Biography: Jyoti was born in New Delhi, India, where she resided until age 21. After completing a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Delhi University, she moved to Bangalore for a Masters’ degree at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS). At NCBS Jyoti realized that she was intrigued, enthralled and captivated by neuroscience. As she studied intracellular calcium dynamics within neurons in computational biochemical network models and in culture with fluorescence microscopy, she discovered that she was most fascinated by the neural basis of human cognition. At age 24, Jyoti arrived in the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Computational Neurobiology at UC San Diego. Under the mentorship of Dr. Steven Hillyard, with Dr. Terry Sejnowski as co-advisor, Jyoti investigated how audition and vision interact in the human brain. Specifically, her thesis focused on the sensory neural basis of visual illusions induced by sounds, investigated using Event Related Potential (ERP) recordings. Some of her most interesting findings were that audition can influence vision very early in neural processing (30-60 ms post-stimulus offset), supporting evidence for direct connectivity between the unisensory auditory and visual cortices. She found these auditory-induced visual perturbations to be modulated by attention, and to be highly variable across individuals. This inter-individual variability in cross-modal interactions triggered Jyoti’s interests in plasticity of sensory neural circuits. Continuing as a post-doc in Dr. Hillyard’s lab, Jyoti investigated how video gaming expertise in young adults can alter attention-mediated modulations of visual cortical activity. In July 2009, Jyoti moved to San Francisco as a post-doc in the Gazzaley lab.
Research Description: In our daily lives we strive to focus attention to the task at hand, in presence of many distracting stimuli: people talking, ringing phones, television/ radio etc. In most of our daily encounters distracters have both auditory and visual properties. At the Gazzalely lab, Jyoti plans to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie our ability to suppress such multisensory distraction as well as the deterioration of such abilities with age. As part of her joint position at PositScience, Jyoti plans to develop cognitive training strategies to improve and enhance attentional control amidst concurrent background noise.
Publications:
Mishra J, Martinez A, Hillyard SA. Effect of Attention on Early Cortical Processes associated with the Sound-induced Extra Flash Illusion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2009. Epub ahead of print.
Mishra J, Martinez A, Hillyard SA. Cortical Processes Underlying Sound-Induced Flash Fusion. Brain Research 1242: 102-15. 2008.
Mishra J, Hillyard SA. Endogenous attention selection during binocular rivalry at early stages of visual processing. Vision Research 49: 1073-80. 2008.
Bonath B,Noesselt T, Martinez A, Mishra J, Schwiecker K, Heinze H, Hillyard SA. Neural basis of the Ventriloquist illusion. Current Biology 17: 1-7. 2007.
Mishra J, Martinez A, Sejnowski TJ, Hillyard SA. Early cross-modal interactions in auditory and visual cortex underlie a sound-induced visual illusion. Journal of Neuroscience 27: 4120-4131. 2007.
Mishra J, Fellous JM, and Sejnowski TJ. Selective attention through phase relationship of excitatory and inhibitory input synchrony in a model cortical neuron. Neural Networks 19: 1329-46. 2006.
Mishra J, and Bhalla US. Simulations of Inositol Phosphate Metabolism and its Interaction with InsP3 mediated Calcium Release. Biophysical Journal 83: 1298-1316. 2002.
Sivakumaran S, Hariharaputran S, Mishra J, and Bhalla US. The Database of Quantitative Cellular Signaling: management and analysis of chemical kinetic models of signaling networks. Bioinformatics 19: 408-415. 2003.
Kothekar V, Sahi S, Srinivasan M, Mohan A, and Mishra J. Recognition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) active site by NSAIDs: a computer modeling study. Indian Journal of Biochemistry & Biophysics 38: 56-63. 2001.
Kothekar V, Sahi S, and Mishra J. Molecular dynamics simulation of the interaction of 5-keto substituted 7-tert-butyl-2,3-dihydro-3,3-dimethylbenzofuran derivatives with cyclooxygenase-2. Current Science 80: 764-770. 2001.
Kothekar V, Sahi S, and Mishra J. Enzyme selectivity of new cyclooxygenase-2/5 lipoxygenase inhibitors using molecular modeling approach. Indian Journal of Biochemistry & Biophysics 37: 86-96. 2000.
