Vishal Thakkar, Ph.D.

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Dr. Vishal Thakkar completed his undergraduate education in Neuroscience with minors in Health Care Ethics and Medical Humanities at Saint Louis University. He then moved to Fort Worth, TX, to complete his MS experimental cognitive psychology and PhD in experimental neuroscience at Texas Christian Univeristy. He then held a staff research coordinator position at UTSW Neurology before joining the Department of Psychiatry as faculty in the summer of 2022.

Currently, in the Department of Psychiatry, he is an Instructor and serves as a biostatistician in the Division of Translational Research in Psychosis working on various clinical trials and research projects. As well, he works in the Division of Psychology teaching Research Design and Multivariate Statistics and Cognitive and Affective Aspects of Behavior in the clinical psychology doctoral program. He also works in the Division of Education with psychiatry residents during a research rotation (PGY-2s), on scholarly projects (PGY-4s), and with journal club-related activities (all years).

Dr. Thakkar has a wide variety of interests and research experiences with cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and pedagogy, including: non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation, reading and language, psychosis, curriculum planning, and trainee education.

Undergraduate

Saint Louis University (2016), Neuroscience

Graduate School

Texas Christian University (2019), Experimental Psychology

Graduate School

Texas Christian University (2021), Experimental Psychology

• Effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on cognition
• Psychiatry and psychology trainee education
• Reading, language, dyslexia
• Teaching and learning of research methods and statistics

Featured Publications

Auditory category learning in children with dyslexia

Roark, C. L. Thakkar, V. J. Chandrasekaran, B. Centanni, T. M. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2024 3 67 974-988

The effect of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on memory recall in reading: A pilot study

Thakkar, V. J., Richardson, Z. A., Dang, A., & Centanni, T. M. Behavioural Brain Research 2023 438 114164

How does expecting to teach impact students' self-regulated learning?

Tauber, S. K., Thakkar, V. J., & Pleshek, M. A. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 2022 11 1 106-119

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation enhances learning of novel letter-sound relationships in adults

Thakkar, V. J., Engelhart, A. S., Khodaparast, N., Abadzi, H., & Centanni, T. M. Brain Stimulation 2020 13 6 1813-1820

Effects of resilience strength training on constructs associated with moral injury among veterans

Barth, T. M., Lord, C. G., Thakkar, V. J., & Brock, R. N. Journal of Veterans Studies 2020 6 2 101-113

• Outstanding Teacher Award
  Division of Psychology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (2023-2023)

• American Statistical Association (2023)
• Dallas-Fort Worth Neuropsychological Association (2023)
• Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (2015)
• Quantitative and Qualitative Methods (APA Division 5) (2024)
• Society for the Teaching of Psychology (2021)