When I was studying medicine in Iran I became interested in systems neuroscience, especially how the interaction of neural populations gives rise to perception, cognition, and goal directed behavior. In parallel to my medical studies, I pursued my interest by getting involved in building the first primate electrophysiology lab in the country and studying the neural representation of object categories in the ventral visual pathway. Following this challenging and successful experience, I spent 8 years studying the neural mechanisms of perceptual decision-making, first as a Ph.D. student in Mike Shadlen’s lab at the University of Washington and then as a post-doctoral fellow in Bill Newsome’s lab at Stanford. My current research at NYU focuses on how the brain combines various sources of information to commit to a choice, to assign a sense of certainty to the choice, and to update behavioral strategies in a complex environment.
Current Projects:
Neural computations for visual form processing and form-based cognition
Neural mechanisms of context dependent cognitive behavior
Past Project:
Hidden states and functional subdivisions of fronto-parietal network