Farshad Mansouri obtained BSc. In Biology (Zoology), MSc. In Medical Physiology and PhD in Neurophysiology. He joined Cognitive Brain Mapping laboratory at RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Wako, Japan) in 1997. Since 1997 he has been investigating the neural basis of executive control and cognitive flexibility by establishing a close animal analog of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The WCST is a multi-faceted test which is routinely used in clinic to assess cognitive flexibility. Patients with prefrontal cortex damage or psychological disorders such as schizophrenia show impairment in the WCST performance. Farshad was a staff scientist at RIKEN institute (2002-2012).

He joined the Physiology Department in October 2012. He has established a cognitive neuroscience laboratory to continue and expand his previous studies on the structure and function of the prefrontal cortex. Techniques used in his laboratory include behavioural and electrophysiology studies in animal models and psychophysical and brain stimulation studies in humans. His findings have been published as two research papers in Science magazine (2007 and 2009), one in Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2009) and one in PNAS (2015).