Afsin's background is in neuroscience. He obtained his MD from Azad University, Tehran Medical School, Iran in 1996 and his Ph.D. from the Korean institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, South Korea in 2014 on the role of GABAA receptors activity in mediodorsal nucleus of thalamus in fear extinction. He is working on functional plasticity in the injured brain and the impact that neuronal modulation and rehabilitation has on recovery of fuunction.