The team

Dr Alex Sel

Lab Director

Alex is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Essex and leads the lab. She completed her BSc (First Class hons) in Psychology and my PhD (Distinction Cum Laude) in Biological Psychology at the University Complutense of Madrid, Spain. She then was a postdoctoral researcher for 2 years at Royal Holloway University of London where she investigated the neural dynamics underpinning embodiment of emotion and self-processing. In 2015 she moved to the University of Oxford where she worked for 4 years investigating the brain mechanisms underlying social and action control.

Email: alex.sel@essex.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0) 1206 873817 Twitter: @AlexBrainSel

Paolo Di Luzio

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Paolo is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Psychology, University of Essex. He completed his MSc in Neurosciences and Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Bologna. His research activity is mainly characterized by the combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocols with behavioural paradigm and neurophysiological measures, such as electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG) and electrocardiogram (ECG). His investigations entail the study of cortical visual system connectivity, perceptual decision-making, motor networks excitability and viscero-neuronal coupling in humans.

Domiziana Falaschi

Postgraduate Student

Domiziana is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex. Her main research interest focuses on post-stroke rehabilitation to improve deficits in motor praxis (or dexerity), as individuals with this condition often exhibit deficits in upper limb motor function that can drastically impact activities of daily living and independence. To this end, she aims at developing a novel approach for motor rehabilitation, combining various tools from different disciplines, both classic in the field of cognitive science, such as non-invasive brain stimulation (such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation – TMS) and electroencephalograpy (EEG), and innovative ones in the field of computer science, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and mixed reality (MR).

Celia Camara Perez-Vera

Celia is a PhD student in Psychology interested in the neuroscience of empathy and psychopathy. Specifically, her research project aims to elucidate how we can use electrophysiological and brain stimulation techniques to better understand empathy from a neurodevelopmental perspective, and to help explain whether and how activity in empathy-related brain areas may influence antisocial behaviour in young adults with psychopathic tendencies.

Postgraduate Student

Denise Wallace

Postgraduate Student

Denise is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Essex. Her research project focuses on improving mental health and well-being in the over 60’s. Specifically, she is interested in methods that are non-pharmaceutical, affordable, practical and suitable for all. One such method is neurostimulation. The studies that Denise is conducting focus on the efficacy of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) in improving cognition and, potentially, subjective well-being in older adults. Denise has extensive experience with transcranial electrical stimulation methods. Transcranial electrical stimulation offers safe, practical and cost-effective applications in research and clinical settings. She plans to extend her knowledge to include high definition transcranial electrical stimulation as well as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as part of her project. Denise work is supervised by Riccardo Russo, Nicholas Cooper and Alex Sel.

Hayley Warman

Postgraduate Student

Hayley is a 2nd year student in her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She is interested in psychopathy, how psychology may be useful for individuals who score highly in psychopathic traits, and psychological interventions more broadly. Hayley is investigating the neural pathways involved in empathy and pain perception in individuals with high psychopathic traits through non-invasive functional brain imaging techniques such as EEG.

Arkadij Lobov

Placement year Student

Arkadij is doing a placement year as the penultimate year of his Bachelor’s degree. He is working in the lab as a Research Assistant, learning how to write and run pre-processing and analysis scripts for EEG data and helping with data collection in various projects. His primary interest lies in computational neuroscience, including predictive coding and the free energy principle. Besides his position at the University of Essex, Arkadij is a mental coach in the professional gambling field. He helps poker players to overcome their mental flaws. In addition, he is researching the optimal life strategies for superior cognitive performance and emotional stability

Penelope Verrier

Undergraduate Student

Penelope is a mature student who has come to university after bringing up her family. She is in her final year of a BSc Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience degree. Penelope has a background in education, working with children with behavioural or specific learning difficulties. More recently Penelope has been working with adults who were either brain damaged from birth or who have acquired a brain injury. Penelope now wants to gain a deeper understanding into how the brain recovers following injury and how this can improve the quality of life of those affected.