyes

Prof. Amir Amedi explains how sensory substitution reveals the brain’s remarkable capacity to reorganize.

Watch on YouTube Read the transcript

העתיד כבר כאן — עונה 2, פרק 1

Engineering the Senses

How the human brain adapts to sensory loss and learns to use information from other senses to compensate.

Watch on YouTube

Transcript coming soon

Facilities

Spaces built for multisensory and imaging research

Two complementary facilities enable immersive behavioral experiments and advanced mapping of brain structure, function and connectivity.

Immersive research

Multisensory Ambisonic Room

Our cube-shaped research space features 97 line-array speakers and a professional sound studio with 12th-order ambisonic setup, delivering 360-degree immersive audio.

Capabilities include full-motion capturing, binaural recording, physiological monitoring (heart rate, GSR, breathing), and synchronized light projection.

We use this facility to study multisensory integration—vision, audition, touch, and movement—with concurrent fMRI brain imaging and spatial sound processing.

Watch full video →

Transcript coming soon

Advanced neuroimaging

The Ruth and Meir Rosental Brain Imaging Center

The Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology is based at Reichman University and works with the Ruth and Meir Rosental Brain Imaging Center at Reichman University. The center provides state-of-the-art neuroimaging capabilities, including high-resolution fMRI and advanced brain-mapping methods, supporting research on plasticity, sensory processing and multisensory integration.

Watch video →

Transcript coming soon

Technologies

From brain science to new senses

The lab turns its research on how the brain processes the senses into technologies that convey sight, space, sound and temperature through other senses.

EyeMusic

A visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution device for blind people that conveys both shape and colour. The EyeMusic turns images into musical notes on a pentatonic scale played by natural instruments, so the sound is pleasant to listen to for long periods. Blind participants learned to extract basic shape and colour information after as little as two to three hours of training.

Topo-Speech

A sensory-substitution algorithm that combines sound with spoken language to give blind and visually impaired people spatial information. It sweeps a scene, names each object in a spoken word and, at the same time, conveys where the object is through features of the sound, such as the time at which it is heard.

ThermalSense

A visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution system that conveys thermal information, which is otherwise invisible, through auditory cues. In a proof-of-concept study, participants recognised and localised thermal information with high accuracy after a short training period: an ‘extended sense’ beyond the natural range of vision.

TouchingSpace360

A touch-motion algorithm that conveys the location and movement of sounds in 3D space as vibrations on the fingertips. People learned quickly to localise moving sources through touch alone, a skill not acquired during development or evolution, and combined touch with hearing in background noise. The technology was developed further with an ERC Proof of Concept grant.

Audio-tactile system

A multisensory setup that delivers speech or music through hearing and, at the same time, as vibrations on the fingertips. After a short training session, it produced large improvements in understanding speech in background noise. A music version, optimised for haptics, increased positive mood and reduced state anxiety compared with listening alone.

Partnerships

Expanding research through technology partnerships

We collaborate with companies whose tools make new types of brain measurement and multisensory research possible, while sharing scientific insight that can help guide future product development.

A participant wearing the brain.space Brain Sensei dry EEG headgear
brain.space

High-density dry EEG research

We are conducting research with brain.space using its Brain Sensei headgear—a portable system with 115 dry EEG sensors and automated sensor calibration—to collect high-resolution brain data in flexible experimental settings.

Woojer products in the Amedi Lab multisensory research room
Woojer

Audio-tactile technology and R&D

Our partnership with Woojer uses wearable haptic products in multisensory research. Findings from the lab also support product research and development, creating a practical exchange between neuroscience and immersive audio-tactile technology.

Visit Woojer

Publications

Research with lasting impact

A curated selection spanning research conducted with Remepy, multisensory music, digital medicine and foundational work on human neuroplasticity, and the complete list of publications.

Publications
174
Citations
12,295
h-index
48

Source: OpenAlex, updated 27 September 2026. OpenAlex figures are usually lower than Google Scholar's; see the Google Scholar profile for Scholar's figures.

2026

Neural correlates of Parkinson’s improvements after combined digital-levodopa therapy: a pilot study

Brain Communications

Links improvements following combined digital and levodopa therapy with changes in thalamocortical connectivity.

2026

Local and global microstructural and functional thalamomotor connectivity alterations in Parkinson’s disease following motor learning

npj Parkinson’s Disease

Examines structural and functional changes in thalamomotor pathways after learning in Parkinson’s disease.

2025

Mobile application leads to psychological improvement and correlated neuroimmune function change in subjective cognitive decline

npj Digital Medicine

A randomized study connecting a mobile intervention with psychological improvement and neuroimmune change.

2025

Brain connectivity correlates of the impact of a digital intervention for individuals with subjective cognitive decline on depression and IL-18

Scientific Reports

A pilot study of brain-connectivity, depressive-symptom and immune-marker changes following a digital intervention.

2024

Perceptual learning and neural correlates of virtual navigation in subjective cognitive decline: A pilot study

iScience

Investigates learning and neural change during virtual navigation in people with subjective cognitive decline.

2025

Feeling the music: exploring emotional effects of auditory-tactile musical experiences

Frontiers in Virtual Reality

Tests how synchronized vibrotactile feedback can strengthen positive mood and reduce state anxiety during music.

2026

Digital neuroplasticity modulation of the brain-immune axis: Translational strategies for neurodegenerative, psychiatric, and aging-related conditions

Neural Regeneration Research

A translational framework for using digital interventions to engage neuroplastic and brain-immune mechanisms.

2005

The plastic human brain cortex

Annual Review of Neuroscience

A landmark review of the mechanisms, opportunities and clinical implications of human cortical plasticity.

Recognition

Awards, grants and patents

Prizes, competitive research grants and fellowships awarded to Prof. Amir Amedi, and the patents that carry the lab’s research towards real-world use.

Awards and grants, newest first
YearAward or grant
2023

ERC Proof of Concept Grant: TouchingSpace360

European Research Council

Grant 101123434 · Source

2021

Horizon 2020 grant: GuestXR

European Union

Grant 101017884 · Source

2017

ERC Consolidator Grant: NovelExperiSENSE

European Research Council

Grant 773121 · Source

2015

Genius 100 Visionary

Genius 100 Foundation

2013

ERC Starting Grant: BRAINVISIONREHAB

European Research Council

Grant 310809 · Source

2011

Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research

Wolf Foundation

Source

2011

Scholar Award in Understanding Human Cognition

James S. McDonnell Foundation

Grant 220020284

2011

Prof. Jacob Matzner Young Investigator Award

Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University

2010

Sieratzki-Korczyn Prize for Advances in Neuroscience

Tel Aviv University

2010

Avraham Shalmon Teva Founders Award

Teva

2009

Career Development Award

Human Frontier Science Program

2004

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Human Frontier Science Program

Our Team

Prof. Amir Amedi

Prof. Amir Amedi

Founding Director

Daphna Israeli

Daphna Israeli

Lab Manager & PhD Student

Ofek Salama

Ofek Salama

Doctoral Student & Researcher

Avital Radosher

Avital Radosher

Doctoral Student & Researcher

Ohad Haviv Buck

Ohad Haviv Buck

Research Lead & Lab Management

Ido Levi

Ido Levi

PhD Student

Yossi Elimelech

Yossi Elimelech

Researcher

Neta Scop

Neta Scop

Research Lead

Alumni

Get in Touch

Reichman University campus

Contact Information