Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Anna Ciaunica
2025-2026
Home institution
University of Lisbon; University College London
Country of origin (home institution)
Portugal
Discipline(s)
Neuroscience and cognitive science
Philosophy
Psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis
Theme(s)
Artificial Intelligence
Behavior & Cognition
Digital Society
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Anna is a NIAS Lorentz Themegroup fellow (Hybrid Agencies: Interacting with Biological and Artificial Systems) during 2025-2026.
I’m a Principal Investigator working on self-consciousness, embodiment and social interactions in Humans and Artificial Agents
I’m currently based at the Centre for Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal; and at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, the UK – the Social Neuroscience Group.
I specifically aim to investigate:
- what is self-consciousness and how it develops in relation to our body and our physical and social environment
- the effect of interacting with humans versus artificial others (robots, Virtual Reality characters and Artificial Intelligence) on the human mind and body.
To this end, I use conceptual and psychophysiological methods, together with behavioural testing and advanced neuroimaging techniques (fNIRS) to map changes in behaviour, phenomenology, and brain when people interact with humans versus artificial others in natural and in virtual environments.
I’m currently PI on three interdisciplinary projects looking at multisensory processing of the self and other in people that feel detached from their self, body and the world.
Research Project
Interacting with Artificial Selves and Bodies in Natural and Virtual Environments
Research question: What is the effect of social interactions with human versus artificial agents on our sense of self and embodiment in natural versus virtual environments?
The past decades have seen a significant increase in the development and implementation of artificial agents such as robots, virtual reality characters and artificial intelligence. We spontaneously attribute intentionality and socialness to these agents. Despite the ubiquitous presence of these new forms of interactions and their increasing impact on our lives, little is known about how these emergent types of socializing affect our self-consciousness, embodiment and sense of self.
Anna Ciaunica will tackle this timely and neglected issue. She brings together an interdisciplinary team of world-leading experts and rising young researchers in philosophy and neuroscience. Specifically, they will examine the contrast between socially interacting with Human versus Artificial Agents, and its impact on our sense of self, embodiment and self-identity.
The team aims to show that contrasting self-consciousness and socialness in human-human agents interacting dyads, compared with human-artificial agent dyads, may help us to unveil core features of our human nature and its fundamental building blocks.
Research Interests:
Self-consciousness and embodiment; human-AI social interaction; artificial agents and sense of self; virtual reality and identity; philosophy of mind
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