About
Lucia Melloni is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research explores the neural and computational mechanisms underlying consciousness, perception, and memory. Her work focuses on how the brain uses predictions to shape sensory processing and subjective experience, and how these predictive processes are implemented at different spatial and temporal scales. By combining invasive ECoG, non-invasive MEG/EEG, and computational modeling, she investigates how “what” and “when” predictions modulate perception, and how the structure and richness of experience can be mapped to brain activity.
Her lab also pursues a neuroethological perspective on consciousness, studying how experience is grounded in real-world behavior, and how memory and prediction contribute to the continuity of conscious life. She is a leader in promoting open science and has pioneered adversarial collaborations to rigorously test competing theories of consciousness.
Awards
- Fellow, Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Interdisciplinary Program on Consciousness (2019–2020)
- AcademiaNet (2018)
- Tom Slick Research Award in Consciousness, Mind Science Foundation (2016)
Relevant Publications
- Cabral-Calderin Y., Hechavarria J., & Melloni L. (forthcoming). Towards a neuroethological approach to consciousness. Philosophical Transactions B. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/wyrhu
- Cogitate Consortium, Melloni L. et al. (2025). Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness. Nature.
- Auksztulewicz R., Böke A., Schnupp J., Melloni L. (2025). “What” and “when” predictions jointly modulate speech processing. Journal of Neuroscience.
- Henin S., Turk-Browne N.B., Friedman D., Liu A., Dugan P., Flinker A., Doyle W., Devinsky O., Melloni L. (2021). Learning hierarchical sequence representations across human cortex and hippocampus. Science Advances.
- Sokoliuk R., Degano G., Banellis L., Melloni L., Hayton T., Sturman S., Veenith T., Yakoub K., Belli A., Noppeney U., Cruse D. (2021). Covert speech comprehension predicts recovery from acute unresponsive states. Annals of Neurology, 89(4), 646–656. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.25995
- Melloni L., Mudrik L., Pitts M., Koch C. (2021). Making the hard problem of consciousness easier. Science.
- Ding N., Melloni L., Poeppel D. (2016). Cortical tracking of hierarchical linguistic structures in connected speech. Nature Neuroscience.