I am a research assistant at Royan Institute working with Dr. Seyed-Mahdi Khaligh-Razavi. I have a B.Sc in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Tehran. During my bachelors, I realized that I have more questions about human behaviors and their underlying mechanisms in the brain, rather than just studying the molecular basis of neuronal function. Then I started my masters in Developmental Biology at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at Royan Institute, and did my thesis as part of a study concerning “Early diagnosis of dementia using task-based neuroimaging (fMRI), digital biomarkers and machine learning methods”.

Just Fascinated by People.

Every human being, begins with a single cell and through embryonic stages, develops different cell layers and organs, building a complete system for itself to thrive. The whole process of development is astonishing, but the amazing point is that the embryo builds a “thinking system” for itself (the “brain”), when it cannot even think!

When I was at high school , I found myself very good at understanding other people’s thoughts and feelings, predicting their behaviors under different circumstances. Then I started to playfully run some self-made experiments on my friends (without them knowing!) and comparing my predictions with their reactions and documenting them. I took a long journey from molecular biology to cognitive neuroscience, because I was fascinated by knowing how people understand each other, how do they collaborate together and how babies develop to build such understandings and collaborations.

Besides studying people’s brains, I love talking to them, do portrait photography and sometimes.. draw them!