Gabriele Bellucci

I investigate the neural underpinnings of social decision-making in humans using economic paradigms (e.g., the Ultimatum Game and Trust Game) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques in combination with computational methods and machine learning tools. Thereby, I tried to mathematically formalize how people build a model of their interacting partners to reach optimal decisions across social contexts. I combine computational formalizations of people’s behavior with analyses of fMRI data to examine how social traits of others (e.g., their fairness, trustworthiness, honesty) are decoded in the brain and how these neural signatures predict individual decisions across social interactions. Finally, I'm interested in investigating interindividual differences in social behaviors and their neural underpinnings to shed light on preclinical psychological states (e.g., loneliness) that might help us understand, detect and prevent the development of psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression).

A list of publications can be accessed here.