Embedded Files
Perception and Cognition (PAC) Lab focuses on normal and pathological cognitive mechanisms that govern our behavior. We use digital and extended reality interfaces to simulate physical reality and associated conditions and ask participants to perform tasks using a given virtual interface. We engage with young adults between 18-35 years and use cross-sectional and longitudinal experimental designs. We examine qualitative and quantitative responses using survey, interview, behavioral, psychophysical, eye-tracking, and physiological methods.
For example, we investigate the role of emerging technologies like extended reality in shaping our perception, cognition, and action; the relationship between embodied experience in extended reality and perception and construction of reality; how VR can enable us to experience self and emotion; how depression and associated comorbidities are related to concept coding; the relation between depression and cognitive functions; the association between auto-immune diseases and cognitive, social, and psychological health; the role of modality in concept formation and creative production; or how user interface design or mental model influences user's action/ responses to name few.
Please refer to specific projects to learn more.
RECENT NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS
Congratulations to VR & Depression research group, especially Rohan Lahane, a CSD-MS student, whose work has been accepted for oral presentation with full paper at the Cognitive Science Society Conference, 2025 : https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-2025/. Rohan collaborated with Vivek R and Pruhdvi Pulapa to complete this work. Congratulations to all three of them 👏 You can find more details in the FEEL Project . Titled: What Do Head Scans Reveal About Depression:? Insights from 360-degree Psychomotor Assessment.
Congratulations to Adithya Jain, a CSD-MS student, whose work has been accepted for the poster with abstract at the Cognitive Science Society Cofnerence, 2025: https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-2025/. You can find more details of his work under FEEL Project . Titled: Psychological Flexibility and Coping Strategies Influence Well-Being: The Mediating Role of COVID-19 Related Stressors During the Second Wave Among Indian Students. 👏
Priyanka Srivastava, PI, delivered an invited talk, titled, What Do Head Scans Reveal About Depression? Insights from VR 3600 Psychomotor Assessment. at 76th Annual National Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society (ANCIPS) 2025, 22-25 January, 2025.
Priyanka Srivastava, PI, co-lead a session on art and science titled The multiverse of the Eye, at the Hyderabad Literary Festival, 2025. She collaborated with vision scientist, Dr. Shrikanth Bharadwaj from LVPEI (https://www.lvpei.org/about-us/our-team/research/shrikant-bharadwaj) and two artists, Priyanka Aelay and Sameera Maruvada to explore rich interdiscplinary dialgoues through the lenses of Art, Vision Science, and Psychology, and Emotion. https://www.hydlitfest.org/ .
Warm wishes and congratulations to PAC members Nishanth Arcot and Pragya Singhal on receiving their MS degree during the 2024 Convocation 👏
Pragya's research presented first study on understanding cognitive and psychological health issues associated with Lupus diesease in Indian patients. We have successfully completed phase I.
Additionally, Manas Kabre has submitted his thesis in July 2024.
PAC team had a visitor, Prof. Greg Seigle, Pittsburg University, to discuss their research on depression and emotion.
Current Projects
Current Projects
Figure: Comparative VR 3600 exploration of pleasant [(a), (e)] and unpleasant [(d), (h)] affective video experiences. The video names with their indices are as follows: (a) “Getting licked by a cow in Ireland (26)”, (e) “Tahiti Surf (70)”, (d) “Abandoned City (3)”, and (h) ”Zombie Apocalypse Horror (21)”. (b), (f), (c) & (g): Corresponding 3D region-wise plots of VR head-movement data while exploring VR 360° videos by normal healthy participants (blue = region 1, yellow = region 2, green = region 3, red = region 4).
FEEL Project aims to understand the relationship between emotion-attention-and-depression and develop a unifying model for cognition and depression. We use multiple modalities, like digital and VR technologies, smart watches or physiological sensors, and eye-tracking to analyse and identify depression proneness or risk for depression. We use the bio-psycho-social model (NIMH, US) of mental health assessment, treatment, and research perspectives.
Digital Health Screening project aims to develop a ‘cognitive and psychological screening battery’ to screen cognitive and psychological health. Currently, we are using some digital tests to characterize direct and indirect impact of COVID on individual psychological and cognitive wellbeing; and to characterize social, psychological, and cognitive dysfunctions associated with autoimmune diseases like systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus). (See right for example)
Enhance Vision project aimed to evaluate the effect of virtual 360-degree display designs on constructing as real as possible local area and local situational awareness around the remote unmanned vehicle or robot.
The project had two major goals:
1.Evaluate the effect of 360-degree display designs on constructing remote local area awareness - funded by CSRI, DST.
2.Assess Soldiers’ Cognitive and Ergonomic Profile and develop intervention protocols for effective training to use the optimal 360-degree user-interface- funded by INMAS, DRDO.
Creative Cognition investigates the relation between intelligence, abstraction, and creative thinking. The projects focus on role of abstract thinking, mental representation, mental flexibility, concept coding, and attention in creative thinking. Currently, the ongoing projects aim to understand the role of modality in concept formation, abstraction, and creative thinking; role of attention flexibility on creative reasoning; and role of cognitive strategies on creative reasoning.
Funding details
VR Diagnostics and Monitoring Measures for Depression (as PI). CSRI, DST, India. (submitted, under review).
COVID19 Impact on Cognitive and Psychological health (as PI). Department of Science and Technology, Technology Innovation Hub, (DST-TIH/IHUB data ) IIIT H. (sanctioned 23.28) Co-PIs - Vishnu Sreekumar, CogSci, Manda Lab, IIITH
AI-charya: An Intelligent, Interactive, Multilingual & Personal Tutor (as Co-PI) (approved for 8.00 as Seed grant) , Kohli Grand Challenges, IIIT-H . PI - Manish Shrivastava, LTRC lab, IIITH, and CoPIs - Venkatesh Choppella, SERC; and Girish Varma, CSTAR, IIITH.
VR Systems for health care. (as Co-PI), Kohli Grand Challenges, IIITH. (approved for 8.00 as Seed grant) PI - Raghu Reddy, SERC lab, IITH; and Azeemuddin Syed, VLSI and Embedded Systems, IIITH.
Impact of COVID19 on Indian Students (as PI). DST-TIH/IHUB data. (sanctioned 56.00 k to support data collection)
Effect of Depressive Thoughts on Affective experience and Coding (as PI). DST-TIH/IHUB data (14.36 k to support experiment platform)
MHRD -VLab, in colloboration Prof. Chopella, SERC, IIIT H, enabled purchase of EYE-Link 1000 Plus. (Sanactioned 25.00)
Desktop 360-degree User Interface: Spatial Understanding (as PI). DST-CSRI. (sanctioned 17.22)
Cognitive and Ergonomic Perspective on Assessment of 3600 local area awareness and local situation awareness (as PI). CARS, INMAS, DRDO. (sanctioned 23.00)
Seed Grant, IIIT H.
Google Sites
Report abuse