Projects

Our current research projects are focused on themes that have engaged our neuroscience community for decades:

• How the brain enables sense of self and subjective conscious experience
  • Role of default mode network (DMN) in self-referential thought processing (including autobiographical memory and trait judgment)
  • Role of anterior precuneus (aPCu) in enabling sense of bodily self
  • Connectivity between interoceptive structures and the DMN and aPCu
     
• How different neuronal populations across the large human brain are causally connected with each other
  • Mapping causal connections in the entire human brain (including the thalamus)
  • Connectivity of the thalamus with seizure onset zones and the role of thalamus in seizure propagation
     
• How different neuronal populations across the large human brain work closely with each other to enable a human-specific task or behavior.
  • Cross regional dynamics of activity during mathematical processing
  • Cross regional dynamics of activity during memory processing
  • Cross regional dynamics of activity during face processing and social attribution from faces

Our research projects aim to address a fundamental gap of knowledge concerning the cross regional spatiotemporal dynamics of activity across specific neuronal populations in the human brain that work together (on a millisecond scale) to support human behavior and subjective experience, and what happens if such cross-regional dialogue in the brain is disrupted with electrical pulses.

Our work holds broader societal significance and implications for public health. We strive to gather novel insights into the functional organization of the human brain, enhancing our understanding of its mode of operation. This knowledge is crucial for unraveling the pathophysiology of neurological and psychiatric disorders that impair higher-level cognitive functions and pose substantial challenges for affected individuals, their families, and society as a whole.