Fellowship will help doctoral student explore the neuroscience behind yoga, meditation
Nishika Raheja wants to better understand the neurochemistry behind mindfulness practices. She will be supported in that work with a Ray A. Gaskins fellowship for students conducting research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.
A certified yoga and meditation instructor, neuroscience doctoral student Nishika Raheja will apply electrochemical methods to investigate brain activity and mindfulness practices. Photo by Clayton Metz for Virginia Tech.
As an undergraduate, Nishika Raheja had research experiences such as studying cancer-associated sleep disruptions to understand the relationship between immunity and circadian rhythms. She also conducted assessments with pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorder to isolate stressors and develop community-based interventions to promote health.
Through a post-baccalaureate training program at the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health, she conducted experiments in monoaminergic signaling, the process through which neurotransmitters play a role in reward learning.
It was during that program that the Virginia Tech doctoral student in neuroscience got a different kind of training, earning her certification as a 200-hour registered yoga and meditation instructor.
“This opened the opportunity for me to start teaching weekly classes at NIDA and eventually Virginia Tech as a way to invite mental clarity,” Raheja said. “My passion for mindfulness-based practices then expanded into the lab, where I began exploring the neurobiological mechanisms behind these techniques.”
The neuroscience doctoral student is bringing together her wide-ranging interests in Read Montague’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, where a Ray A. Gaskins fellowship will help her explore the neuroscience behind slow-paced respiration and meditation practices.
Because yoga and meditation are part of her South Asian identity, combining these interests with her research was a natural progression. “I realized my passion for promoting mindfulness-based practices not only culturally, but also scientifically,” she said. “Cultivating conscious respiration through mindfulness-based practices helps us enhance our natural ability to improve our mental and physical well-being.”
Montague is the Virginia Tech Carilion Mountcastle research professor and director of the institute’s Center for Human Neuroscience Research. “In Dr. Montague’s lab, I hope to break new ground in neuroscience using his innovative technology, such as human intracranial electrochemistry, while also incorporating my passion for understanding mindfulness-based practices,” Raheja said.
Raheja is the recipient of a 2024-25 Dr. Ray A. Gaskins Exercise Health Sciences Graduate Fellowship.
Gaskins supports three annual $5,000 fellowships for students on Virginia Tech’s Health Sciences and Technology campus in Roanoke who are conducting doctoral research mentored by the institute’s primary faculty. Gaskins is a Virginia Tech alumnus and health and fitness enthusiast who retired from the faculty of Hampden-Sydney College.
