Sara De Felice
@saradefelice.bsky.social
140 followers 120 following 20 posts
Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cambridge University | forthcoming MSCA Fellow | PhD in Social and Educational Neuroscience | Interested in how people learn from and with others in real-world interactions | URL: sites.google.com/view/saradefelice/home
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Reposted by Sara De Felice
galrozic.bsky.social
Had the opportunity to present our #fNIRS hyperscanning study @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social @antoniahamilton.bsky.social @saradefelice.bsky.social at #ICON2025 in the Social And Embodied Language Learning Symposium. Felt small in the huge auditorium but the room was filled w/ inspiring questions!
Reposted by Sara De Felice
galrozic.bsky.social
Had a great time presenting our #fNIRS study w/ @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social @antoniahamilton.bsky.social @saradefelice.bsky.social @ #ESCOP2025!🧠 Grateful for the thought-provoking discussions that keep inspiring our work. A fantastic conference ending on a high note in beautiful Peak District ⛰️
saradefelice.bsky.social
This is such a nice welcome at flux! Thank you for this award at my first Flux Conference Meeting #flux2025 @fluxsociety.bsky.social
saradefelice.bsky.social
Looking forward to what it seems will be an excellent and thought-provoking symposium at #flux2025 @fluxsociety.bsky.social
ellroche.bsky.social
Looking fwd to our neural synchrony symposium today - & especially learning more from @pvrticka.bsky.social on synchrony in #fNIRS. For a preview check out an excellent 2025 review led by @saradefelice.bsky.social - join us 3pm in Hyde 1. 🧠 ⚡️ 🧠 #flux2025

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
De Felice et al 2025: relational neuroscience, insights from hyperscanning Flux 2025 symposium - is neural synchrony a developmental mechanism?
Reposted by Sara De Felice
fluxsociety.bsky.social
🎓 FLUX is proud to spotlight Dr. Sara De Felice.

Her research studies the role of naturalistic social interaction in human learning and model the behavioural and neural dynamics that support this process.

Read the full interview at the link below:
👉 buff.ly/yzDQLA6
saradefelice.bsky.social
I wrongly booked my #flights to @fluxsociety.bsky.social
#flux2025 in #Dublin twice. Tickets are from #Naples to #Dublin and from #Dublin to #London x2 adults + infant + x2 10kg bags. Dates and destinations (and passenger name) can be changed for a fee. Contact me if interested!

Please share!
Reposted by Sara De Felice
gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social
How do our brains and bodies support social learning in real time in the real-world? Check out the preprint by @saradefelice.bsky.social et al. Honoured to have been part of the team!
saradefelice.bsky.social
A Friday afternoon post to share our new paper (pre-print)! We modelled brain & behaviour & physiology from 27 unconstrained social learning interactions.
Learning emerged from non-linear brain-gaze coupling and asymmetric neural dependencies suggesting mutual prediction. Full thread below ⬇️
saradefelice.bsky.social
This study contributes to move beyond isolated brain analyses toward multimodal models of learning as an emergent property of real-time, reciprocal interaction at both neural and behavioural levels.
saradefelice.bsky.social
Importantly, these cross-brain effects remained after accounting for gaze, nodding, speech and breathing, addressing common critiques that INS merely reflects shared sensory input or movement. Instead, we provide evidence for INS being a marker of mutual prediction in naturalistic interactions.
saradefelice.bsky.social
We found strong effects of speaking: participants showed greater activity in left SPL during self-speaking. In addition, we found that learner’s left SPL activity predicted teacher’s left PMv activity, suggesting role-dependent coordination in the language network.
saradefelice.bsky.social
This allowed us to examine asymmetric effects of speaking/listening and teaching/learning, going beyond the predominant focus on symmetric analyses of inter-brain coordination in existing research.
saradefelice.bsky.social
Question 2: Can one person’s brain activity be predicted from their partner’s behaviour and neural signals? Here we used a xGLM to model each individual’s activation as a function of self and partner’s gaze, speech, head-movement and physiology & partner's neural data.
saradefelice.bsky.social
These findings suggest that different social behaviours engage distinct patterns of brain-to-brain coupling that support learning through different cognitive dynamics.
saradefelice.bsky.social
In contrast, during moments of mutual grounding, learning is supported by high mutual gaze and high INS in systems for mutual understanding (TPJ).
saradefelice.bsky.social
We propose a dual-process model. When teacher and learner are not yet aligned, learning is supported by informational uptake dynamic, with high joint attention, low INS in regions for mutual understanding (TPJ) and coordination (right PMv), and high INS in language-related areas (left PMv).
saradefelice.bsky.social
This analysis revealed that learning was supported by teacher-learner inter-brain synchrony (INS), over regions important for mutual understanding (TPJ) and communicative coordination (PMv). Joint attention and mutual gaze modulated the relationship between INS and learning with opposite effects.
saradefelice.bsky.social
This paper asks two key questions:

Question 1: Which neural and behavioural dynamics predict successful learning? Here we used wavelet coherence analysis to compute inter-brain synchrony and predict successful learning.
saradefelice.bsky.social
We recorded simultaneous brain activity from 27 teacher–learner pairs as they taught each other facts about unfamiliar items as well as eye-gaze, speech, nodding and breathing.
saradefelice.bsky.social
How do our brains and bodies support social learning in real time?

We take an ecological and multimodal neuroscience approach to study mutual prediction and social coordination when learning with others.

It took 5 full years for this one! Full open-access pre-print: osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
Reposted by Sara De Felice
antoniahamilton.bsky.social
Delighted to attend #ebbs2025 and share new work from @saradefelice.bsky.social and @paulawicher.bsky.social
ebbsociety.bsky.social
Day 4 of the conference is starting! Don’t miss the plenary talk by Antonia Hamilton on social interaction
#EBBS2025 #DAY4
saradefelice.bsky.social
If you are in the process of designing a #fNIRS study to investigate cognition and want a list of dos and don'ts, have a look at our primer. Pre-print available here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

@islalj.bsky.social @chiarabulgarelli.bsky.social @paola182.bsky.social @antoniahamilton.bsky.social
Reposted by Sara De Felice
pvrticka.bsky.social
Last chance to apply for a fully-funded 2-year #PostDoc in my @soneatlab.bsky.social @universityofessex.bsky.social using #fNIRS #hyperscanning & behavioural assessment in #children.

👉🏻 SWITCH: pvrticka.com/switch-proje...

Deadline: 01.06.25
Start: 01.10.25

vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
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