Mariya Toneva is a faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, where she leads the Bridging AI and Neuroscience (BrAIN) group. Her research bridges natural language processing, machine learning and cognitive neuroscience to develop computational models that deepen our understanding of how the brain processes language and guide the creation of more human-aligned AI systems. Her pioneering work at this intersection has been recognized and supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the German Research Foundation and the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant.
Mariya Toneva
Faculty member
Max Planck Institute for Software Systems
From this contributor
Transforming AI models into useful model organisms
By
Mariya Toneva
22 June 2026 | 6 min read
Selected articles
- “Improving semantic understanding in speech language models via brain-tuning” | arXiv
- “Interpreting and improving natural-language processing (in machines) with natural language-processing (in the brain)” | NeurIPS
- “Combining computational controls with natural text reveals aspects of meaning composition” | Nature Computational Science
- “Joint processing of linguistic properties in brains and language models” | NeurIPS
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