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Dr Silvia Seghezzi

Positions held:
  • Lecturer, School of Psychological Sciences
Address

Room 517b, Malet Street

Email
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Dr. Silvia Seghezzi obtained her BSc in Psychological Sciences from the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2014, followed by an MSc in Clinical and Neuropsychology in 2016. In 2017, she qualified as a clinical psychologist and began her PhD in Neuroscience, jointly conducted at Milano-Bicocca and UCL’s Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging.

    Following her PhD, she continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience from 2021 to 2023. Her postdoctoral work was supported by a John Templeton Foundation Fellowship and an EPS Postdoctoral Fellowship.

    In January 2024, she joined Birkbeck as a Lecturer, where her research focuses on voluntary action, sense of agency, and cognitive neuroscience of motor control.

    Office hours

    Please email to book an appointment.

    Qualifications

    • PhD in Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca / UCL University College London, 2021
    • MSc in Clinical & Neuropsychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 2016

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • UK Reproducibility Network Local Lead
    • School of Psychological Sciences seminars coordinator

    Professional memberships

    • Experimental Psychology Society (EPS)

    • Psychologist Professional register A-20829, Ordine degli psicologi della Lombardia 

    Honours and awards

    • EPS Postdoctoral Fellowship, Experimental Psychology Society, September 2022
    • Templeton Postdoctoral Fellowship, John Templeton Foundation, Fetzer Institute, September 2021

    ORCID

    0000-0002-6908-5984
  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Neurocognitive processes of voluntary motor control
    • Neural bases of sense of agency and conscious experiences
    • Neurophylosophy of Free Will

    Research overview

    Our research at the Action & Cognition Lab focuses on voluntary action control, investigating how goals are represented in the brain, their flexibility, and how they are translated into structured plans and sequences of movement.

    We are particularly interested in the conscious experiences associated with goal-directed actions, including intentionality—when and how intentions to move emerge and become accessible to consciousness—and the sense of agency, which reflects the experience of being in control and responsible for one's actions and their consequences in the external world.

    To investigate these processes, we use a combination of behavioural tasks, functional MRI (fMRI), and electroencephalography (EEG), allowing us to explore the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying voluntary action and agency.

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Sensorimotor Processes and Attention (PSYC003H7)
    • Cognitive, Affective, and Social Neuroscience (PSYC004H7)
    • Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (PSYC069H6)
    • Research Methods 1 (SCPS177H5)