About

Anirvan Nandy is an Assistant Professor in Neuroscience at Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2010. His research focuses on the neural mechanisms of active visual perception, exploring how the brain processes visual information during active engagement with the environment. Dr. Nandy's work aims to deepen the understanding of the neural basis of perception, contributing to the broader field of cognitive and systems neuroscience.

Research topics

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Computer science
• Artificial intelligence
• Cognitive psychology

Selected publications

• Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  eLife · 2026-03-26

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Social communication relies on the ability to perceive and interpret the direction of others’ attention, and is commonly conveyed through head orientation and gaze direction in humans and nonhuman primates. However, traditional social gaze experiments in nonhuman primates require restraining head movements, significantly limiting their natural behavioral repertoire. Here, we developed a novel framework for accurately tracking facial features and three-dimensional (3D) head gaze directions of multiple freely moving common marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus ). By combining deep learning-based computer vision tools with triangulation algorithms, we were able to track the facial features of marmoset dyads within an arena. This method effectively generates dynamic 3D geometrical facial frames while overcoming common challenges like occlusion. To detect the head gaze direction, we constructed a virtual cone, oriented perpendicular to the facial frame. Using this pipeline, we quantified different types of interactive social gaze events, including partner-directed gaze and joint gaze to a shared spatial location. We observed clear effects of sex and familiarity on both interpersonal distance and gaze dynamics in marmoset dyads. Unfamiliar pairs exhibited more stereotyped patterns of arena occupancy, more sustained levels of social gaze across social distance, and increased social gaze monitoring. On the other hand, familiar pairs exhibited higher levels of joint gazes. Moreover, males displayed significantly elevated levels of gazes toward females’ faces and the surrounding regions, irrespective of familiarity. Our study reveals the importance of two key social factors in driving the gaze behaviors of a prosocial primate species and lays the groundwork for a rigorous quantification of primate behaviors in naturalistic settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Comparative Game Theory: Bringing Ethology Back into Social Decision Neuroscience

  2026-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  eLife · 2026-03-17

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Social communication relies on the ability to perceive and interpret the direction of others’ attention, and is commonly conveyed through head orientation and gaze direction in humans and nonhuman primates. However, traditional social gaze experiments in nonhuman primates require restraining head movements, significantly limiting their natural behavioral repertoire. Here, we developed a novel framework for accurately tracking facial features and three-dimensional head gaze directions of multiple freely moving common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). By combining deep learning-based computer vision tools with triangulation algorithms, we were able to track the facial features of marmoset dyads within an arena. This method effectively generates dynamic 3D geometrical facial frames while overcoming common challenges like occlusion. To detect the head gaze direction, we constructed a virtual cone, oriented perpendicular to the facial frame. Using this pipeline, we quantified different types of interactive social gaze events, including partner-directed gaze and joint gaze to a shared spatial location. We observed clear effects of sex and familiarity on both interpersonal distance and gaze dynamics in marmoset dyads. Unfamiliar pairs exhibited more stereotyped patterns of arena occupancy, more sustained levels of social gaze across social distance, and increased social gaze monitoring. On the other hand, familiar pairs exhibited higher levels of joint gazes. Moreover, males displayed significantly elevated levels of gazes toward females’ faces and the surrounding regions, irrespective of familiarity. Our study reveals the importance of two key social factors in driving the gaze behaviors of a prosocial primate species and lays the groundwork for a rigorous quantification of primate behaviors in naturalistic settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Author response: Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  2026-04-02

  peer-reviewOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Uncovering Dynamic Neural Information Flow with Continuous-Time Weighted Dynamic Bayesian Networks

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-01-24

  articleOpen access

  Understanding how information dynamically flows within neural systems is a crucial problem in neuroscience. Traditional approaches often assume stationary or quasi-stationary functional networks, which fail to capture the time-varying dynamics of interactions among neural variables. To address this limitation, we introduce Continuous-Time weighted Dynamic Bayesian Networks (CTwDBN), a non-stationary graphical modeling framework for uncovering smoothly time-varying conditional dependencies. Validation on synthetic datasets demonstrated that CTwDBN reliably recovers the structure and dynamics of ground-truth information flow. Application to electrophysiological recordings during a guided saccade task revealed temporal fluctuations in conditional dependencies in the cortical network that persisted an order of magnitude longer than the receptive field dynamics. In the resting-state cortex, CTwDBN revealed persistent fluctuations within a low-dimensional dependency space reflecting canonical anatomical motifs. These results highlight CTwDBN as a versatile analytical framework for capturing dynamic information flow in neural systems with broad applicability to complex biological and artificial systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-09

  datasetOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Author response: Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  2026-03-17

  peer-reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Social communication relies on the ability to perceive and interpret the direction of others’ attention, and is commonly conveyed through head orientation and gaze direction in humans and nonhuman primates. However, traditional social gaze experiments in nonhuman primates require restraining head movements, significantly limiting their natural behavioral repertoire. Here, we developed a novel framework for accurately tracking facial features and three-dimensional head gaze directions of multiple freely moving common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). By combining deep learning-based computer vision tools with triangulation algorithms, we were able to track the facial features of marmoset dyads within an arena. This method effectively generates dynamic 3D geometrical facial frames while overcoming common challenges like occlusion. To detect the head gaze direction, we constructed a virtual cone, oriented perpendicular to the facial frame. Using this pipeline, we quantified different types of interactive social gaze events, including partner-directed gaze and joint gaze to a shared spatial location. We observed clear effects of sex and familiarity on both interpersonal distance and gaze dynamics in marmoset dyads. Unfamiliar pairs exhibited more stereotyped patterns of arena occupancy, more sustained levels of social gaze across social distance, and increased social gaze monitoring. On the other hand, familiar pairs exhibited higher levels of joint gazes. Moreover, males displayed significantly elevated levels of gazes toward females’ faces and the surrounding regions, irrespective of familiarity. Our study reveals the importance of two key social factors in driving the gaze behaviors of a prosocial primate species and lays the groundwork for a rigorous quantification of primate behaviors in naturalistic settings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-09 · 1 citations

  datasetOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• State-Dependent Dissociation of Shared Input and Directed Information Flow in the Visual Cortex

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-01-24

  articleOpen access

  Understanding how brain state and sensory input shape inter-laminar communication is essential for interpreting cortical population dynamics. Using laminar recordings in macaque V1, we apply reduced-rank regression to quantify low-dimensional predictive subspaces linking Input and Superficial layers. We find that both visual stimulation and internal state (eyes open vs. closed) modulate the structure and efficacy of these subspaces, but through distinct mechanisms. Visual input induces a directional, feedforward pattern from input to superficial layers, while wakefulness-related modulation enhances coordination more symmetrically. Delay analysis and network simulations confirm that structured, layer-specific inputs produce directional prediction, whereas global fluctuations yield undirected co-activation. Importantly, differential structure across layers predicts the emergence of communication asymmetry. These findings dissociate communication from shared modulation, providing a principled framework for interpreting inter-population correlations. Our results generalize to broader cortical circuits, offering insights into when population coupling reflects genuine information flow versus global state dynamics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

  eLife · 2025-03-17

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Summary Social communication relies on the ability to perceive and interpret the direction of others’ attention, and is commonly conveyed through head orientation and gaze direction in humans and nonhuman primates. However, traditional social gaze experiments in nonhuman primates require restraining head movements, significantly limiting their natural behavioral repertoire. Here, we developed a novel framework for accurately tracking facial features and three-dimensional head gaze orientations of multiple freely moving common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). By combining deep learning-based computer vision tools with triangulation algorithms, we were able to track the facial features of marmoset dyads within an arena. This method effectively generates dynamic 3D geometrical facial frames while overcoming common challenges like occlusion. To detect the head gaze direction, we constructed a virtual cone, oriented perpendicular to the facial frame. Using this pipeline, we quantified different types of interactive social gaze events, including partner-directed gaze and joint gaze to a shared spatial location. We observed clear effects of sex and familiarity on both interpersonal distance and gaze dynamics in marmoset dyads. Unfamiliar pairs exhibited more stereotyped patterns of arena occupancy, more sustained levels of social gaze across social distance, and increased social gaze monitoring. On the other hand, familiar pairs exhibited higher levels of joint gazes. Moreover, males displayed significantly elevated levels of gazes toward females’ faces and the surrounding regions, irrespective of familiarity. Our study reveals the importance of two key social factors in driving the gaze behaviors of a prosocial primate species and lays the groundwork for a rigorous quantification of primate behaviors in naturalistic settings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Monika P Jadi

  Yale University

  31 shared

• John H. Reynolds

  Salk Institute for Biological Studies

  20 shared

• Mitchell P. Morton

  Yale University

  17 shared

• Sachira Denagamage

  Yale University

  16 shared

• Bosco S. Tjan

  University of Southern California

  14 shared

• Steve W. C. Chang

  Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences

  13 shared

• Nyomi V. Hudson

  Yale University

  12 shared

• Joel Greenwood

  Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences

  11 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Department of Psychology

  University of Southern California

  2010

• B. Tech. (Hons), Department of Electrical & Electronic Communications Engg

  Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

  1994