CURRENT PROJECTS
INTERSELF
I’m the PI of the project “The Interacting Self: From Self-Consciousness to Social Interactions in Humans and Artificial Agents” – INTERSELF – examining the effect of interacting with artificial selves and bodies on the human bodily and social self.
It brings together an interdisciplinary team of world-leading experts and rising young researchers in philosophy, psychology, computational and cognitive neuroscience and robotics to provide a new understanding of how social interactions with human and artificial agents impacts the way we relate to ourselves, to our bodies and to others.
INTERSELF is funded by a Fundaçao para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) grant under the reference PTDC/FER-FIL/4802/2020, awarded to Dr Anna Ciaunica (PI) and Prof. Antonia Hamilton (co-PI). (https://doi.org/10.54499/DL57/2016/CP1367/CT0017)
2 BLUE MAGIC
I’m the PI of the project ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’: Exploring Multisensory Modulation of the Sense of Self Through Bodily Movements and Action Observation in Depersonalisation and Psychedelic Experiences – BLUE MAGIC. Our project uses the ‘Magic Shoes’ innovative device, developed by Ana Tajadura Jimenez, to explore the multisensory modulation of the sense of self and sense of presence through bodily movements and action observation in Depersonalisation. Depersonalisation is a condition that makes people feel detached from their self, body and other. The BLUE MAGIC project also explores the phenomenological markers of radical alterations of the self-experiences, as lived from a first-person perspective, in Depersonalisation and psychedelic experiences.
Our project’s outcomes pave the way to potential new therapeutic sensory approaches for people experiencing body-perception disturbances. For example, by making people more aware of their dynamic bodily movements in order to counterbalance the feeling of being statically ‘trapped’ and living in one’s head.
Our team
Dr Anna CIAUNICA (PI)
Dr Adam SAFRON (co-PI)
Prof. Ana TAJADURA-JIMÉNEZ
Dr Alejandro GALVEZ-POL
The project It’s a Kind of Magic’: Exploring Multisensory Modulation of the Sense of Self Through Bodily Movements and Action Observation in Depersonalisation and Psychedelic Experiences) funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation and SSNAP Duke University award n° TWCF0384 to Dr Anna Ciaunica (PI), Dr Adam Safron (co-PI), Prof Ana Tajadura Jimenz, Prof Alex Galvez Pol.
3. WALKING WITH MY HEART
I’m the PI of the Project “Walking with my Heart : Examining the Effect of Dynamic Real-Time Sensory Feedback of Bodily Movements and Heartbeats on the Sense of Self and Sense of Presence in Depersonalisation”. It aims to investigate the relationship between bodily movements and self-awareness in depersonalization, a condition that makes people that feel detached from one’s self, body and the world.
We explore whether a dynamic embodiment intervention, targeting multiple aspects of the bodily self simultaneously (self-face, body ownership, agency and interoception), may increase the integration of the bodily self in people experiencing depersonalisation.
The Project WALKING BODY is funded by the Mind & Life Europe Francisco J. Varela Research Award Grant, reference : # 2021EVA-Ciaunica, Anna.
Our team:
Dr Anna Ciaunica ( PI)
Prof Ana Tajadura Jimenez
Prof Lara Maister
Simon Knogler
4. THE ESTRANGED SELF IN DREAMS
I’m also the co-PI in tandem with Helge Gillmesiter (PI) of the project “The estranged self – Exploring the dream continuity of phenomenological self-detachment in Depersonalisation-derealisation disorder.” REF: ASD/DSF 2020
Here we investigate for the first time dream reports in a clinical sample of people diagnosed with Depersonalisation Disorder.
5. LIVING IN A DREAM
In addition, I’m also a research team member of the project “Living in a Dream: Body and Self-Experience during Waking and Dream States in Depersonalisation” (awarded by the Bial Foundation, REF 115) aiming to understand how we experience our self and body in our dreams in a non-clinical depersonalisation. The project features international collaborators, including PI Dr. Jane Aspell Prof. Bigna Lenggenhager, Prof. Jennifer Windt, Matt Gwyther.
PAST (completed) PROJECTS as PI)
The project ‘Estranged from Oneself, Estranged from the Others: Investigating the Effect of Depersonalisation on Self-Other Mirroring” – SELF-ESTRANGED – was a 3-year Bial foundation -awarded project based at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto, Portugal, in collaboration with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, The United Kingdom. The project was hosted by the Mind, Language and Action (MLAG)interdisciplinary research group at the Institute of Philosophy, Porto.
The project aimed to explore the relationship between the experience of (i) Depersonalisation – a condition characterised by feelings of being “estranged”, cut-off from oneself and surroundings – and (ii) the sensorimotor processing of self and other. The outcomes of our project advanced our understanding of how feelings of being disconnected from oneself influences the social processing of others’ emotional states.
OUR TEAM
Dr. Anna CIAUNICA – Principal Investigator
Dr. Harry FARMER – Co-Principal Investigator
Events:
First Bial Workshop – 28th of September 2017 ‘Estranged from Oneself, Estranged from the Others : Depersonalisation and Self-Other Mirroring’, Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Second Bial Workshop – 17th-19th of October 2018 organised in tandem with the International and Interdisciplinary conference ‘(Dis)Embodied Perception of the Self and Other’ – at the Institute of Philosophy, Porto : https://disself.wordpress.com
Third Bial Workshop – 23rd of October 23rd 2019 – organised in tandem with the Research Day Self-Perception in Human and Artificial Agents at the Institute of Philosophy, Porto. https://disself2019.wordpress.com