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Alessia Gallucci

Alessia Gallucci

Curriculum Vitae

I obtained the Master Degree in Clinical and Developmental Psychology and Neuropsychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2016. Currently I am a PhD candidate in Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca. I am interested in studying cognitive and neural processes involved in emotion regulation. I am also studying the feasibility of applying non invasive brain stimulation techniques, mainly tDCS, TMS e TMS-EEG, to modulate emotion regulation abilities in groups of healthy subjects, psychiatric and neurological patients. In 2018, I attended a research fellowship at Dr. Fregni lab at Harvard Medical School, where I appreciated the use of brain stimulation to modulate brain plasticity of patients with chronic pain and major depression. I also met an international team to write a review describing tDCS and its associated physiology and use to modulate the emotional and cognitive domain. In collaboration with Psychiatry Units, I am evaluating the combined effects of tDCS and Cognitive Remediation Therapy, which I learned during a visiting at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience – King’s College London, as rehabilitation protocol for eating disorders patients as well as the tDCS application to modulate emotion regulation abilities of borderline disorder patients. I am also working with the Ohio State University in a project aiming at using TMS-EEG to track excitability and connectivity changes during and after tDCS in a short manipulation of social exclusion. Currently I am collaborating with Casa di Cura Privata del Policlinico to collect data on brain-damaged patients for my Phd project and I am attending a course on clinical research methodology in collaboration with Harvard T.H. CHAN, School of Public Health.

PhD research project

Effect of emotion processing and emotion regulation on cognitive performance: a multimodal approach investigation

Tutor: Prof. Leonor Romero Lauro

Supervisor: prof. Alberto Pisoni

Track: Clinical Neuroscience

Despite much work has focused on emotion recognition and discrimination, also emotion regulation has a critical role in neurological and psychiatric diseases, and undergoes relevant changes across the lifespan. Studies showed that a decline in emotion processing and regulation is probably the consequence of an anatomical and functional deterioration of prefrontal network, involving dorso and ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex. However, how the brain works to regulate emotions and whether changes in executive functioning have a direct causal relationship with emotion regulation abilities is still unclear and unexplored. Moreover, the majority of neuroimaging and lesional studies reported only correlational evidence in so far, while data supporting causal link between prefrontal lobe activity and emotion regulation skills in different clinical population is lacking. 

The present project first aims to use voxel-based morphometry (VBM) or voxel-based lesion-sympton mapping (VLSM) to extend current knowledge on brain networks involved in emotion processing and regulation in healthy subjects and patients with neurological or psychiatric disorders, with a special focus on the interplay between emotion processing and cognitive performance. The focus regards the extent of the impact of emotion processing on cognitive performance as well as the possibility that cognitive skills could prevent or limit emotion processing and regulation deficits.

Second, Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation techniques (NIBS) are used to investigate the possibility of modulating the effect of emotion processing and regulation on cognitive performance in healthy and brain-injured subjects. In this project, NIBS are paired with the use of antecedent or response-focused emotion regulation strategies or with bottom-up and top-down emotion regulation processes to test combined effects on healthy and clinical populations. Adding evidence about neural mechanisms encompassed by emotion processing and regulation, together with the possibility of modulate these cortical networks by acting on brain meta-plasticity could pave the way for developing new treatment protocols of NIBS to rehabilitate a wide range of neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological conditions.

Publications

Papers

  1. Vergallito, A., Gallucci, A., Pisoni, A., Caselli, G., Ruggiero, G. M., Sassaroli, S., & Lauro, L. J. R. (2021). Non-invasive brain stimulation effectiveness in anxiety disorder treatment: a meta-analysis on sham/behavior-controlled studies. medRxiv.
  2. Gallucci, A., Del Mauro, L., Pisoni, A., Lauro, L. J. R., & Mattavelli, G. (2020). A systematic review of implicit attitudes and their neural correlates in eating behaviour. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
  3. Gallucci. A., Riva, P., Romero Lauro, L. J., Bushman, B. J. (2019). Stimulating the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vLPFC) modulates frustration-induced aggression: a tDCS study. Brain Stimulation.
  4. Mattavelli, G., Gallucci, A., Schiena, G., D’Agostino, A., Sassetti, T., Bonora, S., … & Papagno, C. (2019). Transcranial direct current stimulation modulates implicit attitudes towards food in eating disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 52(5), 576-581.
  5. Kelley, N. J., Galucci, A., Riva, P., Romero-Lauro, L. J., & Schmeichel, B. (2019). Stimulating Self- Regulation: A review of non-invasive brain stimulation studies of goal-directed behavior. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 337.
  6. Lo Gerfo E., Gallucci A., Morese R., Bosco F., Vergallito A., Ottone S., Ponzano F., Romero Lauro L. J. (2019). The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction in third-party punishment behavior: a tDCS study. NeuroImage, 200, 501-510.
  7. Gallucci, A., Lucena, P. H., Martens, G., Thibaut, A., & Fregni, F. (2018). Transcranial direct current stimulation to prevent and treat surgery-induced opioid dependence: a systematic review. Pain management, 9(1), 93-106.
  8. Varoli E., Pisoni A., Mattavelli G., Vergallito A., Gallucci A., Rosanova M., Bolognini N., Vallar G., Romero Lauro L. J. (2018). Tracking the effect of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation on cortical excitability and connectivity by means of TMS-EGG. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12, 319.

Abstract 

  • Mattavelli G., Romero Lauro L. J., D’Agostino A., Schiena G., Bertelli S., Benetti A., Gallucci A., Rampoldi G., Ammoni G., Ruggiero G.M. & Papagno C. tDCS effects on implicit association tests in Eating Disorder patients. Proceeding of the XXIV National Congress of the Italian Society of Psychophysiology, Neuropsychological Trends, 20/2016.

Congress presentations

  • Gallucci, A., Romero Lauro, L., Bergamelli, E., Bertelli, S., D’Agostino, A., Sassetti, T., Fior, G., Mattavelli, G., Gambini, O. The transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as adjuvant treatment for cognitive rehabilitation of eating disorders: a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind study. 10th International Congressof Cognitive Psychotherapy, Rome, IT.
  • Gallucci. A., Riva, P., Romero Lauro, L. J., Bushman, B. J. (May 2020). Stimulating the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vLPFC) modulates frustration-induced aggression: a tDCS study. 6th Annual Brain Stimulation and Imaging Meeting, Aalto, FI 
  • Mattavelli, G., Gallucci, A., Schiena, G., D’Agostino, A., Sassetti, T., Fior, G., Giordano, B., Benetti, A., Tugnoli, E., Ruggero, G., Sassaroli, S., Romero Lauro L., Gambini, O., Papagno C., Bertelli, S. (May 2019). Modulazione degli atteggiamenti impliciti verso il cibo con stimolazione transcranica a corrente continua (tDCS) in pazienti con disturbo del comportamento alimentare. IV Congresso Nazionale Società Italiana di Psicopatologia dell’Alimentazione, Torino, IT.
  • Gallucci, A., Riva, P., Romero Lauro, L. J. & Bushman, B. J. (December 2018). Stimulating the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vLPFC) to modulate the frustration-aggression link: a tDCS study. Transcranial Brain Stimulation in Cognitive Neuroscience Workshop, Rovereto, IT.
  • Gallucci A., Mattavelli G., Schiena G., D’Agostino A., Sassetti T., Bonora S., Bertelli S., Benetti A., Tugnoli E., Ruggiero G. M., Sassaroli S., Romero Lauro L. J., Gambini O., Papagno C. (December 2018). Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) modulates implicit attitudes towards food in Eating Disorders. 4° Convegno Internazionale NeuroMI “Brain Stimulation and Brain Plasticity: from Basic Research to Clinical Practice”, Milano, IT.
  • Lo Gerfo E., Gallucci A., Morese R., Bosco F., Vergallito A., Ottone S., Ponzano F., Romero Lauro L. J. (July 2018). The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction in third- party punishment behavior: a tDCS study. 4th European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Conference, Leiden, NL.
  • Lo Gerfo E., Gallucci A., Morese R., Bosco F., Vergallito A., Ottone S., Ponzano F., Romero Lauro L. J. (May 2018). The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction in third- party punishment behavior: a tDCS study.14th NeuroPsycho Economics Conference, Zurigo, CH.
  • Mattavelli G., Romero Lauro L., D’Agostino A., Schiena G., Bertelli S., Benetti A., Gallucci A., Rampoldi G., Ammoni G., Ruggiero G.M., Papagno C. (October 2016). tDCS effects on implicit association tests in Eating Disorder patients. XXIV National Congress of the Italian Society of Psychophysiology, Milano, IT.

Further info

Elisabetta Donzelli
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