Sumitash Jana is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Cognitive Science programme in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He joined the department in September, 2021. His research interest lies in studying the brain mechanisms that mediate self-control, i.e. how we control our movements, thoughts, and actions.
Contact Information
Research Areas
His research broadly focuses on understanding the brain mechanism that mediate self-control. Self-control is our ability to focus on our tasks and goals despite environmental interruptions (e.g., choosing to keep reading despite notifications on your phone) but also flexibly change our goals when the need arises (e.g. choosing to pick up the phone when there is an important call). His research uses behavioral studies, brain imaging (e.g., electroencephalography) and brain stimulation (e.g., transcranial magnetic stimulation) methods to investigate self-control.
His current research goals include understanding the impact of mind-wandering and mediation on self-control in both healthy and clinical populations, and studying self-control in more-realistic scenarios using virtual reality.
Academic Background
B.Sc. Physiology (Presidency College, Kolkata)
2005-2008
M.Sc. Biophysics, Molecular Biology & Genetics (Calcutta University, Kolkata)
2008-2010
Ph.D. in Neuroscience (Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
Advisor: Prof. Aditya Murthy
2010-2017
Post-doctoral research in Cognitive Neuroscience (Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego)
Advisor: Prof. Adam R. Aron
2017-2021
Publications
Does action-stopping involve separate pause and cancel processes? A view from premotor cortex
R Hannah, S Jana, V Muralidharan (Cortex; in press)
Mind-wandering impedes response inhibition by affecting the triggering of the inhibitory process
S Jana, AR Aron (Psychological Sciences; in press) PsyArxiv
Double blind disruption of right inferior frontal cortex with TMS erodes right frontal beta power for action-stopping
KK Sundby, S Jana , AR Aron J Neurophysiol 125: 140–153, 2021
Computational mechanisms mediating inhibitory control of coordinated eye-hand movements
S Jana*, A Gopal*, A Murthy Brain Sci. 2021, 11(5), 607
* Equal contributions
Temporal cascade of frontal, motor and muscle processes underlying human action-stopping
S Jana*, R Hannah*, V Muralidharan, AR Aron eLife 2020; 9:e50371
* Equal contributions
Spatiotemporal coupling between eye and hand trajectories during curved hand movements
S Jana, A Murthy J of Motor Behavior, 53:1, 47-58
Disentangling the role of posterior parietal cortex in response inhibition
R Hannah, S Jana J Neurosci 39 (35): 6814-6816
A novel fiber Bragg grating system for eye tracking
S. Umesh, S.Pant, S Padma, S Jana, V Vasudevan, A Murthy, S Asokan J. Adv. Res. 6: 25-34
Task context determines whether common or separate inhibitory signals underlie the control of eye-hand movements
S Jana, A Murthy J Neurophysiol 120: 1695-1711
Contrasting speed accuracy trade-offs for eye and hand movements reveal the optimal nature of saccade kinematics
A Gopal*, S Jana*, A Murthy J Neurophysiol 118: 1664–1676
* Equal contributions
A Computational Framework for Understanding Eye-Hand Coordination
S Jana*, A Gopal*, A Murthy J. Indian Inst. Sci. 97(4): 543-554
* Equal contributions
Evidence of common and separate accumulators underlying flexible eye-hand coordination
S Jana, A Gopal, A Murthy J Neurophysiol 117: 348–364
Exploration of joint redundancy but not task space variability facilitates supervised motor learning
P Singh, S Jana, A Ghoshal, A Murthy PNAS 112: 14414–14419
Conferences
Combining Imaging and TMS for targeted modulation of frontal and motor brain networks
Speaker at Neuromodulation conference, 2020
Unexpected sounds facilitate attentional shifts: Testing a model of stopping-induced interruption of cognition
Speaker at YKavli meeting at Kavli Institute of Brain & Mind, 2018
Successfully stopping a movement has global motor effects as evident in a pause of tonic EMG of an irrelevant effector
Poster at Neural Control of Movement conference in Santa Fe, USA in 2018 See poster
Successfully stopping a movement has global motor effects as evident in a pause of tonic EMG of a task-unrelated effector
Speaker at YKavli meeting at Kavli Institute of Brain & Mind, 2018
EMG signatures of response inhibition in the task-unrelated and task-related muscles
Poster at SfN Neuroscience conference in San Diego, USA in 2018 See poster
Flexible architecture of eye-hand coordination
Speaker at Bioengineering Department, IISc in 2016
Eye-Hand coordination in visual search
Speaker at 2nd Annual Conference in Cognitive Science, IIT Kanpur in 2015
Eye-Hand Coordination in visual search
Poster at SfN Neuroscience conference in Chicago, USA in 2015 See poster