Priyamvada Modak

Those of our waking moments that most significantly shape our lives are when we make decisions. Decisions are at the core of economic activity, criminal activity, voting, and environmental impact. What are the neural mechanisms that govern this process? Can we use neurostimulation to better align our decisions with objective goals or prevent maladaptive decision-making?

Hi, I am Priyamvada Modak (but I will respond to 'Priya' as well! - pronounced pre-yaa), and I am interested in studying how humans make decisions and how the experiences of control arise.

I currently approach these questions through cognitive neuroscience methods including neuroimaging, neurostimulation, innovative experiment design, and cognitive modeling. I use several statistical methods including general linear modeling, nonlinear regression, and machine learning to squeeze out the insights from the data.

You can find more in my CV and publications here.

You can also find my research philosophy here, where I share the story of how and why my motivations for research have evolved.

I came to cognitive neuroscience through an interdisciplinary background spanning biological engineering, developmental biology, bioinformatics, and quantitative systems pharmacology. This taught me the value of making scientific findings accessible to everyone, which is why I often engage in science communication by writing posts for my own blog. I have also written posts for other platforms, such as SciU (IU’s student blog) and Your Say (PLOS ONE’s blog).

For the same reason, I like to discuss research from first principles, using technical terminology only when necessary. Technical terms can be valuable because they compress complex ideas into fewer words, but they can also conceal assumptions, create ambiguity, and exclude people who do not share the same vocabulary.

Please feel free to reach out to me at priyamvadamodak95@gmail.com for discussions regarding my research or yours!

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