Martin M. Monti, Ph.D.
Home / Martin M. Monti, Ph.D.
Martin M. Monti, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Martin Monti is a Cognitive Neuroscientist and Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Neurosurgery at UCLA. His research focuses on the scientific study of consciousness — including both “subjectivity,” that is, the inner light that allows one to have conscious experiences, and “phenomenal character,” that is, the different character of different experiences. My work, which spans many different methods (e.g., behavioral, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Electroencephalography, brain stimulation) and analytical approaches (e.g., standard inferential approaches, machine learning, AI) includes studying cases where consciousness vanishes, as in general anesthesia and disorders of consciousness (e.g., Coma, Vegetative State), as well as studies of different states of consciousness (e.g., out of body experiences).
Undergraduate
Universita’ L. Bocconi (Milan, Italy) (Laurea in Economics)
Graduate
Princeton University (Ph.D. in Psychology & Neuroscience)
Representative Publications
Lee-Youngzie, Z., Tsuchiya, N., Robinson, M., Dietz, D., & Monti, M. M. (2026). Towards a mathematical structure of global phenomenal consciousness. Entropy, 28(6), 615.
Toker, D., Zheng, Z. S., Thum, J. A., Guang, J., Annen, J., Miyamoto, H., … & Monti, M. M. (2026). Adversarial AI reveals mechanisms and treatments for disorders of consciousness. Nature neuroscience, 1-14.
Frohlich, J., Chiang, J. N., Mediano, P. A., Nespeca, M., Saravanapandian, V., Toker, D., … & Monti, M. M. (2022). Neural complexity is a common denominator of human consciousness across diverse regimes of cortical dynamics. Communications biology, 5(1), 1374.
Frohlich, J., Toker, D., & Monti, M. M. (2021). Consciousness among delta waves: a paradox? Brain, 144(8), 2257-2277.
Skills
Your ideal research study
Right now we are trying to study the relationship between certain neural biomarkers and the character of different experience.
What drew you to consciousness
Through the years, my scientific interest has always been about the core aspects of what makes us “us”.
Hobbies
I am an FAA-licensed commercial pilot, I love playing tennis, and I spend an inordinate amount of time listening to science podcasts (typically about physics, astronomy, archaeology, and linguistics).