Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Paul Jenkinson @paulmjenkinson.bsky.social · Jul 23

I'm beyond thrilled, excited, and delighted to announce being awarded a 3-year Tiny Blue Dot Foundation grant to examine body image in adolescent girls & to develop a VR-based embodiment intervention for body image issues. Expect more info and post-doc and PhD adverts in the coming months 😀

1 3 12

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Olly Singleton @oliversingleton.bsky.social · Apr 8

🚨New preprint alert🚨

Presence is Reality: Rethinking Virtual and Real-World Consciousness

In which we argue that 'presence' as defined and discussed in the field of computer science, is mechanistically and conceptually identical to 'reality'

osf.io/preprints/ps...

1/🧵

OSF

osf.io

1 3 9

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Apr 3

So very well done Carolina & co!!! Excited to read it!

2

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Carolina Villegas @carolinavm.bsky.social · Apr 3

1/3 New preprint alert! 🚨 doi.org/10.31219/osf...

Are you studying interoception in a developmental or parental context?

We introduce the Parental Interoception Questionnaire (PIQ), a new tool to assess how parents perceive and respond to their child’s bodily signals.

OSF

doi.org

4 14 26

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Katerina Fotopoulou @katerinafoto.bsky.social · Jan 10

I am delighted this work by @gerardosalvato.bsky.social et al on the relationship between disturbances in the sense of body ownership & temperature regulation is finally published! doi.org/10.1038/s414... Here is a thread on the long, scientific whodunit 1/11

2 14 32

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Sarah Garfinkel @sarahgarf.bsky.social · Jan 2

Are you based in London? We are recruiting participants for our study. We need to test 400 people so would appreciate sharing. Thank you!

embodystudy.bsky.social @embodystudy.bsky.social · Jan 2

We’re recruiting participants for the Em-Body study! Check your eligibility and sign up here: shorturl.at/AEelF

1 28 29

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

James Kilner @jameskilner.bsky.social · Nov 28

Exciting new job opportunity at the IoN, UCL, London. The post is based at the Department of Imaging Neuroscience. It is a 70-30%research to teaching split. If anyone requires more information on the teaching part then please do get in contact with me. Please repost
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

www.ucl.ac.uk

1 27 26

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 19

Massive congrats @lauracrucianelli.bsky.social !! Can’t wait to read it🤩

1 1

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Sarah Garfinkel @sarahgarf.bsky.social · Nov 12

I'm excited to be co-leading a course on Interoception and Brain disorders with Sahib Khalsa @skhalsa.bsky.social on the beautiful academic island of San Servolo, Venice, in May 2025 www.neurosas.org/advanced-cou...

2 14 67

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Oct 31

A big thank you to the Katlab team, and in particular my supervisors - Prof Fotopoulou, Dr Koukoutsakis & Dr Jenkinson - my co-authors, esp. Dr Crucianelli & Ms Au, my viva examiners Prof Garfinkel & Dr Aspell. Feels good to be back & looking fwd to seeing what’s in store!✨ 🚀

2

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Oct 31

- Updating prospective self-efficacy beliefs about interoception in Anorexia Nervosa. An experimental & computational approach: cpsyjournal.org/articles/10....

- The use of robotic tactile feedback to convey social emotions & intentions during social media communications: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

1 1

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Oct 31

Despite the radio silence, things have been brewing! Passed my PhD viva and went travelling. While on the road, a couple of publications dropped (links below) and got a DClinPsy offer! So, now I’m back at UCL/NHS - working, training & gearing up for more..Stay tuned! 🚀 #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky

2 5

Reposted by Alkistis Saramandi

Carolina Villegas @carolinavm.bsky.social · Apr 15

➡️Join the parent-child interoception study, an opportunity for children to participate in a science experiment AND learn about their body signals. Parents complete a novel task about their child's body signals!🫀

Slots available 23rd April to 6th May! Sign up: qualtrics.ucl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...

1 3

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Dec 12

New preprint 👇🏻 Do you like using emoticons on social media? What if they were tactile? We show that people report greater perceived social support when they receive (digitally) mediated tactile rather than visual emoticons during social media interactions. osf.io/preprints/ps...
#PsychSciSky

OSF

osf.io

2 5

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 8

Thank you @mgallen.bsky.social !!

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 8

5/5 We would like to thank our patients and volunteers for their time, as well as our clinical and academic collaborators
@katerinafoto.bsky.social @lauracrucianelli.bsky.social

1 1

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 8

4/5 Our findings further suggest that mood more than cognitive traits relate to this dysfunctional precision-weighting mechanism supporting a previously hypothesised relation between negative mood, interoception, and self-efficacy in other psychopathologies (see: tinyurl.com/3ufa5c5z)

Allostatic Self-efficacy: A Metacognitive Theory of Dyshomeostasis-Induced Fatigue and Depression

This paper outlines a hierarchical Bayesian framework for interoception, homeostatic/allostatic control, and meta-cognition that connects fatigue and depression to the experience of chronic dyshomeost...

tinyurl.com

1

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 8

3/5 These difficulties further extend to prospective metacognition, with AN patients showing lower precision-weighted Learning Rates than HCs, i.e. patients consider the retrospective ‘evidence’ less than HCs when updating prospective, self-efficacy such beliefs.

1

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 8

2/5 We show that irrespective of interoceptive performance per se, AN patients draw pessimistic metacognitive conclusions about their performance retrospectively.

1

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Nov 8

1/5 Preprint 🚨 psyarxiv.com/c8mjv We used a cardiac interoception task & a novel computational approach to study metacognitive belief updating in Anorexia Nervosa (AN). 🧵 below
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky

psyarxiv.com

4 6 8

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Oct 7

London-based friends, a fun, interactive science event with Katlab on the 9th of Nov. Word on the street is that there will also be prizes for a few lucky winners!

Olly Singleton @oliversingleton.bsky.social · Oct 7

You are what you wear!

Can you dress well, feel good and save the planet at the same time? Join our interactive workshop at UCL exploring how a textile circular economy can serve our well-being, while also saving the planet

#CogSci #AcademicSky #PsycSky #PhDSky
www.ucl.ac.uk/research/dom...

2

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Sep 28

5/5 last but not least..when not doing science I love to travel and dance. Check out the show we produced last year, “Breathe”. tinyurl.com/ycyezxar ; all our profits went to @mentalhealthuk . You can also read more about it here: tinyurl.com/yfna8283

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Sep 28

4/5 Katlab & REDU teams joined forces to conduct a clinical audit evaluating heart rate biofeedback during the acute state of anorexia. More details on this coming soon..

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Sep 28

3/5 MSc & early PhD work: updating beliefs about interoception and body size estimation in anorexia psyarxiv.com/rntsf/ Watch out for our follow-up study which uses a computational modelling approach & also looks at the role of comorbid traits in the updating of interoceptive self-efficacy beliefs 👀

Alkistis Saramandi @alkistis.bsky.social · Sep 28

2/5 Affective touch in Anorexia Nervosa - one of my first publications from my early Katlab days: doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...

Work with the Katlab team who welcomed me when I first joined the team as a 2nd year undergrad student..and who has been supporting me ever since..!