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Ajay Satpute

Ajay Satpute

Associate Professor
Psychology

Expertise:

  • Affective Neuroscience, Emotion, Modeling Of Behavioral And Neural Data, Neuroimaging, Social Neuroscience

About Ajay Satpute

Professor Ajay Satpute is director of the Affect and Brain Science (ABS) lab. His work focusses on computational models for relating mind, brain, and behavior in the areas of social and affective neuroscience. His lab uses a combination of constructionist and predictive processing theories, machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches, behavioral experimental designs, and multimodal brain imaging assessments.

Contact
[email protected]
617.373.8188
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Affective and Brain Sciences Lab

Mailing Address:

125 Nightingale Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115
Institutes, Labs & Research Centers
Affective and Brain Sciences Lab
Psychology

Research in his lab focuses on two main areas. The first area examines the neural basis of affect including pleasure and pain, emotion (e.g. fear), and interactions between affect/emotion with cognition. The second area examines large-scale computational architectures of the brain with the goal that it will advance theory and research in affective neuroscience.

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Faculty
Ajay Satpute

Publications:

Ajay Satpute in the news

Portrait of Ajay Satpute.
September 26, 2023
As president-elect of neuroscience society, Northeastern professor advocates for access to the scholarly community
Ajay Satpute, assistant professor of psychology, remembers the first question he ever asked at an academic conference. “It was about the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and theory of mind, basically mentalizing about other people,” he says.
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Ajay Satpute, assistant professor of psychology.
June 23, 2023
Why would anyone travel 2½ miles deep into the ocean?
The price tag for the trip was reportedly $250,000. The accommodations were cramped, and the destination was roughly 2½ miles below the surface of the cold, remote North Atlantic.
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Horror Movie Characters
October 27, 2022
Why do we like to get scared at the movies? Horror movies and the science of fear
It’s not a coincidence that horror has thrived, creatively and financially during tumultuous times. The films themselves might not always directly represent the anxieties and fears of the time, but audiences still find some kind of solace in seeing fear put on screen.
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an image of a brain scan appears on a computer
May 20, 2022
How do you know not to laugh at a funeral? This region of the brain is key.
The ability to evaluate your feelings can be an important tool for regulating your emotions. Northeastern researchers uncovered where this process happens in the brain in a new study.
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ISEC
April 28, 2022
Celebrating our COS 2023 TIER1 Awardees
11 are faculty members of the College of Science are 2023 TIER1 Awardees. The TIER 1 Seed Grant/Proof of Concept Program awards are supported by the colleges and the Senior Vice Provost for Research.
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Alessia Iancarelli poses with a digital graphc of the work she has been doing in her lab
April 26, 2022
Millions of research papers are published in a year. How do scientists keep up?
Keeping up with the latest developments in their field is a challenge for researchers at all points of their careers, but it especially affects early-career scientists, as they also have to read the many papers that represent the foundation of their field.
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This Dec. 30, 2019 photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture shows a dead Asian giant hornet in a lab in Olympia, Wash. It is the world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the insect has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. AP photo by Quinlyn Baine/Washington State Department
May 26, 2020
The ‘Murder Hornet’ Is Out to Get Bees, Not Humans. So Why Are People Still Freaking Out About It?
The arrival of the Asian giant hornet in the U.S. has sparked an outcry on social media, but entomologists say that people should not worry about the oversized wasps. Still, some people may be concerned, as the underlying nature of fear isn’t the same for everyone, says neuroscientist Ajay Satpute.
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October 30, 2019
What’s on Your Mind (When You’re Scared out of It)
We all know fear. But so far, what happens inside the human brain during scary situations is still a big mystery. 
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08/06/19 - BOSTON, MA. - Student Kieran McVeigh demonstrates how headphones are used for Psyche Loui and Ajay Satpute’s research on the relationship between musical anhedonia and autism spectrum disorders in the Biomedical Imaging Center in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex on August 06, 2019. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University
August 9, 2019
What People Who Don’t like Music Might Tell Us about Social Interaction
Northeastern professors Ajay Satpute and Psyche Loui are studying the link between music and social interaction. They're asking whether the brain phenomenon that makes music undesirable to five percent of the population is also what impairs social bonding in people with autism spectrum disorders.
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