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Research Technician
Palee Abeyta graduated from University College London in 2017 with a Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and received her Bachelor’s in Psychology in 2013 from the University of North Texas. During her master’s studies Palee conducted fMRI research on self-esteem and neural activation in response to social rejection and is eager to continue working in neuroimaging and brain research. Palee will assist with the ongoing Human Cognition EEG study, the ECoG study, and the micro-ECoG studies. In her free time she enjoys hiking, baking, and traveling.
Email: paylee dot abeytaat duke dot edu
Palee Abeyta, MS

Resident
Dr. Shervin Rahimpour's operative interests include all fields of neurosurgery with a focus on stereotactic and functional neurosurgery. His research interests involve deep brain stimulation, electrocorticography, neuro-innovation and entrepreneurship.
Email: shervin dot rahimpour at duke dot edu
Shervin Rahimpour, MD
OUR LAB MEMBERS

Gregory Cogan, PhD
Principal Investigator
Dr. Gregory B. Cogan obtained his Bachelors in Psychology at Queen’s University, Canada, followed by his masters in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He completed his PhD in 2011 at the University of Maryland, College Park under the supervision of David Poeppel, where he examined the neural phase coding of speech using information theoretic approaches and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Dr. Cogan then carried out his postdoctoral work at the Center for Neuroscience at New York University (CNS - NYU) with Bijan Pesaran examining speech sensory-motor transformations using electrocorticography (ECoG). This was followed by a postdoctoral position in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Duke University with Jon Viventi to establish a human cognition research program using high density/high channel count electrode arrays. Since 2017, Dr. Cogan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, as well as a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. Since 2019, he is the Director of Research for the newly formed Duke Comprehensive Epilepsy Center (DCEC).
CV
Email: gregory dot cogan at duke dot edu

Kumar Duraivel, MS
Graduate Student
Kumar is a Ph.D. student in the department of Biomedical Engineering and is co-advised by Dr. Jonathan Viventi and Dr. Gregory Cogan. He received his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering (instrumentation concentration) from Anna University, India in 2015 and his Masters in Biomedical Engineering (neural engineering concentration) from the University of Michigan in 2016. Kumar’s research in Dr. Cogan’s lab involves decoding acoustic features from the human auditory system using high-density micro-ECoG electrodes.
Outside lab, Kumar likes to hike and try out new restaurants in the triangle area.
Email: suseendrakumar dot duraivel at duke dot edu

Aidan Rogers
Masters Student
Aidan graduated Duke University in 2021 with a Masters in Biomedical Engineering (concentrating in Neural Engineering) and received a B.S. in BME from GWU in 2019. Aidan assisted with the ongoing Human Cognition EEG study by developing a pipeline for source localization. He is especially interested in BMI medical devices and techniques for encoding and decoding neural signals. In his spare time he enjoys writing poetry and playing ultimate frisbee and soccer.
Email: aidan dot rogers at duke dot edu

Aaron Earle Richardson
Masters Student
Aaron is an MEng student in the department of biomedical engineering, and is planning on pursuing his Ph.D. He is from Oneonta, New York and has a bachelors in Bioengineering from Cornell University. He most interested in Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and hopes to use highly accurate ECoG data to develop models of the brain to a sufficient extent so that useful prosthetics or wearables can be developed. In his free time, Aaron enjoys tennis, politics, backpacking, and board games.
Email: aaron dot earlrichardson at duke dot edu

Palee Abeyta, MS
Research Technician
Palee Abeyta graduated from University College London in 2017 with a Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and received her Bachelor’s in Psychology in 2013 from the University of North Texas. During her master’s studies Palee conducted fMRI research on self-esteem and neural activation in response to social rejection and is eager to continue working in neuroimaging and brain research. Palee will assist with the ongoing Human Cognition EEG study, the ECoG study, and the micro-ECoG studies. In her free time she enjoys hiking, baking, and traveling.
Email: paylee dot abeytaat duke dot edu

Anna Thirakul-Denning
Clinical Research Coordinator
Anna Thirakul-Denning graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2014 with a degree in Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience. She has experience with collecting and analyzing electroencephalography data, and has a keen interest in brain signals and the functionality of the human brain. Anna oversees the ongoing Human Cognition EEG study, the ECoG study, and the micro-ECoG studies.
In her free time, Anna enjoys bowling and hiking with her husband, watching the Charlotte Hornets try to win, and baking delicious treats to bring into the lab.
Email: anna dot thirakul at duke dot edu
LAB ALUMNI

Seth currently works at RedHat Ansible, and still supports the Indiana Pacers.
Seth Foster

Shervin is currently faculty at the University of Utah in the department of Neurosurgery.
Shervin Rahimpour, MD
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