Rajesh Kana

Rajesh Kana
Adjunct Professor

Assistant Professor (S), Neurobiology , Academic Joint Departments 2007 -
Associate Scientist (C), Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics (CNET) , Neurology 2007 -
Associate Scientist (C), Civitan International Research Center , Academic Joint Departments 2008 -
Associate Scientist (C), Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) , General Clinical Research Center 2009 -
Scientist (C), Comprehensive Neuroscience Center , General Clinical Research Center 2009 -
Assistant Professor (S), Mechanical Engineering , School of Engineering 2010 -
Professor - Adjunct (P), Psychology , College of Arts and Sciences 2011 -
Scientist (C), Global Center for Craniofacial, Oral and Dental Disorders (GC-CODED) , School of Dentistry 2017 -

Overview

Dr. Kana has several years of experience in research in the field of autism spectrum disorders. After earning PhD from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India, he completed his postdoctoral training at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2001 he was awarded the William Fulbright pre-doctoral research fellow to do research at University of California Los Angeles. He joined UAB in 2007.

Dr. Kana is the director of the Cognition, Brain and Autism Laboratory at UAB, and the co-director of the UAB Undergraduate Neuroscience Program.

Selected Publications

Academic Article

Year	Title	Altmetric
2021	Behind the wheels with autism and ADHD: Brain networks involved in driving hazard detection. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. 77:274-292. 2021
2021	Neural responses to viewing human faces in autism spectrum disorder: A quantitative meta-analysis of two decades of research. Neuropsychologia. 150. 2021
2021	The Mid-Fusiform Sulcus in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Establishing a Novel Anatomical Landmark Related to Face Processing 2021
2020	Metacognition and behavioral regulation predict distinct aspects of social functioning in autism spectrum disorder. Child Neuropsychology. 26:953-981. 2020
2020	Frontoparietal Network in Executive Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder 2020
2020	Hyperconnectivity of social brain networks in autism during action-intention judgment. Neuropsychologia. 137. 2020
2019	Accuracy of machine learning algorithms for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder: Systematic review and meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging studies. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 21. 2019
2019	Developmental Considerations of Comorbidity in Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Need for Science Across Multiple Units of Analysis. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 4:1016-1017. 2019
2019	Evidence for maintained post-encoding memory consolidation across the Adult Lifespan Revealed by network complexity 2019
2019	Patterns of Cerebellar Connectivity with Intrinsic Connectivity Networks in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 49:4498-4514. 2019
2019	Gaps in Current Autism Research: The Thoughts of the Autism Research Editorial Board and Associate Editors 2019
2019	Aberrant “deep connectivity” in autism: A cortico–subcortical functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging study 2019
2018	Neural Correlates of Social Perception in Children with Autism: Local versus Global Preferences. Neuroscience. 395:49-59. 2018
2018	Differential recruitment of theory of mind brain network across three tasks: An independent component analysis. Behavioural Brain Research. 347:385-393. 2018
2018	Advances, challenges, and promises in pediatric neuroimaging of neurodevelopmental disorders. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 90:50-69. 2018
2018	Neurophysiological differences in the adolescent brain following a single night of restricted sleep – A 7T fMRI study. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 31:1-10. 2018
2018	Action simulation and mirroring in children with autism spectrum disorders. Behavioural Brain Research. 341:1-8. 2018
2018	Brain responses underlying anthropomorphism, agency, and social attribution in autism spectrum disorder. Open Neuroimaging Journal. 12:16-29. 2018
2018	Brain Mechanisms Underlying Reading the Mind from Eyes, Voice, and Actions. Neuroscience. 374:172-186. 2018
2018	The impact of atypical sensory processing on social impairments in autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 29:151-167. 2018
2017	Changes in intrinsic local connectivity after reading intervention in children with autism. Brain and Language. 175:11-17. 2017
2017	Corrigendum to: Neural networks underlying language and social cognition during self-other processing in autism spectrum disorders (Neuropsychologia (2017) (102) (116–123) (S002839321730221X) (10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.06.008)). Neuropsychologia. 106:418. 2017
2017	Progress and roadblocks in the search for brain-based biomarkers of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Translational Psychiatry. 7:e1218. 2017
2017	Neural networks underlying language and social cognition during self-other processing in Autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia. 102:116-123. 2017
2017	Hippocampal dentation: Structural variation and its association with episodic memory in healthy adults. Neuropsychologia. 101:65-75. 2017
2017	“Decoding versus comprehension”: Brain responses underlying reading comprehension in children with autism. Brain and Language. 169:39-47. 2017
2017	The Action Imitation network and motor imitation in children and adolescents with autism. Neuroscience. 343:147-156. 2017
2017	From word reading to multisentence comprehension: Improvements in brain activity in children with autism after reading intervention. NeuroImage: Clinical. 16:303-312. 2017
2016	Neuroanatomical and neurofunctional markers of social cognition in autism spectrum disorder. Human Brain Mapping. 37:3957-3978. 2016
2016	White Matter Diffusion of Major Fiber Tracts Implicated in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Connectivity. 6:691-699. 2016
2016	Hemispheric differences in language processing in autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies 2016
2016	Neural Markers of Cybersecurity: An fMRI Study of Phishing and Malware Warnings. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. 11:1970-1983. 2016
2016	Biochemistry of the cingulate cortex in autism: An MR spectroscopy study 2016
2016	Task-Dependent Changes in Frontal-Parietal Activation and Connectivity during Visual Search. Brain Connectivity. 6:335-344. 2016
2016	Altered Medial Frontal and Superior Temporal Response to Implicit Processing of Emotions in Autism 2016
2016	The Impact of Reading Intervention on Brain Responses Underlying Language in Children With Autism 2016
2015	Aberrant functioning of the theory-of-mind network in children and adolescents with autism. Molecular Autism. 6. 2015
2015	Language and motor cortex response to comprehending accidental and intentional action sentences. Neuropsychologia. 77:158-164. 2015
2015	Changes in intrinsic connectivity of the brain's reading network following intervention in children with autism. Human Brain Mapping. 36:2965-2979. 2015
2015	Multimodal neuroimaging based classification of autism spectrum disorder using anatomical, neurochemical, and white matter correlates. Cortex. 66:46-59. 2015
2015	The effect of medial temporal lobe epilepsy on visual memory encoding. Epilepsy and Behavior. 46:173-184. 2015
2015	Motor learning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: Activation in superior parietal lobule related to learning and repetitive behaviors 2015
2015	Anatomical likelihood estimation meta-analysis of grey and white matter anomalies in autism spectrum disorders. NeuroImage: Clinical. 7:525-536. 2015
2014	Attribution of emotions to body postures: An independent component analysis study of functional connectivity in autism. Human Brain Mapping. 35:5204-5218. 2014
2014	Enhanced parietal cortex activation during location detection in children with autism. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 6. 2014
2014	Brain connectivity in autism. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 8. 2014
2014	Differential role of temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex in causal inference in autism: An independent component analysis. Neuroscience Letters. 568:50-55. 2014
2014	The implications of brain connectivity in the neuropsychology of autism. Neuropsychology Review. 24:16-31. 2014
2014	Functional brain connectivity in a child with autism with an enlarged cavum septum pellucidum. Neuropsychiatry. 4:23-25. 2014
2014	Functional brain networks and white matter underlying theory-of-mind in autism. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 9:98-105. 2014
2014	Surface-based morphometry of the cortical architecture of autism spectrum disorders: Volume, thickness, area, and gyrification. Neuropsychologia. 62:1-10. 2014
2014	The role of mirroring and mentalizing networks in mediating action intentions in autism. Molecular Autism. 5. 2014
2013	The local, global, and neural aspects of visuospatial processing in autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia. 51:2995-3003. 2013
2013	Identification of neural connectivity signatures of autism using machine learning. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2013
2013	Advancing our understanding of the brain in autism: Contribution of functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging. Imaging in Medicine. 5:453-465. 2013
2013	An fMRI investigation of working memory and its relationship with cardiorespiratory fitness in pediatric posterior fossa tumor survivors who received cranial radiation therapy 2013
2012	"How to do things with Words": Role of motor cortex in semantic representation of action words. Neuropsychologia. 50:3403-3409. 2012
2012	Differential Deactivation during Mentalizing and Classification of Autism Based on Default Mode Network Connectivity. PLoS ONE. 7. 2012
2012	"The archeologist's career ended in ruins": Hemispheric differences in pun comprehension in autism. NeuroImage. 62:77-86. 2012
2012	Cardiorespiratory fitness in survivors of pediatric posterior fossa tumor. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. 34. 2012
2012	Brain responses mediating idiom comprehension: Gender and hemispheric differences. Brain Research. 1467:18-26. 2012
2012	Autism as a neural systems disorder: A theory of frontal-posterior underconnectivity. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 36:1292-1313. 2012
2012	Neural substrates of interpreting actions and emotions from body postures. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 7:446-456. 2012
2012	Specificity of and extensions to the disrupted connectivity model of autism. Reply to comments on "Disrupted cortical connectivity theory as an explanatory model for autism spectrum disorders".. Physics of Life Reviews. 9:3-4. 2012
2012	Executive dysfunction in pediatric posterior fossa tumor survivors: A systematic literature review of neurocognitive deficits and interventions. Developmental Neuropsychology. 37:153-175. 2012
2012	Specialization and integration of brain responses to object recognition and location detection. Brain and Behavior. 2:6-14. 2012
2011	Disrupted cortical connectivity theory as an explanatory model for autism spectrum disorders. Physics of Life Reviews. 8:410-437. 2011
2011	Probing the brain in autism using FMRI and diffusion tensor imaging.. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 2011
2011	Brain mechanisms of perceiving tools and imagining tool use acts: A functional MRI study. Neuropsychologia. 49:1863-1869. 2011
2011	A systems level analysis of the mirror neuron hypothesis and imitation impairments in autism spectrum disorders. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 35:894-902. 2011
2011	Probing the brain in autism using fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 2011
2010	Cortical underconnectivity coupled with preserved visuospatial cognition in autism: Evidence from an fMRI study of an embedded figures task 2010
2009	Atypical frontal-posterior synchronization of Theory of Mind regions in autism during mental state attribution. Social Neuroscience. 4:135-152. 2009
2008	fMRI investigation of working memory for faces in autism: Visual coding and underconnectivity with frontal areas. Cerebral Cortex. 18:289-300. 2008
2008	Theory of Mind disruption and recruitment of the right hemisphere during narrative comprehension in autism. Neuropsychologia. 46:269-280. 2008
2007	Inhibitory Control in High-Functioning Autism: Decreased Activation and Underconnectivity in Inhibition Networks. Biological Psychiatry. 62:198-206. 2007
2007	Functional and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism: Evidence from an fmri study of an executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry. Cerebral Cortex. 17:951-961. 2007
2007	A developmental study of the structural integrity of white matter in autism. NeuroReport. 18:23-27. 2007
2006	Functional connectivity in a baseline resting-state network in autism. NeuroReport. 17:1687-1690. 2006
2006	Platform Session 4 (36-43). Annals of Neurology. 60:S139-S141. 2006
2006	Sentence comprehension in autism: Thinking in pictures with decreased functional connectivity 2006

Chapter

Year	Title	Altmetric
2013	A theory of autism based on frontal-posterior underconnectivity. 35-64. 2013
2013	Neural representations of self versus other: Lessons from autism. 179-202. 2013

Research Overview

Dr. Kana’s research interests are in the area of cognitive and affective neuroscience, and autism spectrum disorders. In addition to investigating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying autism using multimodal neuroimaging techniques — such as functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), cortical morphometry, and MR spectroscopy (MRS) — his lab examines the neural bases of social cognition and language comprehension. Brain connectivity is another area of focus in Dr. Kana’s neuroimaging research in autism as well as in neurotypical individuals.

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, neuroimaging, autism spectrum disorders, brain and language