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Shervin Vencatachellum

Postal Address

Université du Luxembourg
2, Avenue de l'Université
L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette

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Shervin Vencatachellum joined the Research Group “Self-regulation and Health” (Research Unit INSIDE) as a PhD student in March 2017. His current doctoral project, titled “Perceptual Inference as a Core Mechanism of Mindfulness: Implications for pain regulation”, is funded by the FNR/AFR and is being undertaken under the supervision of Prof. Claus Vögele. The project aims at delineating the underlying mechanisms of mindfulness by considering recent neuroimaging insights within the promising Interoceptive Predictive Coding framework. This framework overturns the traditional view of the brain as a passive ‘stimulus-response’ organ and instead sees the brain as an inferential machine that actively matches incoming sensory input with predictions derived from previous experiences. Of utmost relevance to the project therefore is the question of how mindfulness minimises prediction errors i.e. the mismatches between prior expectations and incoming sensory signals (e.g. as in placebo/nocebo effects).

His research interests include:

Interoceptive Predictive Coding
Placebo/nocebo effects
Underlying mechanisms of mindfulness
The role of self-focused attention in anxiety disorders
Working memory and cognitive control in affective disorders

Shervin obtained his BSc in Psychology from the University of Greenwich and his MSc in Research Methods in Psychology from the University of Kent. His Master’s thesis was titled “The role of Attentional Focus in Anxiety Alleviation: Comparing brief internal and external attention training interventions”.

Last updated on: Thursday, 26 September 2019