Francesca Ferrari
Papers
1
Total Citations
24
H-Index
1
About
Francesca Ferrari is a leading cognitive neuroscientist whose research explores the fundamental mechanisms of body ownership and the sensorimotor foundations of self-awareness. Her work centers on how the brain integrates sensory feedback and motor commands to construct a coherent sense of bodily self. In her highly influential 2020 study, “Doublecheck: a sensory confirmation is required to own a robotic hand, sending a command to feel in charge of it,” Ferrari demonstrated that merely issuing a motor command is insufficient for a sense of agency—the brain requires congruent sensory confirmation to feel in control of an artificial limb. By systematically breaking the sensorimotor loop, she revealed the brain’s remarkable reliance on multisensory coherence, a finding that has garnered 24 citations and sparked new directions in embodied cognition and neuroprosthetics. Her contributions are pivotal for understanding how the brain maintains a stable body representation despite sensory disruptions, with implications for robotic rehabilitation and virtual reality. Ferrari’s work stands as a cornerstone in the study of body ownership, offering profound insights into the neural architecture that makes us feel at home in our own bodies.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1