Shima is a graduate research assistant (MASc.) at Biomedical Healthy Aging Lab. She joined the Lab in September 2021 to work on a multimodal approach for investigating motor skill learning (MSL) induced plasticity in the human brain. In this study, the relationship between MSL, spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity, and glutamate (the main excitatory transmitter in the central nervous system) activity is assessed across at least one sleep-wake cycle. Accordingly, we acquire bimodal EEG-MRS and EEG-fMRI data to establish regional relationships between glutamate concentrations as captured by MRS and changes in neural activity as captured by EEG and fMRI.
Shima is responsible for data acquisition as a protocol coordinator and data analysis of EEG-MRS where she will quantify the temporal dynamics of cortical glutamate associated with sleep-dependent consolidation of newly acquired motor memories during the first night of sleep following MSL, so as to correlate glutamate dynamics to whole-brain network dynamics across sleep stages.
Previously, Shima had 3.5 years of experience in the medical industry as a Clinical Application and Sales Specialist where she had the responsibility to introduce and demonstrate the ultrasound machines of Mindray to radiologists in different hospitals and imaging clinics in numerous cities of Iran.
She completed her B.Sc. in Science and Research Branch of Azad University in the field of Biomedical Engineering with a background in Bio-signal Processing.
