A psychiatric neuroscientist and epidemiologist by training, his research focuses on studying brain and behavioral abnormalities that predispose to various psychiatric illnesses. He also studies the effects that fetal exposures to substances (via maternal use during pregnancy) have on long-term brain and behavioral development. Dr. Talati has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, and the Templeton Foundation. He also writes for the Huffington Post on relationships between mental and physical health and illness.