Valeria Fascianelli

Columbia University (USA)

Alexander Bodini Fellow in Developmental and Adolescent Psychiatry

The neural geometry of emotions: cognitive implications and individual variability

2025–⁠2026: Fall

I am a physicist by training and currently an associate research scientist at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience of Columbia University. I collaborate closely with experimentalists to uncover the computational principles and the neural geometry underlying cognitive processes like decision-making and emotional states. I build interpretable, data-driven models using machine learning, dynamical systems modeling, and decoding analyses to understand how the geometry of neural activity shapes behavior.

Previously, during my PhD in Neuroscience, I quantified intrinsic neural timescales across cortical areas, and the basal ganglia to reveal how slow and fast dynamics support distinct computations. Before transitioning into neuroscience, I earned a BSc in physics and an MSc in particle physics and I worked at CERN on rare K⁺ meson decays and heavy-neutrino searches—running Monte Carlo simulations and developing real-time trigger algorithms.

More information: valeriafascianelli.com