Project Description
Home / Members / Graduate Students / Incé Husain

RESEARCH AREAS:
Computational Neuroscience
Human Cognition
Cerebellum Brain Imaging
CONTACT:
Journalism portfolio: The Unprecedented Times
INCÉ HUSAIN
PhD Student;
Neuroscience, Western University
I am a neuroscience PhD researcher, writer, and artist. My PhD research explores the role of the human cerebellum – an enigmatic, fist-sized structure towards the back of the brain – in cognition. My interest in neuroscience emerged from my fascination with questions about free will, sentience, and qualia. I completed a BSc in Psychology-Neuroscience and a minor in math at the University of New Brunswick, where I also did research in body image and eating disorders, circadian rhythms and memory, attention and brain laterality, and computational chemistry. My writing is journalistic: I write articles on art, music, social justice, and local affairs for independent news outlets. I accompany my articles with original ink drawings, and often infuse my artwork with themes that reflect my research topics.
My PhD research explores the role of the human cerebellum – an enigmatic, fist-sized structure towards the back of the brain – in cognition. Past research has shown that the cerebellum is associated with cognitive function, such as language and memory. However, it is unclear how much of these cognitive contributions may be explained by other brain areas the cerebellum is connected with. In other words, as a broad analogy, the cerebellum may serve more so as a “relay station” for cognitive activity rather than a novel contributor to cognition. To study this, I collected brain scans from subjects who completed cognitive tasks while in a fMRI scanner. These brain scans give a measure of brain activity during cognitive tasks. I am statistically analyzing these scans to attempt to 1) identify cognition-associated brain signals in areas connected with the cerebellum; 2) determine how these areas represent cognitive information; and 3) determine how cognitive information in these areas relates to that in the cerebellum.
“Normative body image development: A longitudinal meta-analysis of mean-level change”: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36965235/
“Global geometry of chemical graph neural network representations in terms of chemical moieties”: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/dd/d3dd00200d
“Dichotic Listening with Syllables: Effects of Forced Attention” (in press – 2024): https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2024.2430964
CS1033: Multimedia and Communication (TA) – Winter 2024, Western University
CS2214: Discrete Structures for Computing (TA) – Fall 2023, Western University
PSYC2103: Quantitative Research Methods (TA) – Fall 2022, University of New Brunswick
PSYC3713: Physiological Psychology (TA) – Winter 2022, University of New Brunswick
PSYC2515: Foundations of Learning (TA) – Fall 2021, University of New Brunswick