Studying about Emotion, Pain and Stress

We are working day and night to elucidate neural mechanisms underlying emotion, memory and social interaction in mammals including us humans. We are especially interested in understanding how the sensory information is processed and integrated into emotional behavior. Our primary target is the limbic system which includes the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus and the prefrontal cortex, areas known to be crucial for in cognition, emotion, and memory formation. Recently the area of our interest is expanding to less explored regions in the brain as well. We believe our research is vital to understand the pathology of neuronal disorders including autism, schizophrenia and dementia.

The other important research area of our interest is the mechanisms of pain and developing effective methods for pain relief as well as mental stress. We are currently carrying out projects utilizing electroencephalogram (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in human subjects to reach this goal.