Expertise

Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology, Neuromodulatory Systems, Circuit Plasticity, Attention, Executive Functions, Aging, Cognition Therapeutics

Biography

Vinay Parikh, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Cognition and Neuroscience area of the Department of Psychology at Temple University. Additionally, he holds an affiliated faculty appointment in the Center for Substance Abuse Research at Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Dr. Parikh also serves as the Director of the Neuroscience Program of the College of Liberal Arts, and in this role, he provides strategic leadership, direction, and guidance for all educational and professional activities in the program. 

Dr. Parikh’s research interests broadly focus on neuromodulation of cognition in health and disease. His work has elucidated the contributions of forebrain cholinergic and glutamatergic signaling pathways in modulating distinct component processes of attention and executive functions. In addition, Dr. Parikh’s group discovered the role of neurotrophins as critical regulators of circuit adaptations and cognitive control, particularly in the context of aging/Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and nicotine addiction. Current research in his laboratory is focused on understanding how environmental and modifiable life-style factors (e.g. stress, substance use, mental stimulation) influence brain network dynamics and cognitive trajectories during developmental transitions and aging. These investigations aim to uncover synaptic and circuit-level neurochemical mechanisms that underlie risk and resilience to cognitive decline in later life, and to develop novel pharmacological and non-invasive neuromodulation strategies to enhance behavioral health and mitigate cognitive neuropathologies. Dr. Parikh’s research integrates basic neuroscience with translational perspectives, leveraging both preclinical models and human subjects to bridge mechanistic insights with clinical relevance.

Dr. Parikh earned PhD in Life Sciences/Pharmacology from Punjabi University (India), following which he worked at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. where he held the position of Group Leader in the New Drug Discovery Program. He relocated to the United States in 2001 and joined the Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, GA) as a postdoctoral fellow to obtain training in Neurochemistry/Psychopharmacology. He integrated perspectives of Systems and Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience into his research by acquiring further postdoctoral training from the Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), respectively. 

Curriculum Vitae | Website

Selected Publications

• Duggan MR, Steinberg Z, Peterson T, Francois T-J, Parikh V. Cognitive trajectories in longitudinally trained 3xTg-AD mice. Physiology and Behavior 2024; 275: 114435.
• Knox D, Parikh V. Basal forebrain cholinergic systems as circuits through which traumatic stress disrupts emotional memory regulation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 2024; 159: 105569.
• Kniffin A, Bangasser DA, Parikh V. Septohippocampal cholinergic system at the intersection of stress and cognition: New insights and translational implications. European Journal of Neuroscience 2024; 59: 2155-2180.
• Carmon H, Haley EC, Parikh V, Tronson NC, Sarter, M. Neuro-immune modulation of cholinergic signaling in an addiction vulnerability trait. eNeuro 2023; 10: eNeuro.0023-23.2023 1–16.
• Donovan E, Avila C, Klausner S, Parikh V, Fenollar-Ferrer C, Blakely RD, Sarter M. Disrupted choline clearance and sustained acetylcholine release in vivo by a common choline transporter coding variant associated with poor attentional control in humans. The Journal of Neuroscience 2022; 42: 3426-3444.
• Duggan MR, Joshi S, Strupp J, Parikh V. Chemogenetic inhibition of prefrontal projection neurons constrains top-down control of attention in young but not aged rats. Brain Structure and Function 2021; 226: 2357-2373.
• Parikh V, Bangasser DA. Cholinergic signaling modes and cognitive control of attention. Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience 2020; 45:71-87.       
• Eck S, Xu S-J, Telenson A, Duggan MR, Cole RD, Wicks B, Bergmann J, Lefebo H, Shore M, Shepard K, Akins M, Parikh V, Heller EA, Bangasser DA. Stress regulation of sustained attention and the cholinergic attention system. Biological Psychiatry 2020; 88: 566-575.   
• Cole RD, Zimmerman M, Kutlu MG, Matchanova A, Gould TJ, Parikh V. Cognitive rigidity and BDNF-mediated frontostriatal glutamate neuroadaptations during spontaneous nicotine withdrawal.  Neuropsychopharmacology 2020; 45: 866-876.
• Duggan MR, Joshi S, Tan Y, Slifker M, Ross EA, Wimmer M, Parikh V. Transcriptomic changes in the prefrontal cortex of rats as a function of age and cognitive engagement. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 2019; 163: 10735.  
• Cole RD, Wolsh C, Zimmerman M, Gould TJ, Parikh V. Adolescent nicotine exposure facilitates motivated nicotine but not saccharin self-administration following adult drug re-exposure in mice. Behavioral Brain Research 2019; 359: 836-844.
• Koshy Cherian A, Parikh V, Wang Q, Wu Q, Mao-Draayer Y, Blakely RD, Sarter M. Hemicholinium-3 sensitive choline transport in human T lymphocytes: Evidence for use as a proxy for brain choline transporter (CHT) capacity. Neurochemistry International 2017; 108: 410-416.
• Yegla B, Parikh V. Developmental suppression of forebrain trkA receptors and attentional capacities in aging rats: A longitudinal study. Behavioral Brain Research 2017; 335: 111-121.
• Parikh V, Kutlu M, Gould TJ. nAChR dysfunction as a common substrate for schizophrenia and comorbid nicotine addiction: current trends and perspectives. Schizophrenia Research 2016; 171:1-15.    
• Yegla B, Parikh V. Effects of sustained proNGF blockade on attentional capacities in aged rats with compromised cholinergic system. Neuroscience 2014; 261:118-132.     
• D’Amore DE, Tracy BA, Parikh V. Exogenous BDNF facilitates strategy shifting by modulating glutamate dynamics in the dorsal striatum. Neuropharmacology 2013; 75:312-323. 
• Parikh V, Ji J, Decker MW, Sarter M. Prefrontal β2 subunit-containing and α7 nAChRs differentiallycontrol glutamatergic and cholinergic signaling. The Journal of Neuroscience 2010; 30: 3518-3530.    
• Parikh V, Kozak R, Martinez V, Sarter M. Prefrontal acetylcholine release controls cue detection on multiple time scales. Neuron 2007; 56: 141-54.
• Parikh V, Evans DR, Khan MM, Mahadik SP. Nerve growth factor levels in never-medicated first-episode psychotic patients and medicated chronic schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenia Research 2003; 60:117-123.

Courses Taught

• NSCI 2122: Cellular Neuroscience
• PSY 3566: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
• PSY 3561: Psychopharmacology
• NSCI 3087: Techniques in Neuroscience
• NSCI 4197: Writing-intensive Capstone in Neuroscience
• NSCI 5002: Neurochemistry
• PSY 8310: Topical Seminar in Cognitive Psychology