Flavia Mancini

About

I lead an interdisciplinary research team at the Computational and Biological Learning (CBL) lab in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. My group, the “Nox Lab,” is composed of computational neuroscientists and information and biomedical engineers, all driven by a shared passion for developing open-source computational methods to understand brain function and enhance human health. Our research focuses on neuroscience questions related to how neural activity generates perception and controls behavior, with a particular interest in the neural mechanisms of learning and endogenous pain regulation. We employ a combination of experimental and computational techniques to process neural signals and analyze behavioral and clinical data. Currently, our primary focus is on pain and defensive responses to physical threats. We adopt an innovative information engineering approach to unravel the neural processing and regulation of pain. We view the pain system as a biological learning and control system designed to signal potential harm, learn from noxious inputs, and optimize responses to maximize well-being and survival (Seymour & Mancini, Neuroimage, 2020). By applying principles from control theory, information theory, and computational neuroscience, we aim to understand neural processing and its regulation.

Work

University of Cambridge

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Assist. Professor in Innovative Computational Methods

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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University of Cambridge

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MRC Career Development Fellow

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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University of Cambridge

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senior postdoc

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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University College London

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Research Fellow

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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University College London

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Postdoc

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Education

Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Italy
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PhD

University of Milano-Bicocca

Italy
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MSc Neuropsychology

Publications

Short-term variability of chronic musculoskeletal pain

preprint

Enhanced behavioural and neural sensitivity to punishments in chronic pain and fatigue

Brain

journal-article

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

eLife

journal-article

Towards an Interpretable Functional Image-Based Classifier: Dimensionality Reduction of High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography Data

book-chapter

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

eLife

journal-article

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

preprint

Enhanced behavioural and neural sensitivity to punishments in chronic pain and fatigue

preprint

Validating a measure of the precision of ascending noxious signals

preprint

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

preprint

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

preprint

Confidence of probabilistic predictions modulates the cortical response to pain

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

journal-article

Computational and neural mechanisms of statistical pain learning

Nature Communications

journal-article

Confidence of probabilistic predictions modulates the cortical response to pain

preprint

Learning the statistics of pain: computational and neural mechanisms

preprint

Learning the statistics of pain: computational and neural mechanisms

other

Prefrontal Responses during Proactive and Reactive Inhibition Are Differentially Impacted by Stress in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa

The Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Pain Control by Co-adaptive Learning in a Brain-Machine Interface

Current Biology

journal-article

Prefrontal responses during proactive and reactive inhibition are differentially impacted by stress in anorexia and bulimia nervosa

preprint

Fine-Grained Mapping of Cortical Somatotopies in Chronic Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

The Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Dissociable hormonal responses to symptoms and stress in anorexia and bulimia nervosa

other

Characterizing the Short-Term Habituation of Event-Related Evoked Potentials

eneuro

journal-article

Characterising the short-term habituation of event-related evoked potentials

preprint

Multisensory integration in hemianopia and unilateral spatial neglect: Evidence from the sound induced flash illusion

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

Perceptual learning to discriminate the intensity and spatial location of nociceptive stimuli

Scientific Reports

journal-article

Modulation of pain via expectation of its location.

journal-article

Implicit body representations and tactile spatial remapping.

journal-article

Implicit body representations and tactile spatial remapping

Acta Psychologica

journal-article

Poor judgment of distance between nociceptive stimuli.

journal-article

Poor judgment of distance between nociceptive stimuli

Cognition

journal-article

Touch inhibits subcortical and cortical nociceptive responses.

journal-article

Touch inhibits subcortical and cortical nociceptive responses

Pain

journal-article

Endogenous opioids contribute to insensitivity to pain in humans and mice lacking sodium channel Nav1.7

Nature Communications

journal-article

Erratum: Touch inhibits subcortical and cortical nociceptive responses (Pain (2015) 156 (1936-44))

Pain

journal-article

Whole-body mapping of spatial acuity for pain and touch.

journal-article

Whole-body mapping of spatial acuity for pain and touch

Annals of Neurology

journal-article

Perception: a motion after-effect for voluntary actions.

journal-article

Perception: A motion after-effect for voluntary actions

Current Biology

journal-article

Pain relief by touch: A quantitative approach

Pain

journal-article

Changes in cortical oscillations linked to multisensory modulation of nociception.

journal-article

Focus on pain in the blind.

journal-article

Focus on pain in the blind

Pain

journal-article

Subcortical and neocortical mechanisms of visual-somatosensory interplay.

journal-article

Subcortical and neocortical mechanisms of visual-somatosensory interplay

Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

A fovea for pain at the fingertips

Current Biology

journal-article

A fovea for pain at the fingertips.

journal-article

A fovea for pain at the fingertips

Current Biology

journal-article

Changes in cortical oscillations linked to multisensory modulation of nociception

European Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Cognitive aspects of nociception and pain. Bridging neurophysiology with cognitive psychology

Neurophysiologie clinique

journal-article

Changes in cortical oscillations linked to multisensory modulation of nociception

European Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Cognitive aspects of nociception and pain. Bridging neurophysiology with cognitive psychology

Neurophysiologie Clinique

journal-article

Fine-grained nociceptive maps in primary somatosensory cortex

Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Fine-grained nociceptive maps in primary somatosensory cortex

Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Linking pain and the body: neural correlates of visually induced analgesia

Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Linking pain and the body: Neural correlates of visually induced analgesia

Journal of Neuroscience

journal-article

Listening to numbers affects visual and haptic bisection in healthy individuals and neglect patients

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

Listening to numbers affects visual and haptic bisection in healthy individuals and neglect patients

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

tDCS Modulation of Visually Induced Analgesia

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

journal-article

tDCS modulation of visually induced analgesia

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

journal-article

A supramodal representation of the body surface

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

A supramodal representation of the body surface

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

Visual distortion of body size modulates pain perception

Psychol Sci

journal-article

Visual distortion of body size modulates pain perception

Psychological Science

journal-article

Visuo-haptic interactions in unilateral spatial neglect: the cross modal judd illusion

Front Psychol

journal-article

Visuo-haptic interactions in unilateral spatial neglect: The cross modal Judd illusion

Frontiers in Psychology

journal-article

Cross-modal processing in the occipito-temporal cortex: A TMS study of the müller-lyer illusion

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

journal-article

Neuromodulation of multisensory perception: A tDCS study of the sound-induced flash illusion

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

Erratum to Multisensory integration in the Müller-Lyer illusion: From vision to haptics (The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, (818-830))

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

journal-article

Mapping the neglect syndrome onto neurofunctional streams

Perception, action, and consciousness. Sensorimotor dynamics and two visual systems

book-chapter

Neuromodulation of multisensory perception: a tDCS study of the sound-induced flash illusion

Neuropsychologia

journal-article

Multisensory integration in the Müller-Lyer illusion: From vision to haptics

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

journal-article

Cross-modal processing in the occipito-temporal cortex: a TMS study of the Muller-Lyer illusion

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

journal-article

Multisensory integration in the Müller-Lyer illusion: From vision to haptics

Q J Exp Psychol

journal-article