Quondam Fellow
Livia is interested in how stress, loneliness and social isolation affect the brain and mind, especially during adolescence. Her PhD research at University of Vienna (completed in 2016) focused on the effects of acute stress on social cognition and the underlying brain processes. Her dissertation received the Austrian Award of Excellence for best Austrian Dissertations in 2016. Livia then completed three years of postdoctoral training in Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT investigating how deprivation of social needs affects the human brain. Livia was awarded a Henslow Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall in 2020 during which she aims to identify brain markers predicting vulnerability to the effects of isolation and loneliness in adolescents and young adults. She is also interested in investigating whether and how social media can fulfill social needs.
Since March 2024 Livia is Assistant Professor at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC).
