The central autonomic system revisited: convergent evidence for a regulatory role of the insular and midcingulate cortex from neuroimaging meta-analyses.Â
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Ferraro, S., Klugah-Brown, B., Tench, C. R., Bazinet, V., Bore, M. C., Nigri, A., et al. (2022)Â
2022
A surgery-informed precision approach to determining brain targets for real-time fMRI neurofeedback modulation in chronic pain.
Psychoradiology
Liu, D., Mi, Y., Li, M., Nigri, A., Grisoli, M., Kendrick, K. M., Becker, B., Ferraro, S. (Corresponding Author) (2024)
2024
2025
Regional and whole-brain functional alterations during pain empathic processing of physical but not affective pain in migraine patients.
The Journal of Headache and Pain
Liu, D., Li, M., Xu, X., Zhou, F., Becker, B., Ferraro, S. (Corresponding Author) (2025)
· SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
· BIOGRAPHY
Stefania Ferraro holds a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Trento (CIMeC).
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Her research combines functional, diffusion, and structural MRI to investigate the neural substrates of chronic pain conditions, including primary headache disorders, as well as psychiatric conditions, with a particular focus on the role of the hypothalamus and the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system. Her work also involves real-time fMRI neurofeedback and transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) as potential neuromodulatory treatments for pain and related neuropsychiatric symptoms. More recently, she has been applying advanced computational and multivariate modeling approaches to multimodal neuroimaging data to better characterize the neural mechanisms underlying pain and neuropsychiatric disorders.
2026
Chronic pain and stress: transdiagnostic meta-analytic evidence of convergent network signature with PTSD.Â
Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry
Menghan Li, Yaxian Hou, Dan Liu, Yali Zhou, Mercy Chepngetich Bore, Jianuo Lei, Junjie Wang, Michelle Hei Lam Tsang Michael Maes, Keith Kendrick, Benjamin Becker, Stefania Ferraro (Corresponding Author) (2026)
Mesocorticolimbic circuitry in episodic migraine: reward- and punishment-related responses and resting-state connectivity.
The Journal of Headache and Pain
Ferraro, S., Li, M., Liu, D., Zhou, Y., Mi, Y., Peng, S., Yin, L., Huang, B., Giani, L., Kendrick, K. M., Maes, M., Becker, B (2026)
Dysregulated anterior insula reactivity as robust functional biomarker for chronic pain: meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies.Â
Human Brain Mapping
Ferraro, S., Klugah-Brown, B., Tench, C. R., Yao, S., Nigri, A., Demichelis, G., et al. (2022)
For a full publication list see also Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/sferraro