Dr. Narayanan is the Juanita J. Bartlett professor of Neurology Research and Vice Chair for Basic and Translational Research in the Department of Neurology at the Carver College of Medicine in the University of Iowa.  He also is an Associate Professor an Associate Director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, and Associate Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Training Program.

He is originally from Seattle, Washington.  He received BA from Stanford University and received an MD and PhD from Yale Medical School, where he also completed a residency in neurology. He came to the University of Iowa in 2012 to launch his lab studying the basic mechanisms of prefrontal dopamine. He leads a multidisciplinary clinic focused on Parkinson's disease.

He received the Donald B. Lindsley Prize for the best dissertation from the Society for Neuroscience, the S. Weir Mitchell Award for best residency research from the American Academy of Neurology, and the Jon Stolk Award for movement disorders research from the American Academy of Neurology.