News
August 30, 2023
Listen to Dr. Basak’s interview on her research on physical fitness and its impact on aging brain and cognition. It aired on radio 1080 KLRD.
August 24, 2023
Our lab publication on physical activity and cardiorespiratory function as modifiers of aging brain activations is being covered by UTD Today. The study is co-authored by Paulina Skolasinska, Dr. Shuo Qin and Dr. Chandramallika Basak.
August 2. 2023
Our meta-analyses on impact of videogame interventions on varieties of cognition, and how it is influenced by game features (and not so much by genre), is now published in PLOS ONE. Please read and cite this exciting, comprehensive quantitative review!
*Smith, E.T. & Basak, C. (2023). A game-factors approach to cognitive benefits from video-game training: A meta-analysis. PLOS ONE 18(8): e0285925.
July 19, 2023
Congratulations to Micaela Andreo, whose grant proposal to Friends of BrainHealth ’23 has been selected as one of the three finalists. We wish her all the best with the final competition that will be held in October!
July 10, 2023
Dr. Basak has been selected to attend UTD’s 2-month long CometX Accelerator program to help start her new start-up, Neu OptiMIND LLC. Cheers to new learning and technological innovations for aging brains and minds!
June 30, 2023
Dr. Basak presented at the AAC&U and HK-Dir led workshop for the Norwegian panorama VE/COIL project in Bergen, Norway. She attended this workshop with Dr. Cirulli-Lanham, who is on the administrator track for the project.
May 22, 2023
Dr. Basak won the first prize at the Big Idea Competition, 2023, hosted by UT Dallas Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This prize money will allow Dr. Basak to start up her company on bringing technology-based solutions to optimizing mind and brain. Dr. Basak has also been selected in Start-up Accelerator program hosted by UT Dallas for summer 2023. See article
May 3, 2023
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Basak has been awarded a grant from the AWARE Fund of The Dallas Foundation. This grant (Mobile fNIRS system to assess brain activity; PI: Chandramallika Basak), will allow Dr. Basak to buy an fNIRS system for her research in order to assess brain-physiology during learning and cognition in a diverse group of older adults, including those with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
April 19, 2023
Dr. Basak is teaming up with faculty in Norway and Japan via a Virtual Exchange (VE) program sponsored by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). See the UT Dallas News Center story for more information.
April 4, 2023
Paulina Skolasinska, Shuo Qin and Chandramallika Basak’s article on the “Influence of Strenuous Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Fitness on Age-Related Differences in Brain Activations During Varieties of Cognitive Control” has been accepted for publication in Neuroscience.
April 3, 2023
We have big news to share! Dr. Basak’s proposal for Big Idea Competition, called OptiMIND, has been selected as one of the 10 finalists. These 10 teams that have made it to the final event in UT Dallas’ business idea pitch competition will compete for $170,000 in cash and scholarship prizes. The competition is hosted by the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, of Naveen Jindal School of Management. See more information about the finalists.
March 30, 2023
Dr. Basak and her course on “Adult Development and Aging”, which is taught to undergraduates of UT Dallas, was recently selected to be part of a global initiative sponsored by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. View the AAC&U press release.
Specifically, Chandramallika Basak in BBS is part of the UT Dallas team along with Dr. Carole Lanham-Cirulli, Jennifer Hilton Montero and Darren Crone. We will be collaborating with Kansai University (Japan) and University of Oslo (Norway) on this virtual exchange approach to teaching.
March 8, 2023
Dr. Basak and Dr. Lanham of CTL had submitted an application to the Norwegian Panorama Virtual Exchange/COIL Partnership Initiative. In this application (Ageing in the 21st Century: A cross-cultural exploration), we proposed Dr. Basak’s undergraduate course on Adult Development and Aging have a Virtual Exchange component with professors in Japan and Norway. We are pleased to announce that this proposal has been accepted. Starting fall 2023, Dr. Basak’s course will include a cross-cultural perspective on aging with students being able to work on team projects with students in Japan and Norway.
March 4, 2023
Dr. Basak and her colleagues received NIH/NIA funding for a multi-site grant (R44 AG047722-07). This collaborative grant is between Posit Science Corp. (PI: Lee), UT Dallas (co-investigator: Basak) and U of Iowa (co-investigator: Voss) for $2,619,051. The major goal of this 3-year Phase IIB clinical trial is to study the immediate and long-term effects of PAC-R cognitive training on healthy older adults’ cognition, brain structure, brain functions, and plasma-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease.
February 27, 2023
Basak lab had a wonderful DACC 2023 where five posters from the lab and two talks (one by Dr. Basak and another by Dr. Voss) were presented that highlighted our research.
December 8, 2022
Dr. Basak is invited to give a research talk at the University of Geneva, Switzerland on Dec 8th.
October 30, 2022
Congrats to Abdul Ayam Malik for being selected into the 2023 Green Fellows Research Program at UTSW. Abdul is an undergraduate student in Basak’s LiNC lab.
October 18, 2022
Dr. Basak’s talk at Psychonomics 2022 @ Boston was well-received. She presented findings from a recently completed meta-analysis on whether executive function training changes fMRI activations. The co-authors are Rahul Rajesh (UTD Graduate student), John Moorman (UTD Graduate student), Milan Basak-Odisio (High school student at School for Talented and Gifted, DISD), Vaishnavi Moturi (High School student at Centennial, FISD) and Farhan Ali (UTD Undergraduate).
July 1, 2022
Dr. Nicholas R. Ray, who completed his PhD under Dr. Basak, is starting on a new position as a post-doctoral research scientist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center!
June 22, 2022
Dr. Basak was interviewed by Dallas Morning News on her thoughts on singing as a potential source of joy for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Article link (subscription required)
May 18, 2022
Dr. Qin and Dr. Basak’s research, titled “Fitness and arterial stiffness in healthy aging: modifiable cardiovascular risk factors contribute to altered default mode network patterns during executive function” has been accepted for publication at Neuropsychologia.
February 23, 2022
Dr. Basak is invited to present at ATEC Dean’s Colloquium Series on Feb 25, 2022. Title of the presentation is “Cognitive and Brain Plasticity from the BirdWatch Game: Results from a Phase I Clinical Trial”.
January 28, 2022
We will present two posters, one first-authored by Paulina Skolasinska and the other by Hulon Sherard, at the Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta (7-10 Apr).
January 28, 2022
We will be presenting two neuroimaging research papers at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s annual meeting at San Francisco (23-26 April).
October 9, 2021
Join Dr. Basak at 2:00 pm for an online event on BACK TO SCHOOL. This event is hosted by 2 student-led organizations (MannMukti and Breaking the Stigma), where Dr. Basak will be talking about mental health issues and psychological challenges faced by students of South Asian origin.
September 27, 2021
Paulina Skolasinska, MA, of Dr. Basak’s LiNC lab, received the 2021 Visionary Scientist Award from Friends of BrainHealth. With this generous award, Paulina and Dr. Basak (faculty mentor and sponsor) will conduct research on the efficacy of a novel behavioral intervention in older adults that will combine meditation with executive function training, and assess the impact of such training on large-scale brain networks engaged during rest and cognitive tasks.
September 1, 2021
Dr. Basak is invited by Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), Calcutta Chapter to speak at their “Know Dementia, Know Alzheimer’s” conference.
August 20, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Evan T. Smith for successfully defending his dissertation. He is moving to a coveted post-doctoral position in UT Dallas.
June 29, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Nicholas R. Ray for successfully defending his dissertation.
June 16, 2021
Evan Smith (first author) and Dr. Basak (corresponding author and PI) co-authored an article on chess expertise and visuo-spatial short-term memory in the journal, Memory and Cognition.
April 22, 2021
Dr. Basak’s manuscript on Chess Expertise and Visuo-Spatial Working Memory has been accepted for publication by Memory and Cognition. We are grateful to Jim Stallings of UT Dallas’ Chess Club and participants of this study. Email Dr. Basak about any queries on this paper, which is titled, “Are the Advantages of Chess Expertise on Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Capacity Domain Specific or Domain General?”
April 9, 2021
Evan Smith successfully defended his dissertation proposal today, titled “Cognitive and brain reserve as predictors of a working memory-based video game training: individual-level influences of learning and transfer”. Congratulations to Evan!
April 9, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Qin and Dr. Basak on their latest manuscript being accepted for peer-reviewed publication at the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. The manuscript is titled, “Comparing the effects of two cardiovascular health factors on working memory capacity in healthy aging: separate and combined effects of arterial elasticity and physical fitness.”
February 25, 2021
Paulina gave an excellent talk at UTD’s Psychology Lecture Series titled “Influence of Fitness on Age-Related Differences in Varieties of Cognitive Control: BOLD Modulations During Predictability, Switching, and Updating”.
October 30, 2020
Brain Imaging Links Cardiovascular Health to Multitasking Ability (UT Dallas News Center)
January 4, 2020
Dr. Basak was a guest on stand-up comedian Shane Mauss’ Stand Up Science show on Jan. 4 in Dallas. She talked about the science of cognitive enhancement in the elderly through cognitive training in a stand-up style to a packed house. “Funnier and more provocative than TED Talks, while smarter than traditional stand-up comedy, Stand Up Science combines the best of both worlds,” said Shane Mauss.
August 15, 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Shuo Qin for successfully defending her dissertation thesis, titled “The effects of cardiovascular health on tasks of executive functions and related brain activation in healthy older adults.”
July 26, 2019
Dr. Basak has received a grant from AWARE Fund (PDF, section in red). The title of this grant is ’Optimizing Neuro-cognitive Functions in Healthy Living’, and it will partially support funding for a post-doctoral research fellow to work in Dr. Basak’s lab on how the neurocognitive functions in older adults can be enhanced through a study of the role of physical fitness and cognitive training.
March 26, 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Chandramallika Basak for being selected the Chair of Intervention Prevention Special Interest Group (SIG), sponsored by APA Division 20s Early Career Task Force. In addition to this position, Dr. Basak is also co-chairing Technology and Aging SIG with Dr. Theodore Cosco.
February 6, 2019
Shuo Qin defended her dissertation proposal. She is now a doctoral candidate. Congratulations Shuo!
December 7, 2018
Dr. Basak is invited to give a talk at the Department of Psychology and Special Education at Texas A & M University Commerce, Commerce, TX. The talk is titled, “Aging Brain and its Plasticity”.
November 16, 2018
Dr. Basak will be presenting at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in New Orleans, Louisiana. She will speak on the topic — Are the Advantages of Chess Expertise on Visuo-spatial Working Memory Capacity Domain Specific or Domain General?
November 6, 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Margaret O’Connell for successfully defending her dissertation. Margaret O’Connell, a doctoral student of Dr. Basak, successfully defended her dissertation today, an important step to obtain her PhD from The University of Texas at Dallas. She is the first doctoral student of Dr. Basak, and therefore, the first PhD from the Basak lab. We are thrilled with Dr. O’Connell’s success!
October 27, 2018
Congratulations to Shuo Qin for receiving a travel award, for which she was nominated by Dr. Basak, to attend the NatureJobs Career Expo to be held in Houston, TX.
September 7, 2018
Dr. Basak and Evan Smith will be giving a presentation each on the LiNC lab’s research at the Dallas Austin Area Memory Meeting, Baylor University, Waco, TX. Evan will be presenting results from his first-year project, titled, “Cognitive and gray matter volume predictors of learning of two types of video-games in older adults”. Dr. Basak will be giving a talk on age-related differences in the attentional networks as evidenced by functional neuroimaging during working memory updating.
August 28, 2018
LiNC lab welcomes Paulina Skolsinska, a new PhD student in the cognition and neuroscience program. Paulina did her master’s in psychology from The University of Warsaw, and has an interest in cognitive neuroscience of the aging brain, especially how cognitive and physical training affect it. She likes to ride her longboard, looking for new places to eat in her spare time.
October 3, 2017
Genre may impact cognitive training using video games (Science Daily)
March 31, 2017
Video games: The Bad, the Ugly, and the (Potentially) Good (American Association for the Advancement of Science — AAAS — Science)
March 22, 2017
Strategy-Based Video Games May Improve Older Adults’ Brain Function (American Association for the Advancement of Science — AAAS)
March 21, 2017
STEM Mentoring Program for Women Grows with AT&T Support (UT Dallas News Center)
March 10, 2017
Cognitive Benefits of Chess (Chess Base)
March 3, 2017
Cognitive Benefits of Learning to Play Chess and Other Strategy Games (lecture by Dr. Basak – YouTube)
September 29, 2016
Professor Basak Receives Grants from Alzheimer’s Research Fund (UT Dallas News Center)
April 14, 2016
Mentoring Program Helps Kids Design Brain-Controlled Wheelchair (UT Dallas News Center)
March 29, 2016
Study Finds Training With Unpredictability Improves Memory Recall (UT Dallas News Center)
March 4, 2016
Psychology Professor: Cognitive Training Can Improve Brain Preservation (The Shorthorn)
September 19, 2014
Graduate Student Wins Funding for Research on Exercise, Memory (UT Dallas News Center)