Dr Nahian Chowdhury is a research fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia, Conjoint Lecturer at UNSW and Head of Neurostimulation at the NeuroRecovery Research Hub, School of Psychology UNSW. Dr Chowdhury’s work involves the use of non-invasive brain stimulation to understand the neural mechanisms for, and to treat pain. Dr Chowdhury is passionate about translating research into clinical practice, with the aim of finding brain biomarkers...view more
Dr Nahian Chowdhury is a research fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia, Conjoint Lecturer at UNSW and Head of Neurostimulation at the NeuroRecovery Research Hub, School of Psychology UNSW. Dr Chowdhury’s work involves the use of non-invasive brain stimulation to understand the neural mechanisms for, and to treat pain. Dr Chowdhury is passionate about translating research into clinical practice, with the aim of finding brain biomarkers for pain that will be used diagnostically or be used as targets for therapies such as repetitive brain stimulation.
My Grants
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2025. Chowdhury, N.S. Optimising Brain Stimulation Protocols for Treatment of Neuropathic Pain Following Spinal Cord Injury. June and Doris Cather Postdoctoral Award. 30000 AUD
- 2025 – 2028 - Schabrun, S.M., Seminowicz, D.A., Chowdhury, N.S. & Espin Garcia, O. Unravelling the mechanistic architecture of motor behaviour in pain. Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant, 570000 AUD
- 2025 – 2028 - Schabrun, S.M., Seminowicz, D.A., Chowdhury, N.S. & Espin Garcia, O. Unravelling the mechanistic architecture of motor behaviour in pain. Research Excellence Award. University of Western Ontario. 87000 AUD
- 2024 - Cavaleri, R., Summers, S., Chang, W.J., Chowdhury N.S. Efficacy of home-based transcranial direct current stimulation on knee osteoarthritis. Arthritis Australia Project Grant. 20000 AUD
- 2024 - Chowdhury, N.S. Alterations in cortical excitability during acute pain. Brainbox Research Challenge Award. BrainBox Initiative. Lab equipment loan.
My Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy (October 2020)
Master of Clinical Psychology
AHPRA Registered Psychologist
My Awards
2025 - June and Doris Cather Postdoctoral Award
2024 - IASP Travel Award
2022 - Brainbox Research Challenge Award
2021 - Faculty of Science Prize for Outstanding Thesis (Psychology), University of Sydney
2021 - Tasman Lovell Medallion for Best Thesis in Psychology, University of Sydney
2020 – Australiasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Emerging Researcher Award
2019 – Sydney University Publication Prize
2018- International Graduate Accommodation award for the 3rd International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society
2017 – Travel award for Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) Conference
2017 – Sydney University PsychFEST Best Presentation
2016 – Sydney Postgraduate Psychology Conference Best Presentation
2015 – The University Medal
My Research Activities
1. Understanding Neuroplastic processes underlying Neuropathic Pain after a spinal cord injury
2. Determining the underlying mechanism behind the analgesic effects of rTMS treatments for chronic pain
3. Optimisation of home-based brain stimulation treatments for chronic pain
4. Validation of a home based EEG neurofeedback device for treatment of chronic pain
5. Enigma chronic pain (currently a co chair for the EEG arm) - a world wide initiative to understand the neural correlates of chronic pain
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
I am open to supervising students interested in
- The Neurophysiological biomarkers of chronic pain
- Neuromodulatory (e.g. brain stimulation and neurofeedback) treatments for chronic pain
- Improving methodologies for assessing and modulating brain activity including EEG and TMS
Currently supervising
1 Honours Student (validation of an EEG device used for neurofeedback therapy for chronic pain)
2 PhD Students (1 running an RCT for chronic pain and the other optimising combined TMS EEG methodologies)
My Teaching
Statistics in R
Psychological Interventions
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6357-0746