MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Tanay Katiyar
Graduate Student
Tanay.Katiyar@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
01223 766 166
Programme Leader: Amy Orben
Drawing insights from across the behavioural and evolutionary sciences, my research program investigates how our contemporary living conditions both protect from and lead to mental health problems in novel ways. Current questions of interest include, but aren't limited to:
- (1) Why are teenagers self-diagnosing themselves with various mental health labels? What is the role of social media in this phenomenon?
- (2) What role does storytelling play in framing mental health experiences? Do these vary predictably according to a society's socioecological setting?
- (3) What are the practical benefits that evolutionary psychiatry can offer to the broader public and everyday therapeutic practice?
On the side, I also co-parent a podcast called Cognitations, which aims to popularize the latest cognitive science research to the general public.
CBSU publications
SKEGGS, A., Metha, A., Katiyar, T. , YAP, V., Burn, A-M., Slovak, P., ORBEN, A. (In Press) Youth Perspectives on Social Media Harms: A Large-Scale Micro-Narrative Study, PsyArXiv, m38u6_v2 [Open Access]
KATIYAR, T. , Hunt, A., ORBEN, A., Chaudhary, N., Jaeggi, A.V. (2025) Digital Technologies & Evolutionary Mismatch: Harming, But Also Healing Mental Health, Psychological Review [Open Access]
TURNER, G., FERGUSON, A.M., KATIYAR, T. , Palminteri, S., ORBEN, A. (2025) Old strategies, new environments: Reinforcement Learning on social media, Biological Psychiatry, 97(10), 989-1001 [Open Access]
KATIYAR, T. , Hunt, A., ORBEN, A., Chaudhary, N., Jaeggi, A.V. (2025) Digital Technologies & Evolutionary Mismatch: Harming, But Also Healing Mental Health, Psychological Review [Open Access]
TURNER, G., FERGUSON, A.M., KATIYAR, T. , Palminteri, S., ORBEN, A. (2025) Old strategies, new environments: Reinforcement Learning on social media, Biological Psychiatry, 97(10), 989-1001 [Open Access]
