News

Happy to see this work finally out as a preprint on bioRxiv, after a few years of work! Using time-resolved higher-order topology on fMRI data recorded during naturalistic viewing of 14 films, continuously annotated across 50 affective features, we show that higher-order topology captures fine-grained affective structure, while pairwise connectivity provides a portable readout of broad arousal. It has been a pleasure to work with such a great team, and kudos to Lorenzo Zaffina, who led the project and put a great amount of work into its development. Read the preprint here.

Super happy that our new Project CETI preprint is out on bioRxiv! Using acoustic recordings and reconstructed three-dimensional trajectories from 34 sensor-tag deployments, we show that sperm-whale foraging unfolds across two nested levels: directionally persistent search paths and flexible prey-capture tactics. Read the preprint here.

I took part in the All-CETI Meeting in Dominica (29 July–2 August). Happy to be part of the Project CETI team and to connect with colleagues working to decode sperm whale communication.

Our large-scale comparison of higher-order interaction metrics in brain function is now published in Nature Communications. We chart a taxonomy of redundant, synergistic, and topological metrics, show their links to brain hierarchy and molecular signatures, and demonstrate their value for fingerprinting and behavior. Read the paper here.

Our new review article on multiplex networks is now available on arXiv. We provide a unified perspective on dynamical processes across multiplex systems, including percolation, reaction-diffusion, synchronization, epidemic spreading, social dynamics, and games, highlighting mechanisms that generate truly multiplex emergent behaviors. Read the preprint here.

Looking forward to presenting our work on higher-order interactions in brain networks and stroke recovery at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2026 conference in Bordeaux this June. See you there!

Our new preprint is finally out on bioRxiv! This collaboration, which started at EPFL a few years ago, tracked the evolution of individual-specific brain connectivity patterns over the first year after stroke. We found that each patient's unique functional connectome fingerprint stabilizes remarkably early—within just three weeks—despite ongoing system-specific reorganization and a persistent shift from healthy architecture. Read the preprint here.

Our Project CETI paper is now published in Scientific Reports! We documented a collaborative sperm whale birth with synchronized underwater audio, aerial drone video, and behavioral observations. The study reveals statistically significant shifts in coda vocal styles during key events, including the birth itself and interactions with pilot whales, providing unprecedented insights into cetacean social behavior and communication. Read the paper here.

Our collaboration is now published in Computers in Biology and Medicine. We developed a method for inferring subject-specific brain graphs from EEG data with small-world and scale-free network properties, achieving improved performance in motor imagery decoding and brain fingerprinting. Read the paper here.

Together with Jesseba Fernando and Giovanni Petri, we organized a workshop on renormalization principles in neural systems at COSYNE 2026. Room packed and amazing discussions!

Happy to share that I will present the work on higher-order interactions at ABIM 2026 in Champery.

I'll be presenting at the workshop "Higher-Order Interactions and complex systems" in Marseille, followed by a first retreat of the NPLab. Hurray!

I'll be giving a talk on higher-order interactions in multivariate time series at the new King's Institute for Human and Synthetic Minds, King's College London, Center for Neuroimaging Sciences, for the workshop The Topology of Human and Synthetic Minds.

I am excited to share that I will be presenting our latest work, "From Nodes to Edges: Edge-Based Laplacians for Brain Signal Processing", developed together with Marco Nurisso and Giovanni Petri, at the 33rd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2025) in Palermo, Italy. Read the paper here.

We present the first large-scale comparison of higher-order interaction (HOI) metrics — spanning information-theoretic and topological approaches — using fMRI data from the Human Connectome Project. Our analysis reveals a clear taxonomy of HOI metrics into redundant, synergistic, and topological classes, with topological descriptors acting as bridges between the two. All metrics align with the brain's functional hierarchy, and some also reflect neurotransmitter receptor distribution. HOI metrics outperform traditional functional connectivity models in brain fingerprinting and are equally effective in task decoding. Notably, topological measures show the strongest links to behavioral variability, highlighting their value in connecting brain structure and function. Read the preprint here.

Our collaborative work with colleagues from Italy and the US introduces a novel brain fingerprinting method based on homological scaffolds derived from persistent homology. This topological approach achieves near-perfect identification accuracy (~100%), significantly outperforming traditional functional connectivity methods. The research reveals that individual brain signatures are encoded in mesoscale network integration and information dynamics. Read the preprint here.

Our new work, "Social Transmission along Multiple Pathways Promotes Information Fidelity and Reduces Divisiveness", is now out on PsyArXiv! This collaborative project, which began at the 2018 Santa Fe Complex Systems Summer School, shows that when information spreads through networks with multiple redundant paths, it retains higher fidelity and promotes consensus—even among people who never interact directly. Using a large-scale behavioral experiment and computational modeling, we reveal how minimal structural redundancy can significantly enhance the accuracy and cohesion of social communication. Read the preprint here.

Our collaborative work with colleagues from Switzerland and Canada provides the first evidence of individual-specific connectivity patterns in the human spinal cord, extending the concept of brain fingerprinting beyond the brain. The study demonstrates that the cervical spinal cord exhibits reproducible, individual-specific functional connectivity patterns, opening new possibilities for personalized biomarkers in neurology and neurosurgery. Read the preprint here.

I will present my latest research at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2025 Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

Official start of my Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship with the project "temporalHOI." I'm looking forward to exploring novel approaches for modeling temporal dynamics in neural data and developing methods to capture higher-order interactions in brain networks.

Our collaborative work on "Small-world scale-free brain networks from EEG with application to motor imagery decoding and brain fingerprinting" is now out on bioRxiv. This research proposes a novel method for inferring subject-specific brain graphs from EEG data that exhibit small-world and scale-free network properties. The approach shows promising results for motor imagery decoding and brain fingerprinting tasks, potentially enhancing EEG analysis for cognitive neuroscience and brain-computer interface applications. Read the preprint here.

I'm honored to share that my project "temporalHOI" has been awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship. This grant will support my research on reconstructing higher-order signals from microscale brain data, with potential applications spanning from fundamental neuroscience to clinical applications.