Naznin Virji-Babul, PhD (Neuroscience) is a neuroscientist and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada. Her research program focuses on (a) basic science studies to understand brain function underlying action perception/action execution networks, (b) applied research studies of brain injury to identify early indicators of concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in youth.
Dr. Virji-Babul’s work with collaborators in big data, machine learning and statistical analysis, applies and tests a deep learning neural network to classify concussion using raw, resting state EEG data. Her team was the first to show that a deep learning based neural network was able to distinguish between non-concussed athletes and acute post-concussed youth athletes with a >90% accuracy. This novel method answers new questions at the intersection of youth brain development, mTBI and gender.
Naznin has recently taken on the position of Director of Interdisciplinary Research in the Office of the Vice-President, Health. Her main goals in this position are to bring diverse groups together to work on key issues in the area of youth mental health and social media, AI and health education and diagnostics and climate change and health outcomes.
