About

The Memory and Neurodynamics (MANDA) Lab, part of the Cognitive Science group at the Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems (KCIS), IIIT Hyderabad, studies how humans organize, represent, and remember experience over time and how these processes arise from dynamic neural activity in the brain.

Our work starts from a simple observation: experience is continuous, but memory is structured. We investigate how this transformation occurs through temporal context and event segmentation, asking how ongoing experience is parsed into meaningful units that can be stored and retrieved. To do this, we combine naturalistic paradigms—such as lifelogging, narratives, and egocentric real-world videos—with controlled behavioral and neurocognitive experiments, linking memory in everyday life with memory under experimental conditions.

A central theme of the lab is that memory is not an intrinsic property of stimuli. Instead, what is remembered depends on the interaction between task demands, context, and the individual. Our work has helped revisit assumptions about “intrinsic memorability,” showing that memorability is shaped by the structure of the task as well as cultural and linguistic factors.

At the neural level, we study how such context-dependent memory emerges from brain dynamics. We investigate the neurodynamics of cognition—how neural activity evolves, propagates, and coordinates across space and time—using both invasive and non-invasive recordings. A key goal is to understand how large-scale dynamics, including propagating activity and traveling waves, support memory, learning, and neuronal communication.

We also pursue applied research, developing CBT-based interventions for sleep and memory-support tools for individuals with cognitive impairment (e.g., MCI).

Across all projects, the lab integrates computational, behavioral, and neural approaches to build a mechanistic understanding of human memory and learning.