Maryam Bijanzadeh

Maryam Bijanzadeh is an Assistant Professional Researcher at UCSF’s Neuroscape Center, where she examines how emotional behavior is encoded in the brain and body. She previously worked as a Machine Learning Scientist at iRhythm Technologies, developing ML models to detect cardiac arrhythmias.

During her postdoctoral training at UCSF, she analyzed large neurophysiological datasets from patients with intracranial electrodes, using advanced signal processing to identify brain networks underlying affective behaviors like smiling. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Utah, where she studied sensory processing across the visual cortex, providing new insights into feedforward and feedback neural circuits.

Her teaching experience spans undergraduate and graduate levels, with guest lectures and seminars at institutions including UCSF, the University of Utah, the University of San Francisco, and the Community College of San Francisco.

• Data analysis
• Biosignals 
• Research methods 
• Computational neuroscience 
• Programming

• Affective & emotion neuroscience 
• Neurophysiology 
• Multi-modal biosensing

• University of Utah, PhD in Neuroscience, 2016
• University of Sheffield, MSc in Automatic Systems and Control Engineering, 2010
• University of Tehran, BSc in Electrical Engineering, 2008

• Assistant Professional Researcher, UCSF (2024-Present)
• Machine Learning Scientist, iRhythm technologies (2021-2024)
• Postdoctoral scholar, UCSF (2017-2021)

• Weill-Catalyst Award co-funded by the UCSF Innovation Ventures & UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, for the proposal titled: “Towards Objective Depression Screening: Developing a Multimodal Brain Body Wearable Biomarker System”, 2025
• Neuroscience Achievement fellowship, University of Utah, (2013-2014)

• M. Bijanzadeh, Ankit. N. Khambhati, M. Desai, Deanna L. Wallace, A. Shafi, Heather E. Dawes, Virginia E.Sturm and Edward F. Chang Decoding naturalistic affective behaviour from spectro-spatial features in multiday human iEEG Nature Human Behavior (2022)
• Melis. Yilmaz Balban, Erin. Cafaro, Lauren. Saue-Fletcher, Marlon. J. Washington, Maryam. Bijanzadeh, Andrew. M. Lee, Edward. F. Chang, Andrew Huberman Human Responses to Visually Evoked Threat Current Biology (2021)
• M. Bijanzadeh, L. Nurminen, S. Merlin, A.M.Clark, A. Angelucci Distinct Laminar Processing of Local and Global Context in Primate Primary Visual Cortex Neuron (2018)
• Rao V, Sellers K, Wallace D, Lee M, Bijanzadeh M, Sani O, Yang Y, Shanechi M, Dawes H, Chang E. Direct Electrical Stimulation of Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Acutely Improves Mood in Individuals with Symptoms of Depression Current Biology (2018)
• L.Nurminen, S.Merlin, M.Bijanzadeh, F.Federer, A.Angelucci Top-down feedback controls spatial summation and response amplitude in primate visual cortex Nature Communications (2018)