Dr Qazi Rahman
Lecturer
- Room: 2.05, Fogg building
- Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 7491
- Email: q.rahman("at" sign)qmul.ac.uk
Research interests:
Research Sites: https://sites.google.com/site/qrahman8/home
Cognitive Biology; Psychobiology of human sexual orientation
My research concerns the biological origins of sexual orientation in humans. Particular questions focus on what sexual orientation orients towards, what neurocognitive functions are robust endophenotypes of this trait, and what neurodevelopmental and genetic pathways are responsible for sexual orientation and its endophenotypes. Current projects include the investigation of sexual orientation-related differences in basic spatial ability (e.g., the manipulation of spatial relations), spatial memory (which involves navigating and finding important objects in the environment), linguistic ability, and social or emotional cognition (e.g., “reading” emotions in another person’s face or eyes); the genetic basis of sexual orientation using twin modelling and molecular genetics; the role of sexual orientation in human mating tactics and partner preferences; and the utility of somatic markers (e.g., finger length ratios, handedness, and hair whorl patterning) as windows on the prenatal development of sexual orientation. To address these questions my work makes use of methods from psychology and biology including neurocognitive and psychometric testing, survey methods, the analysis of morphometric markers and neurological “soft signs,” twin modelling, genomics, and neuroimaging (in the near future). Work is conducted collaboratively with colleagues in the UK, Sweden and USA.
Research group
Postgraduate supervision:
Harun, Nadiah; r.n.harun ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;
Jolly, William Roy; w.r.jolly ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;