Principal Investigator
Dr. Lisa Aziz Zadeh
Dr. Lisa Aziz-Zadeh is a Professor at the University of Southern California, in the Brain and Creativity Institute, and in the Department of Occupational Science. She studies social cognition from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, using techniques including functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
Post Doc. Fellows
Akila Kadambi
Akila Kadambi is a postdoctoral researcher studying neural correlates of the self, others, and their connection (empathy and social reasoning), emerging at the bodily/sensorimotor level. She received her PhD from UCLA in 2022. She is primarily involved in the Otherness and Belonging studies.
Benjamin Miller-Mills
Ben is a Postdoctoral Fellow aiming to better understand the relationship between subcortical sensory processing, and higher order cognition—such as embodied semantics. Ben completed his PhD in Brisbane, Australia from the University of Queensland, where he investigated auditory localization in healthy adults, as well as implicit sensorimotor adaptation to perturbed visual and auditory feedback. Ben has worked as an MRI technician at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, and has a special interest in implicit motor learning and the cerebellum.
Graduate Students
Sofronia Ringold
Sofronia is an Occupational Science PhD Student in the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Her research interests focus on Autism Spectrum Disorder, neuroscience, and the gut microbiome. Prior to beginning the PhD program she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Emergency and Transport Medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Occidental College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Biology.
Ylenia D’elia
Ylenia is an Occupational Science PhD Student in the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Her main area of research is social emotions and social interactions. She previously worked as a research assistant at the Technical University and at the Centre for Neurodegenerative Disorders (DZNE) in Dresden, Germany, for about two years. Then, she spent over a year at the University of Valencia, in Spain. Her previous projects have focused on enhancing prosocial behavior, and developing non-pharmacological interventions to impact lifestyle factors and emotions such as empathy and compassion to improve the quality of life and well-being in individuals. Her research also extends to the benefits of different meditative practices, including the development of a pictographic scale to measure its phenomenological dimensions. She is deeply passionate about research and is committed to making a meaningful impact on individuals’ lives through her work in this field.
email: ydelia@usc.edu
Graduate Research Assistants
T. R. Williamson
University of the West of England | University of Oxford
Program: PhD Linguistics
contact: t.williamson@uwe.ac.uk
Caitlin Nguyen
University of Southern California
Program: Entry-Level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (eOTD)
contact: canguyen@usc.edu
Katie Siri-Ngammuang
University of Southern California
Program: Post-Professional Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (OTD)
contact: siringam@usc.edu
Chris Tong
University of Southern California
Program: Entry-Level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (eOTD)
contact: xuegeton@usc.edu
Eszter Kovacs
University of Southern California
Program: Neuroimaging and Informatics
contact: ekovacs@usc.edu
Rachel Golbary
University of Southern California
Program: Entry-Level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (eOTD)
contact: rgolbary@usc.edu
Aniruth Sundararajan
University of Southern California
Program: Computer Science
contact: aniruths@usc.edu
Rhea Pandita
University of Southern California
Program: Computer Science
contact: pandita@usc.edu
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Natalie Putzel
University of Southern California
Biological Sciences (Biotechnology)
Myesha Mohiuddin
University of Southern California
Health and Human Sciences
contact: mmohiudd@usc.edu
Akhil Ganti
University of Southern California
Biochemistry
contact: aganti@usc.edu
Naima Ramakrishnan
University of Southern California
Neuroscience, Comparative Literature, and Screenwriting Minor
contact: naimaram@usc.edu
Elisa Liu
University of Southern California
Neuroscience, Psychology, and Occupational Science Minor
contact: elisaliu@usc.edu
Hayden Rutkowski
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Psychology, Computer Science
contact: kennedyh@unc.edu
Nālani Wooton
University of Southern California
Neuroscience
contact: nwooton@usc.edu
Lab Alumni
Nicole Caballa
Dr. Shruti Kamath
Dr. Aditya “AJ” Jayashankar
Dr. Nandita Raman
Dr. Emily Kilroy
Dr. Christiana Butera
Dr. Glenn Fox
Dr. Panthea Heydari
Dr. Vesna Gamez-Djokic
Dr. Tong Sheng
Dr. Mona Sobhani
Dr. Lei Liew
Dr. Kathleen A. Garrison
Dr. Julie Werner
Riley McGuire, OTR/L
Dr. Laura Harrison
Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
The CeNEC lab also operates under the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.
Learn more about the lab
Contact Us
Brain and Creativity Institute
3620A McClintock Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90089-2921
Center for the Neuroscience of Embodied Cognition
3620A McClintock Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90089-2921