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Department of Psychology

Dr. Sara De Felice is a social neuroscientist, specialising in the dynamics arising between people as they learn from and with others in the real-world. Combining advanced neuroimaging, eye-tracking, physiological and behavioural measures, she models the teacher-learner interaction and how this supports human learning. Her work provides direct insights into educational interactions, and has the potential to inform other types of social dynamics such as therapeutic and teamwork interactions.

Biography

Dr Sara De Felice obtained her PhD in Social Neuroscience from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. She graduated in Psychology (BSc) at Aston University, and then completed the dual master in Brain and Mind Sciences MSc from UCL (London, UK) and UPMC/ENS (Paris, France). She is currently a postdoc in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group at Cambridge University led by Professor Blakemore.

Publications

Key publications: 

De Felice, S., [...] Hoehl, S.,  Vrticka, P. (2025) Relational Neuroscience: insights from hyperscanning research, Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews Article link

De Felice, S., Hakim, U., Gunasekara, N.; Pinti, P.; Tachtsidis, I. & Hamilton, A. (2024) Having a chat and then watching a movie: how social interaction synchronises our brains during co-watching Oxford Open Neuroscience Article link

De Felice, S., Hatilova, A., Trojan, F., Tsui, I., Hamilton, A. (2023) Autistic adults benefit and enjoy learning via social interaction as much as neurotypicals do. Molecular Autism Article link

Hakim, U., De Felice, S. … Tachtsidis, I. (2023) Quantification of inter-brain coupling: A review of current methods used in hemodynamic and electrophysiological hyperscanning studies. NeuroImage Article link

Vigliocco, G., Convertino, L., De Felice, S., … & Spiers, H. (2023). Ecological Brain: Reframing the Study of Human Behaviour and Cognition. Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society B Article link

De Felice, S., Ponari, M., Hamilton, A., Vigliocco, G. (2022) Learning from others is good, with others is better: The role of social interaction in human acquisition of new knowledge. Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society B Article link

De Felice, S., Vigliocco, G. & Hamilton, A. (2021) Social interaction is a catalyst for adult human learning in online contexts Current Biology Article link

Teaching and Supervisions

Research supervision: 

My research investigates how brain synchrony, gaze coordination, and interactive learning shape the way we understand and memorise new information. My studies explore questions like:
Does learning in a conversation feel different from learning alone?
How do teachers and students coordinate their attention?
Can social interaction synchronise teacher's and learner's brains and influence how we process information?
Do adolescents learn better from their peers?
I use multi-modal approach (combining hyperscanning neuroimaging, eye-tracking, physiological and behavioural measures) to study how learning unfolds in real-time, across different contexts and populations—including neurotypical and autistic individuals, adults and adolescents.

Research Associate
Portrait photo of Sara De Felice

Contact Details

Classifications: 
Available for consultancy