Educational Qualifications

2021
Ph.D in Psychology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

2017
BSc. In Biological Sciences with 2nd Major in Psychology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Academic and Professional Experience

2024 – Present
Social Sciences and Humanities Research (SSHR) Fellow. SSHR Council

2024 – Present
Provost’s Chair and Senior Lecturer, Psychology Programme, Singapore University of Social Sciences

2022 – 2024
Lecturer, Psychology Programme, Singapore University of Social Sciences

2022 – 2024
Visiting Researcher, Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE@NTU)

2022 – 2022
Adjunct Teaching, Nanyang Technological University

2021 – 2022
Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University

2021 – 2021
Graduate Assistant, Nanyang Technological University

2019 – 2021
Communication and Writing Coach at the Language and Communication Centre,Nanyang Technological University

2019 – 2019
Substitute Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University

2019 – 2019
International Student Researcher and Academic Instructor, University of Trento, Italy

2018 – 2018
International Research Scholar, RIKEN Research Institute, Japan

Selected Publications

  1. Ashour, R., Halstead, E. J., Mangar, S., Lin, V. K. Q., Azhari, A., Carollo, A., ... & Dimitriou, D. (2024). Childhood experiences and sleep problems: A cross-sectional study on the indirect relationship mediated by stress, resilience and anxiety. Plos one, 19(3), e0299057.
  2. Zhu, G., Lim, M., Fan, X., Hou, C., Yuan, G., & Azhari, A. (2023). Predicting students’ collaborative interdisciplinary problem solving. In Blikstein, P., Van Aalst, J., Kizito, R., & Brennan, K. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2023 (pp. 2091-2092). International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  3. Hayton, J., Azhari, A., Esposito, G., Iles, R., Chadiarakos, M., Gabrieli, G., & Mangar, S. (2023). Lack of Diurnal Variation in Salivary Cortisol Is Linked to Sleep Disturbances and Heightened Anxiety in Adolescents with Williams Syndrome. Behavioral Sciences, 13(3), 220.
  4. Azhari, A., Bizzego, A. and Esposito, G. (2023). Parent–child dyads with greater parenting stress exhibit less synchrony in posterior areas and more synchrony in frontal areas of the prefrontal cortex during shared play. Social Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2022.2162118
  5. Lim, M., Carollo, A., Neoh, M.J.Y., Sacchiero, M., Azhari, A., Balboni, G., Marshik, P., Nordahl-Hansen, A., Dimitriou, D. and Esposito, G. (2023). Developmental disabilities in Africa: A scientometric review. Research in Developmental Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104395
  6. Bizzego, A., Gabrieli, G., Azhari, A. et al. Dataset of parent-child hyperscanning functional near-infrared spectroscopy recordings. Sci Data 9, 625 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01751-2
  7. Azhari, A., Toms, Z., Pavlopoulou, G., Esposito, G. & Dimitriou, D. (2022). Social media use in female adolescents: Associations with anxiety, loneliness, and sleep disturbances. Acta Psychologica, 229,103706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103706
  8. Azhari, A., Bizzego, A., Balagtas, J. P. M., Leng, K. S. H., & Esposito, G. (2022). Asymmetric Prefrontal Cortex Activation Associated with Mutual Gaze of Mothers and Children during Shared Play. Symmetry, 14(5), 998. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14050998
  9. Bizzego, A., Azhari, A. & Esposito, G (2021). Assessing Computational Methods to Quantify Mother-Child Brain Synchrony in Naturalistic Settings Based on fNIRS Signals. Neuroinformatics.
  10. Bizzego, A., Azhari, A. & Esposito, G (2021). Reproducible Inter-Personal Brain Coupling Measurements in Hyperscanning Settings With functional Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy. Neuroinformatics.
  11. Azhari, A., Bizzego, A. and Esposito, G. “Father-child dyads exhibit unique inter-subject synchronisation during co-viewing of animation video stimuli,” Social Neuroscience, pp. 1-12, 2021. DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1970016.
  12. Pereira, A. S., Azhari, A., Hong, C. A., Gaskin, G. E., Borelli, J. L., and Esposito, G. “Savouring as an Intervention to Decrease Negative Affect in Anxious Mothers of Children with Autism and Neurotypical Children,” Brain Sci., vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 652, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050652.
  13. Ng, X.; Ng, L.Y.; Gabrieli, G.; Azhari, A.; Neoh, M.J.Y. and Esposito, G. “An fNIRS Investigation of Masculinity, Femininity, and Sex on Nonparents’ Empathic Response to Infant Cries,” Brain Sci., vol 11, pp. 635, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050635 (IF = 3.394, Citation = 0).
  14. Esposito, G., Raghunath, B.L., Azhari, A., Setoh, P. and Bornstein M.H. “Predicting Mother-Child Emotional Availability in Bilingual Dyads: Multilevel Approach to the Specificity Principle,” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, vol. 73, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101241
  15. Bizzego, A., Gabrieli, G. & Azhari, A., Setoh, P. & Esposito, G. “Computational Methods for the Assessment of Empathic Synchrony,” Progresses in Artificial Intelligence and Neural Systems, pp.555-564, 2021. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-5093-5_47 (IF = 3.068, Citations = 10).
  16. Azhari, A., Gabrieli, G., Bizzego, A., Bornstein M.H. and Esposito, G. “Probing the Association between Maternal Anxious Attachment Style and Mother-Child Brain-to-Brain Coupling During Passive Co-Viewing of Visual Stimuli,” Attachment & human development, vol. 1, no. 16, 2020.
    DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2020.1840790.
  17. Neoh, M., Azhari, A., Mulatti, C., Bornstein, M. and Esposito, G. “Disapproval from romantic partners, friends and parents: source of criticism regulates prefrontal cortex activity,” PLoS One, vol. 15, no. 10, 2020. DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.05.935460 (IF = 3.240, Citation = 1).
  18. Durnford, J.R. Balagtas, J.P.M, Azhari, A., Lim, M., Gabrieli, G., Bizzego, A. and Esposito, G. “Presence of Parent, Gender and Emotional Valence Influences Preschoolers’ PFC Processing of Video Stimuli,” Early Child Development and Care, pp. 1-11, 2020. DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2020.1832997.
  19. Azhari, A., Wong, A.W.T., Lim, M., Balagtas, J.P.M., Gabrieli, G., Setoh P. and Esposito, G. “Parents’ Past Bonding Experience with Their Parents Interacts with Current Parenting Stress to Influence the Quality of Interaction with Their Child,” Behavioral Sciences, vol. 10, no. 7, p. 114., 2020.
    DOI:10.3390/bs10070114 (IF = 2.66, Citation = 0).
  20. Azhari, A., Rigo, P., Bornstein, M.H., Esposito, G. “Where Sounds Occur Matters: Context Effects Influence Processing of Salient Vocalisations,” Brain Sciences, vol. 10, no. 7, p. 429., 2020.
    DOI:10.3390/brainsci10070429.
  21. Azhari, A., Lim, M.Y., Bizzego, A., Gabrieli, G., Bornstein, M.H.and Esposito, G. “Physical presence of spouse enhances brain-to-brain synchrony in co-parenting couples,” Sci. Rep., vol. 10, no. 7569, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63596-2 (IF = 4.379, Citations = 18).
  22. Azhari, A., Rigo, P., Tan, P. Y., Neoh, M. J.Y., and Esposito, G. “Viewing Romantic and Friendship Interactions Activate Prefrontal Regions in Persons With High Openness Personality Trait,” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 11., no. 490, 2020. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00490.
  23. Raghunath, B. L., Azhari, A., Bornstein, M. H., Setoh, P., and Esposito, G. “Experimental manipulation of maternal proximity during short sequences of sleep and infant calming response,” Infant Behavior and Development, vo. 59, no. 101426, 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101426.
  24. Gabrieli, G., Azhari, A., and Esposito, G. “PySiology: A Python Package for Physiological Feature Extraction,” Neural Approaches to Dynamics of Signal Exchanges, pp. 395–402, 2020.
    DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-8950-4_35.
  25. Azhari, A., Truzzi, A., Neoh, M.J.Y, Balagtas, J.P.Y, Tan, H., Goh, P.P., Ang, X.H.A., Setoh, P., Rigo, P., Bornstein, M.H. and Esposito G. “A decade of infant neuroimaging research: What have we learned and where are we going?” Infant Behavior and Development, vol. 58, pp. 101389, 2020.
  26. Bizzego, A., Azhari, A., Campostrini, N., Truzzi, A., Ng, L. Y., Gabrieli, G., Bornstein, M. H., Setoh, P., and Esposito, G. “Strangers, Friends, and Lovers Show Different Physiological Synchrony in Different Emotional States,” Behavioral Sciences, vol. 10, no. 1, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10010011
  27. Azhari, A., Azizan, F., and Esposito G. “Does Regression Exist? Employing Biological Markers to Stratify Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD),” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 103, pp. 31-32, 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.06.016.
  28. Azhari, A., Leck, W.Q., Gabrieli, G., Bizzego, A., Rigo, P., Setoh, P., Bornstein, M.H. and Esposito, G. “Parenting Stress Undermines Mother-Child Brain-to-Brain Synchrony: A Hyperscanning Study,” Sci. Rep., vol. 9, no. 11407, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47810-4
  29. Venturoso, L., Gabrieli, G., Truzzi, A., Azhari, A., Setoh, P., Bornstein, M.H. and Esposito, G. “Effects of baby schema and mere exposure on explicit and implicit face processing,” Frontiers in Psychology,
    vol. 10, pp. 2649, 2019.
  30. Cataldo, I., Azhari, A., Coppola, A., Bornstein, M., and Esposito, G.. “The influences of drug abuse on mother-infant interaction through the lens of biopsychosocial model of health and illness: A review,” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 7, no. 45, 2019. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00045 (IF = 3.02, Citations = 11).
  31. Azhari, A., Azizan, F., and Esposito G. “Beyond a Gut Feeling: How the Immune System Impacts the Effect of Gut Microbiota in Neurodevelopment,” Behavioral Brain Sciences, vol. 42, pp. 64, 2019.
    DOI: http://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X18002790.
  32. Esposito, G., Azhari A., and Borelli, J.L. “Gene x Environment Interaction in Developmental Disorders: Where do we Stand and What’s Next?,” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 9, no. 2036, 2018.
    DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02036.
  33. Senese, V.P., Azhari A., Shinohara, K., Doi, H., Venuti P., Bornstein, M.H., and Esposito, G. “Implicit Associations to Infant Cry: Genetics and Early Care Experiences Influence Caregiving Propensities,” Hormones and Behavior, vol.108, pp. 1-9, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.12.012.
  34. Azhari, A., Azizan, F. and Esposito, G. “A Systematic Review of Gut-Immune-Brain Mechanisms in Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Developmental Psychobiology, Vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 752–771, 2018.
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21803.
  35. Senese, V.P., Azhari, A., and Cataldo, I. “A Multi-System Psycho-Biological Approach to the Understanding of Parental Dispositions,” Parenting, vol. 19, no. 1-2, pp. 164-167, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2019.1556027 (IF = 1.156, Citations = 3)
  36. Azhari A., Truzzi A., Rigo P., Bornstein M.H., and Esposito G. “Putting Salient Vocalizations in Context: Adults’ Physiological Arousal to Emotive Cues in Domestic and External Environments,” Physiology & Behavior, vol. 196, pp. 25-32, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.08.010.
  37. Cataldo, I., Azhari, A., and Esposito, G. “A Review of Oxytocin and Arginine-vasopressin Receptors and their Modulation of Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, vol. 11, no. 27, 2018. DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2018.00027.
  38. Poquérusse J., Azhari A., Setoh P., Cainelli S., Ripoli C., Venuti P. and Esposito G. “Salivary α-Amylase as a Marker of Stress Reduction in Individuals with Intellectual Disability and Autism in Response to Occupational and Music Therapy,” Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, vol. 62, no. 2, 2017. DOI:10.1111/jir.12453.
  39. Cataldo I., Azhari A., Lepri B. and Esposito G. “Oxytocin Receptors (OXTR) and Early Parental Care: An Interaction That Modulates the Emergence of Psychopathology,” Research in developmental disabilities, vol. 82, pp. 27–38, 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.10.007.
  40. Bonassi A., Ghilardi T., Truzzi A., Cataldo I, Azhari A., Shinohara K. and Esposito G. “Dataset on genetic and physiological adults׳ responses to social distress,” Data Brief, vol. 13, pp. 742-748, 2017.
    DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2017.06.057.