People

Priyanka Chakraborty (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
Contact: priya.chakraborty18@gmail.com

Priyanka completed her bachelor’s in Mathematics and master’s in Applied Mathematics. She has done her PhD in Applied Mathematics from Calcutta University. During her PhD she has collected and worked on EEG signals of ADHD children. Neuroscience fascinated her more hence she wanted to steer her future research in computational neuroscience. She has experience in nonlinear dynamical systems. Currently, she is working on a whole brain computational model. She intent to work on anatomical dependencies on excitatory and inhibitory balance after a lesion. Travel is her another passion.  She wants to make tons of  memories all over the world. She loves to cook and explore new and exotic dishes. And music has forever been her constant companion.

PhD students

Bhabna Bajpei (Ph.D. student)
Contact: bhavna.1@iitj.ac.in 

Bhavna completed her B.Tech (Information Technology) from Uttar Pradesh Technical University, & completed my  M.Tech from Central University of Punjab (Department of Computer Science & Technology, Specialization in Cyber Security). I have work experience as a Project Intern from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Jabalpur. Currently, she is pursuing Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur (Department of Computer Science & Engineering). My area of interest is Cognitive Neuroscience (Theory of Mind). The “Theory of mind” network consists of cognitive subnetworks like the precuneus, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe, combined with affective subnetworks like the frontal lobe. The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is the heart of the Theory of mind that plays a role in processing socially relevant information. My interest is to do research in brain regions that are associated with the Theory of mind.

Abhishek Narvaria (Ph.D. student)
Contact: abhishek.b17@nbrc.ac.in 

Abhishek completed his master’s degree from CBCS Allahabad University.  Currently, he is working on behavioral experiments to study the relationship between top-down attention and working memory. In particular, he is interested in the theory of divergence and convergence zones in the brain. His longterm interest is to understand the neural dynamics to uncover the role of attention in memory in the human brain using EEG and fMRI.

Azman Akhtar (Integrated Ph.D. student )
Contact: azman.b17@nbrc.ac.in 

Azman did BSc in Zoology from Aligarh Muslim University. He continued to do PhD after MSc in Neuroscience from NBRC itself. Currently, he is interested in understanding the neural correlates of reading in different orthographies by multiliterates and the underlying anatomical characteristics. He is taking the help of the unique culture of North Indians to read and write two distinctly different orthographies, Hindi and Urdu, for the same language, Hindustani. His longterm interest is to understand the neural dynamics of language processing in the brain using EEG/fMRI in bilingual population.

Gargi Majumdar (Integrated Ph.D. student )
Contact:  gargib18@nbrc.ac.in

How do emotions play in our mind? Is it the puppeteer driving and directing us in most social scenarios or the other way around? These pressing questions led Gargi into the world of neuroscience after she finished her Master’s in Zoology. Ever curious about this enigmatic trait – emotions, she was amazed to find that even after all these years there exists no unanimous definition of emotion. Driven by her quest to study neuroscience of complex emotions, she is into investigating how suspense is played in human brain in the context of predictions. She is currently making people watch movies to study their emotions and looking into fMRI signals for the underlying cause. While not getting into other people’s head she can be found staring at the sky, chasing after birds or lost in the mountains.

Vinsea AV Singh (Ph.D. student)
Contact: vinseab18@nbrc.ac.in

Perception causes interaction among the neural entities. In my master’s dissertation work, I have analyzed the pre-stimulus neural oscillations to explain the inter-individual and inter-trial variability in perception among the participants subjected to the McGurk illusion (incongruent visual and auditory syllables perceived as a completely different syllable). More precisely, I have studied the differences in the pre-stimulus electrophysiological (EEG) data between the ‘rare’ and ‘frequent’ group of perceivers of the McGurk effect. I have computed the power spectrum, global coherence, and FOOOF (Fitting Oscillations and One Over Frequency) to study the cortical dynamics in the pre-stimulus EEG signals of the participants, that were subjected to both the incongruent (McGurk- audio-/pa/, video-/ka/) and congruent (syllables /pa/, /ta/, and /ka/) AV-stimulus. The results show that there is indeed a difference in the neuronal dynamics of the two groups, suggesting that multi-sensory processing relies on different brain regions and that these regions have distinct developmental trajectories leading to a difference in the degree of perception at the individual level.

Ankit Yadav (Ph.D. student)
Contact: yadavankit99@gmail.com

Ankit studied zoology in his bachelor’s and master’s. Thalamocortical interactions are of a particular interest to him. Since thalamus acts as an integration/segregation hub for different functional networks, he wants to understand how thalamus participates in interactions among multiple functional networks during task conditions. Apart from research, he likes to play chess.