Thanh Tran Academic Background Research Experience Books Blog

Thanh Tran

Contact: thanh@thethanhtran.com

I am a first year Master's student in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Trento. I’m passionate about understanding how the brain makes sense of the world, and I’m currently exploring research at the intersection of neuroscience, functional imaging, computational tools, and data analysis.
Current book: Improving Your Statistical Inferences and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.

MY CV



Study

When I say I study Psychology, people think I study fortune telling or reading others' minds. My casual conversation: do you know why in a picture with flash at night our eyes are red while a cat's eyes glow? Because our choroid is black and has veins, and a cat's tapetum is reflective.

The moment that sparked my research interest was during a Cognition class, where we analyzed conflicting eyewitness testimonies from the tragic case of Mike Brown’s killing. The stark differences in perception raised compelling questions about how implicit biases, attention, and prior knowledge shape what we see. This led me to explore the neural mechanisms of visual attention and perception, particularly through the lens of predictive coding—how the brain uses expectations to interpret sensory input. I’m especially interested in using neuroimaging and data analysis to investigate how these internal models influence perception and vary across individuals.