BCS Graduate Students and Postdocs

Email: bazarjan@usc.edu
Advisor: Piray
Research Interests: My research focuses on how the brain creates flexible and general representations of the world. Currently, I am investigating the principles behind the brain’s construction of a “cognitive map,” particularly the interplay between various specialized cell types in the hippocampal-entorhinal system. This includes place cells in the hippocampus, as well as grid cells, object-vector cells, and border cells in the entorhinal cortex. I aim to understand how these neural components work together to create—or potentially emerge from—a comprehensive cognitive map that represents not only spatial information but also object relationships and environmental boundaries. I approach this problem by combining ideas from reinforcement learning, control theory, Bayesian probability theory, and theoretical neuroscience.

Email: bokhanov@usc.edu
Advisor: Mintz
Research Interests: Olesia’s research interests are in exploring cognitive abilities across human development. She is specifically interested in language acquisition, comprehension, and production, as well as neighboring topics of language learning and memory. My current research explores how very young children make use of language categories.

Email: neshatda@usc.edu
Advisors: Monterosso/Bechara
Research Interests: Neshat is interested in language development and its impact on psychosocial and emotional development in young children.

Email: hennesss@usc.edu
Advisors: A. Damasio/Habibi
Research Interests:The role of music in human development across the lifespan, including the impact of music on emotion, cognition, and physiology.

Email:herschel@usc.edu
Advisors: Damasio/Habibi/Kaplan
Research Interests: Ellen is interested in the intersection of neuroscience and the arts. Areas of interest include embodied cognition, creative improvisation, rhythm, synchrony, and music as they relate to neuroplasticity and cognition in childhood development, older adults, and disease populations. She graduated with a BA in Theatre and an BS in Neuroscience from Muhlenberg College.

Email:kassaie@usc.edu
Advisors: Monterosso/Coricelli  
Research Interests: He is interested in the neurocognitive processes involved in human motivation and decision making, and the contextual factors that influence them. He uses neuroimaging, physiological measurements, and computational modeling to tackle issues of interest in the field of Neuroeconomics. Milad is currently working with Dr. John Monterosso, studying the patterns of neural and physiological activity associated with different types of value discounting under varied physical/cognitive loads. He is also collaborating with Dr. Giorgio Coricelli to develop and test biologically plausible models of context-dependent reinforcement learning from reward and punishment, using fMRI and computational modeling.

Email: xliu5899@usc.edu
Advisor: Read
Research Interests: Subtyping of reward processes in treatment-resistant depression and substance use disorders.

Email: lulla@usc.edu
Advisors: Antonio Damasio & Jonas Kaplan
Research Interests: The influence of emotions on decision-making, specifically within a moral context.

Email: chaodanl@usc.edu
Advisor: Read
Research Interests: I would like to develop theoretical framework or computational models to analyze and simulate human emotions and social interactions. Then I would extend research to the design of artificial intelligence models, investigating AI-driven emotional responses and social dynamics. I also would like to utilize Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology for the treatment of mental health disorders such as depression.

Email: cbmcdani@usc.edu
Advisors: A. Damasio/Kaplan/Habibi
Research Interests: Colin’s esearch interests include the cognitive and neural mechanisms of problem solving, creativity and music cognition, as well as their overlap with other cognitive processes such as mental imagery, mathematical reasoning and language.

Email: minjungw@usc.edu
Advisors: A. Damasio/Kaplan/Habibi
Research Interests: How emotion interacts with cognition and how the interaction varies across different developmental stages; how activity in the autonomic nervous system relates to emotional processing; research methods measuring emotion, cognition, and physiological processes.

Email: cxpan@usc.edu
Advisor: Kaplan
Research Interests: Neural representations of structure and meaning of stories; how strangers become friends; naturalistic stimuli and machine learning methods

Email: nperaza@usc.edu
Advisor: Monterosso

Email: agvaccar@usc.edu
Advisor: Damasio
Research Interests: Affective Neuroscience, Consciousness, Decision-making.

Email: shuningw@usc.edu
Advisor: Monterosso
Research Interests: Self-control, addiction, motivation, decision-making, behavioral economics.

Email: mengxuan@usc.edu
Advisor: Kaplan
Research Interests: Naturalistic fMRI, narrative processing, predictive processing, and affective neuroscience.

Email: sherryzh@usc.edu
Advisor: Green
Research Interests: Sherry’s main research interests are in visual perception, attention, and short-term memory. Her current research focuses on exploring the limits of rapidly shown visual stimuli and how the messages can be encoded and understood by the rest of the brain. Sherry works with Dr. Ernest Greene.