Research Topics
Dr. Chudasama has a longstanding interest in functional neuroanatomy and in elucidating the brain mechanisms underlying executive control. Her laboratory investigates the neural circuits that enable organisms to regulate their decisions, memories, and actions. These cognitive functions are fundamental to adaptive behavior and frequently disrupted in psychiatric disorders. A central goal of her research is to establish causal relationships between specific brain circuits and complex behavior using sophisticated behavioral and circuit-level approaches.
More recently, Dr. Chudasama's research program has expanded to examine the intersection between executive function, socioemotional regulation, and brain development. This work asks how neural systems supporting cognitive control interact with those governing emotional and social behavior, and how these interconnected systems emerge and mature over development. The laboratory is particularly interested in whether perturbations of developing circuits during sensitive periods can alter the trajectory of cognitive and social maturation and produce persistent changes in behavior.
Current studies investigate distributed networks of forebrain and midbrain structures that not only support complex executive behavior but also contribute to the emergence and regulation of normal social behavior. By examining these circuits across development, the laboratory seeks to understand how changes in circuit organization and function give rise to increasingly sophisticated cognitive and socioemotional capacities, and how disruption of these processes may create vulnerability to dysfunction later in life.
Dr. Chudasama’s laboratory integrates behavioral neuroscience, neuroanatomy, psychopharmacology, viral circuit approaches, and molecular and genetic methods to interrogate these questions at multiple levels. Although grounded in fundamental neuroscience, the work maintains a strong translational perspective, with the goal of identifying circuit mechanisms that can inform our understanding of cognitive and socioemotional dysfunction in mental disorders. Together, these studies seek to reveal not only how brain circuits control complex behavior, but how those circuits are shaped during development to support executive control, emotional regulation, and social behavior.
Biography
Yogita Chudasama is Chief of the Section on Behavioral Neuroscience and Director of the Rodent Behavioral Core. Dr. Chudasama received her B.Sc. (Hons) in Applied Psychology in 1991 and her Ph.D. in 1995, both from Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Her doctoral research, conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Janice Muir, examined prefrontal and thalamic contributions to learning, memory, and attention.
From 1998 to 2002, Dr. Chudasama completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge, UK, with Professor Trevor Robbins, where she investigated the psychopharmacological mechanisms underlying prefrontal cognitive function. She subsequently joined the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at NIMH as a postdoctoral fellow (2003–2006) with Dr. Elisabeth Murray, examining the contributions of the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe to cognition and emotion.
In 2007, Dr. Chudasama was recruited to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology and established the Laboratory of Brain and Behavior. In November 2015, she joined the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she leads the Section on Behavioral Neuroscience.
Selected Publications
Messanvi F, Visocky V, Senneca C, Berkun K, Taori M, Bradley SP, Wang H, Tejeda HA, Chudasama Y (2026). Galanin receptor 1 expressing neurons in hippocampal-prefrontal circuitry modulate goal directed attention and impulse control. Neuropsychopharmacology 51, 1442-1453. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-026-02360-y. [Pubmed Link ]
Nagarajan G, Matrov D, Pearson AC, Yen CC, Bradley SP, Chudasama Y (2025). Cingulate cortex shapes early postnatal development of social vocalizations. Elife 13. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.97125. [Pubmed Link ]
Drazan TM, Bradley SP, Jones AM, Allen-Worthington KH, Chudasama Y (2025). Improving Reproductive Success in Captive Marmosets Through Active Female Choice. Am J Primatol 87, e23689. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23689. [Pubmed Link ]
Visocky V, Turner CJ, Lowrie MH, Alibro A, Messanvi F, Chudasama Y (2025). Noradrenergic modulation of stress induced catecholamine release: Opposing influence of FG7142 and yohimbine. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 138, 111314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2025.111314. [Pubmed Link ]
Harkins HE, Christopher K, Matrov D, Ingram ID, Saglio EB, Dold GR, Chudasama Y (2026) Home-cage pharmacology in marmosets: behavioral effects of scopolamine. Psychopharmacology (Berl), in press (e-pub ahead of print) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-026-07054-3. [Pubmed Link ]
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