Bio
Maira Karan is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and a Pathyways to Neuroscience trainee through the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. Her doctoral research focused on how positive human behaviors, such as empathy and prosociality, develop during the period of adolescence and how the adolescent brain and body mature in concert to support these other-oriented behaviors. Her research has utilized behavioral experiments, validated questionnaires, ecological momentary assessments, longitudinal assessments, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Another line of her work examines how sleep affects adolescent health and well-being with a special focus on circadian rhythms. At Stanford, she is working on merging her two lines of research to assess how sleep and circadian timing influence adolescent behaviors and health. In addition to conducting research, she has a deep passion for uplifting underrepresented individuals in(to) the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and she has a Certificate in Critical Consciousness & Anti-Oppressive Practices.
