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Dr. Bhaktee Dongaonkar

Dr. Bhaktee Dongaonkar has joined Cognitive Science (CogSci)  as an Assistant Professor. She obtained her Ph.D from University of Arizona, USA. Her research areas are stress, depression, ageing, cognitive impairment, memory, decision making, creativity.

Dr. Bhaktee Dongaonkar studies the effects of stress, depression, and degeneration on learning and memory processes in humans. Her work so far has focused on understanding how memory updating processes are affected by stress and depression. She is also working on identifying predictors of cognitive decline in aging in the Indian population. She also collaborates with the Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (Bangalore) to scientifically evaluate the nootropic role of Brahmi Ghrita (ghee) in individuals with mild cognitive impairment. At IIITH, Dr. Bhaktee is keen to collaborate with students and faculty to develop tools (app or online platforms) to detect cognitive impairment in the Indian population. She is also interested in exploring how decision making and creativity is affected in stress and depression.

Dr. Bhaktee completed her bachelors in Electronics Engineering from the University of Pune. Her curiosity to study the human mind and brain led her to study Cognitive Science for her M.Sc at the Center for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad. She then did her Ph.D in Cognition and Neural Systems at the University of Arizona under the supervision of Prof. Lynn Nadel. Subsequently, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Sumantra Chattarji at the National Center for Biological Sciences (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) in Bangalore. Prior to joining IIITH, she was an Assistant Professor at FLAME University in Pune.