Saeedeh Sadeghi
Saeedeh Sadeghi, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
UVA Division of Perceptual Studies
Saeedeh’s main research interests include:
- children with past-life statements
- near-death experiences
- subjective experience of time and self-continuity
- altered states of consciousness
Saeedeh Sadeghi is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at UVA’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS). With a background spanning engineering and cognitive neuroscience, she brings a highly interdisciplinary approach to understanding the mind. Saeedeh earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University, where she investigated visually driven emotions, time perception, and heart-brain interactions; research that has been featured in The New York Times and other media outlets. Prior to joining DOPS in 2025, she was a postdoctoral research associate at Caltech, studying how the brain constructs value through computational modeling and neuroimaging.
At DOPS, Saeedeh investigates the emotional and cognitive development of children who make past-life-related statements. She applies her interdisciplinary training to study this phenomenon using behavioral experiments, surveys, neuroimaging methods, and computational modeling.
Saeedeh is passionate about bridging rigorous scientific methods with open-minded exploration of subjective experience. She is also deeply curious about meditative and contemplative practices as experiential avenues for deepening our understanding of consciousness.