Welcome!

I'm a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Davis with a Ph.D. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University.

I investigate the neural mechanisms of cognitive control, attention, and emotion with a focus on interventional and clinical approaches. I apply EEG, fMRI, TMS, behavioral, and computational methods to my research. I aim to translate this work to improve clinical outcomes, digital mental health, and diagnostic accuracy. I strive to provide an excellent education for students in conjunction with my research, as a research mentor, teaching assistant, and lecturer.

After my postdoctoral position, I plan to compete for a faculty position at a research university.


Education

Postdoctoral Scholar

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Advisor: Dr. Manpreet Singh
University of California, Davis 		2025 – present

Ph.D.

Psychological and Brain Sciences
Advisors: Dr. Susan Courtney & Dr. Howard Egeth
Johns Hopkins University 		2020 – 2025

Master of Arts

Psychological and Brain Sciences
Advisors: Dr. Susan Courtney & Dr. Howard Egeth
Johns Hopkins University
2020 – 2022

Bachelor of Sciences

Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
University of California, Davis
2014 – 2018

Publications

Singh, M., Khodayari, N., Patino, L. R., DelBello, M. P.. (under review) Neuroimaging predictors of Placebo Response in Depressed or Anxious Youth with a Family history of bipolar disorder.
Bae, S., Khanna, M., Khodayari, N., Singh, A., Brachini, J., Lesh, T., Marder, K., Kahn, D., Bourgeois, J., Onate, J., Singh, M. K.. (under review) Accelerated iTBS for adolescent depression with high risk for suicide: an open label pilot trial protocol.
Singh, M., Bohon, C., Jo, B., Foland-Ross, L., Glover, G., Branchini, J., Khodayari, N., Rasgon, N.. (under review) Measuring Obesity and Mood Effects on Neurobehaviors ThroUgh Maturation (MOMENTUM) Protocol.
Khodayari, N., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M. (in press) Not Simply Two Sides of the Same Coin: Target Enhancement and Distractor Suppression Draw on Independent Neural Mechanisms.
Trammel, T., Khodayari, N., Traxler, M. J., Luck, S., Swaab, Y. T., (in progress). Decoding Semantic Content from EEG.
Trammel, T., Khodayari, N., Traxler, M. J., Luck, S., Swaab, Y. T., (2023) Decoding semantic relatedness and prediction from EEG: A classification method comparison. NeuroImage, 120268. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120268
Noah S., Powell T., Khodayari, N., Olivan D., Ding M., Mangun G. R., (2020) Neural Mechanisms of Attentional Control for Objects: Decoding EEG Alpha when Anticipating Faces, Scenes, and Tools. Journal of Neuroscience 40(25) 4913-4924. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2685-19.2020
Bengson, J. J., Liu, Y., Khodayari, N., & Mangun, G. R., (2020) Gating by inhibition during top-down control of willed attention. Cognitive Neuroscience, 11(1-2), 60–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2019.1648405

Posters

Bae, S., Khanna, M., Khodayari, N., Singh, A., Brachini, J., Lesh, T., Marder, K., Kahn, D., Bourgeois, J., Onate, J., Singh, M. K.. (2026) Accelerated iTBS for high-risk adolescent depression: preliminary findings from an open label pilot study. Clinical TMS Society conference.
Khodayari, N.*, Brachini, J.*, Patron, D., Kokhanova, A., Singh, M. K.. (2026) Insulin Resistance Severity Moderates Left Nucleus Accumbens Effect on Change in Healthy Food-Seeking Behavior Over 6-Months in Obese Depressed Youth. UCDSOM Medical Research Forum [2nd place poster award]. * shared co-authorship
Khodayari, N., Khanna, M., Brachini, J., Patron, D., Keith, M., Singh, M. K.. (2026) Structural Trajectories of the Nucleus Accumbens in Youth with Depression during Puberty. UCD Imaging Research Center Symposium.
Khodayari, N.*, Bae, S.*, Khanna, M.*, Singh, A., Zhao, M., Hayer, R.S., Patron, D., Lesh, T., Singh, M. K.. (2026) Accelerated TMS for High-Risk Adolescent Depression: preliminary findings from an open label pilot study. UCD Imaging Research Center Symposium. * shared co-authorship
Khodayari, N., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M.. (2025) Target Enhancement Is Not Simply One Process: Different Factors for Explicit Cueing Effects and Statistical Learning Effects on Attention. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference.
Seewald, J., Khodayari, N., Nadra, J., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M.. (2025) Alpha Lateralization from Distractors: Suppression-Specific and Domain-General. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference.
Khodayari, N., Patterson, A., Li, A., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M. (2024) Explicit Cueing Effects on Attention are Stable Across Days; Experience-Based Effects Are Not. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference.
Khodayari, N.*, Allen, N.*, Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M. (2024) Online vs. In-Person: Environment Familiarity Affects Experience-Based and Task-Related Selective Attention Differently. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference. *shared co-authorship.
Khodayari, N., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M. (2023) Evidence for Separable Mechanisms Underlying Enhancement Versus Suppression Using Individual Differences. Society for Neuroscience conference.
Khodayari, N., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M. (2023) Reliability of Individual Differences Measures of Target Enhancement and Distractor Suppression. Vision Science Society conference.
Khodayari, N., Egeth, E. H., Courtney, S. M. (2022) Reliability of Individual Differences Measures of Target Enhancement and Distractor Suppression. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference.
Trammel, T., Khodayari, N., Traxler, M. J., Swaab, Y. T. (2022) Comparing support vector machines, discriminant function analysis, and random forest for classifying semantic prediction. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference.
Trammel, T., Khodayari, N., Traxler, M. J., Swaab, Y. T. (2020) Decoding Semantic Content from EEG. Cognitive Neuroscience Society virtual conference.
Noah S., Powell T., Khodayari, N., Olivan D., Ding M., Mangun G. R. (2020) Neural Mechanisms of Attention to Objects. Cognitive Neuroscience Society virtual conference.
Noah S., Powell T., Khodayari, N., Olivan D., Ding M., Mangun G. R. (2019) Anticipatory object-based attention modulates EEG alpha activity. Vision Science Society conference.
Noah S., Powell T., Khodayari, N., Olivan D., Ding M., Mangun G. R. (2019) Object-based attention modulates EEG alpha activity. Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference.
Noah S., Powell T., Khodayari, N., Olivan D., Mangun G. R. (2018) Object attention modulates alpha band activity. Annual Mind and Brain Poster Day, Center for Mind and Brain, UC Davis.

Grants and Awards

Mary D. Ainsworth Research Award 2025
FoVea Travel and Networking Award 2023
Walter L. Clark Teaching Award - Johns Hopkins University 2023

Outreach

JHU Science Gong Show 2023
Baltimore City USA Brain Bee Speaker 2025
JHU EEG Training Bootcamp 2025
UC Davis Neurotech Club Panel Speaker 2025

Media

Los Angeles Times; Influencers want to adopt the ‘analog lifestyle’ for 2026. Here’s how to join them 2026
Los Angeles Times; Interview without feature; Living like it’s the 2000s 2026

Teaching

Lecturer

AS.200.215 The Mind and Brain: Introduction to Cognition, Attention, and Memory - Johns Hopkins University Summer 2025
AS.200.137 Eletrophysiology (EEG) Methods in Laboratory Research - Johns Hopkins University Intersession 2024
AS.200.137 Methods in Laboratory Research - Johns Hopkins University Intersession 2023
PSC 182 Methods in Laboratory Research - UC Davis Spring 2023

Teaching Assistant

AS.200.133 Introduction to Social Psychology - Johns Hopkins University Spring 2023
AS.200.200 Research Methods in Psychology (Advanced TAship) - Johns Hopkins University Fall 2022
AS.200.344 Behavioral Endocrinology - Johns Hopkins University Spring 2022
AS.200.380 Neurobiology of Human Cognition - Johns Hopkins University Fall 2021

Reviewer

Visual Cognition 2024
Psychological Review 2025
NeuroImage 2026

Contact

Email: nkhodayari [at] ucdavis (dot) edu

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