Dr Saurabh Sonkusare University positionResearch Associate DepartmentsResearch ThemesInterestsI have primarily been trained and worked as a medical doctor (MBBS) with a subsequent PhD in Neurosciences from QIMR Berghofer/The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. I utilise neuroimaging (LFPs, fMRI) and neuromodulation tools (TMS) to understand the functioning of key brain regions, their interactions as well as meso/macroscale brain dynamics. I also specialise in psychophysiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance) and especially facial thermal imaging having developed methods for its analyses. Together these two streams of research form the basis for my investigations on emotions, brain-body communication and interoception. Currently, I am working in the Voon Lab on projects leveraging the unique advantages afforded by LFPs acquired with various task paradigms probing addiction and affect related brain circuits. Research Focus
EquipmentBehavioural analysis Computational modelling Field potential recording Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Psychophysiological measures (including facial thermal imaging) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Collaborators
Associated News ItemsPublications2020Sonkusare, S., Nguyen, V.T., Moran, R.J., van der Meer, J.N., Ren, Y., Koussis, N., Dionisio, S., Breakspear, M. and Guo, C., (2020), “Intracranial-EEG evidence for medial temporal pole driving amygdala activity induced by multi-modal emotional stimuli” Cortex van der Meer, J. N., Breakspear, M., Chang, L. J., Sonkusare, S., & Cocchi, L. (2020), “ Movie viewing elicits rich and reliable brain state dynamics” Nature Communications 2019Sonkusare, S., Ahmedt-Aristizabal, D., Aburn, M.J., Nguyen, V.T., Pang, T., Frydman, S., Denman, S., Fookes, C., Breakspear, M. and Guo, C.C. (2019), “Detecting facial temperature induced by a sudden auditory stimulus based on deep learning-assisted face tracking” Scientific reports Sonkusare, S., Breakspear, M., & Guo, C. (2019), “Naturalistic stimuli in neuroscience: Critically acclaimed” Trends in cognitive sciences, 23(8), 699-714. 2018Ren, Y., Nguyen, V.T., Sonkusare, S., Lv, J., Pang, T., Guo, L., Eickhoff, S.B., Breakspear, M. and Guo, C.C (2018), “Effective connectivity of the anterior hippocampus predicts recollection confidence during natural memory retrieval” Nature Communications 2015Davey, J., Cornelissen, P.L., Thompson, H.E., Sonkusare, S., Hallam, G., Smallwood, J. and Jefferies, E. (2015), “Automatic and controlled semantic retrieval: TMS reveals distinct contributions of posterior middle temporal gyrus and angular gyrus” Journal of Neuroscience 35(46), pp.15230-15239 |