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

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

Published by

Brain

Summary

journal-article

Short-term variability of chronic musculoskeletal pain

Summary

preprint

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

Summary

book-chapter

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

Published by

eLife

Summary

journal-article

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

Published by

eLife

Summary

journal-article

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

Summary

preprint

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

Summary

preprint

Validating a measure of the precision of ascending noxious signals

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preprint

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

Summary

preprint

Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues

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preprint

Confidence of probabilistic predictions modulates the cortical response to pain

Published by

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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journal-article

Computational and neural mechanisms of statistical pain learning

Published by

Nature Communications

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journal-article

Confidence of probabilistic predictions modulates the cortical response to pain

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preprint

Learning the statistics of pain: computational and neural mechanisms

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other

Learning the statistics of pain: computational and neural mechanisms

Summary

preprint

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

Published by

The Journal of Neuroscience

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journal-article

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

Published by

Current Biology

Summary

journal-article

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

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preprint

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

Published by

The Journal of Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Summary

other

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

Published by

eneuro

Summary

journal-article

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

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preprint

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

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Scientific Reports

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journal-article

Touch inhibits subcortical and cortical nociceptive responses.

Summary

journal-article

Touch inhibits subcortical and cortical nociceptive responses

Published by

Pain

Summary

journal-article

Endogenous opioids contribute to insensitivity to pain in humans and mice lacking sodium channel Na<inf>v</inf>1.7

Published by

Nature Communications

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journal-article

Implicit body representations and tactile spatial remapping.

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journal-article

Modulation of pain via expectation of its location.

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journal-article

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

Published by

Pain

Summary

journal-article

Implicit body representations and tactile spatial remapping

Published by

Acta Psychologica

Summary

journal-article

Poor judgment of distance between nociceptive stimuli.

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journal-article

Poor judgment of distance between nociceptive stimuli

Published by

Cognition

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journal-article

Perception: A motion after-effect for voluntary actions

Published by

Current Biology

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journal-article

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

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journal-article

Whole-body mapping of spatial acuity for pain and touch

Published by

Annals of Neurology

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journal-article

Perception: a motion after-effect for voluntary actions.

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journal-article

Pain relief by touch: A quantitative approach

Published by

Pain

Summary

journal-article

Subcortical and neocortical mechanisms of visual-somatosensory interplay

Published by

Journal of Neuroscience

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journal-article

A fovea for pain at the fingertips

Published by

Current Biology

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journal-article

A fovea for pain at the fingertips.

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journal-article

A fovea for pain at the fingertips

Published by

Current Biology

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journal-article

Focus on pain in the blind

Published by

Pain

Summary

journal-article

Changes in cortical oscillations linked to multisensory modulation of nociception.

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journal-article

Focus on pain in the blind.

Summary

journal-article

Changes in cortical oscillations linked to multisensory modulation of nociception

Published by

European Journal of Neuroscience

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journal-article

Subcortical and neocortical mechanisms of visual-somatosensory interplay.

Summary

journal-article

tDCS Modulation of Visually Induced Analgesia

Published by

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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journal-article

tDCS modulation of visually induced analgesia

Published by

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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journal-article

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

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

Changes in cortical oscillations linked to multisensory modulation of nociception

Published by

European Journal of Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Neurophysiologie clinique

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Neurophysiologie Clinique

Summary

journal-article

Fine-grained nociceptive maps in primary somatosensory cortex

Published by

Journal of Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

Fine-grained nociceptive maps in primary somatosensory cortex

Published by

Journal of Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Journal of Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Journal of Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

A supramodal representation of the body surface

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

A supramodal representation of the body surface

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

Visual distortion of body size modulates pain perception

Published by

Psychol Sci

Summary

journal-article

Visual distortion of body size modulates pain perception

Published by

Psychological Science

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Front Psychol

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Frontiers in Psychology

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Summary

journal-article

Mapping the neglect syndrome onto neurofunctional streams

Published by

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

Summary

book-chapter

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

Published by

Neuropsychologia

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Summary

journal-article

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

Published by

Q J Exp Psychol

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journal-article