Univ. Prof Dr. Giorgia Silani
Deputy Head - Department of Clinical and Health Psychology
Head of the Research Unit for Clinical Social Neuroscience (CSN)
T: +43-1-4277-47223
E: giorgia.silani@univie.ac.at
Office: Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Wien, Room O3.47
Office hours: on appointment
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology
Liebiggasse 5
1010 Vienna
Research interests
- Neural foundations of social cognition and social emotions
- Empathy and prosocial behaviors
- Neurodiversity (e.g. autism)
- Reward processing and clinical conditions related to it (e.g. Anorexia Nervosa)
Professional experience
| 03/2025 – present | Full Professor for Clinical Neuroscience, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria. |
| 09/2022 – present | Deputy head of the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria. |
| 09/2020 – 02.2025 | Associate Professor, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria. |
| 09/2019 - 11/2019 | Collaboration of Excellence Visiting Scholar, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy. |
| 05/2018 – 08/2020 | Assistant Professor with tenure track and Head of the Clinical Social Neuroscience Unit (CNS unit), Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria. |
| 05/2014 - 04/2018 | Senior post-doc and Head of the Clinical Social Neuroscience Unit (CNS unit), Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, University of Vienna, Austria. |
| 08/2010 - 12/2015 | Senior Researcher (Ricercatore a Tempo Determinato) and Head of the Collective Emotions and Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy. |
| 02/2007 - 07/2010 | Research Fellow (“Post-doc”), Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland. |
| 06/2006 - 12/2006 | Research Fellow (“Post-doc”), Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, UK. |
| 10/2004 - 05/2006 | Visiting Doctoral Student, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK. |
| 01/2002 - 02/2006 | Doctoral Student in Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. |
| 09/1999 - 12/2001 | Clinical neuropsychologist, Neuropsychology Laboratory, Niguarda Hospital, Milan, Italy. |
| 07/1998 - 08/1999 | Clinical neuropsychologist, Neurological Rehabilitation Department, Tradate Hospital, Varese, Italy. |
Education
| 06/2017 | Habilitation for attainment of Venia Legendi in Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria |
| 02/2006 | Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience (summa cum laude), University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. |
| 02/1998 | M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology (summa cum laude), University of Turin, Italy. |
Awards and Stipends
| December 2021 | International Social Research Prize, Lugano, CH |
| 2008 | Best Poster Award at the Italian Interdisciplinary Network on Alzheimer Disease (ITINAD) conference, Italy |
| June 2002 | Best Poster Award at the AIP (Italian Psychological Association), Italy |
Certificates
| 01/2005 | Certificate of Psychotherapist upon completion of four-year postgraduate course in psychotherapy, Institute for the Person-Centered Approach (founded by Carl Rogers), Varese, Italy. |
| 09/2003 | Certificate of Clinical Psychologist, University of Turin, Italy. |
Publications
Showing entries 1 - 10 out of 96
2025
Massaccesi, C., Zhang, L., Silani, G., & Lamm, C. (2025). Avoiding Pain to Others Motivates Effortful Prosocial Behavior. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Dreisoerner, A., Feneberg, A. C., Forbes, P. A. G., Pronizius, E., Piperno, G., Stijovic, A., Skoluda, N., Lamm, C., Silani, G., & Nater, U. M. (2025). Fatigue and Its Longitudinal Associations With Mood, Stress, Anxiety, and Hair Cortisol During the Lockdowns of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Cohort Study With Ecological Momentary Assessment. Biopsychosocial science and medicine, 87(9), 652-661. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000001433
Stijovic, A., Forbes, P., Pronizius, E., Feneberg, A., Piperno, G., Nater, U. M., Lamm, C., & Silani, G. (2025). Affective and Social Predictors of Food Consumption During the COVID-19 Lockdown. Biological Psychiatry, 97(10), 1002-1010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.02.007
Kraus, J., Mlynski, C., Hartmann, F., Clay, G., Goschke, T., Silani, G., & Job, V. (2025). The pleasure of effort: Cognitive challenges trigger hedonic physiological responses. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1546(1), 100-111. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15323
2024
Buehler, R., Ansorge, U., & Silani, G. (2024). Social attention in the wild - fixations to the eyes and autistic traits during a naturalistic interaction in a healthy sample. Scientific Reports, 14, Article 30102. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79210-8
Pronizius, E., Forbes, P. A. G., Feneberg, A. C., Miculescu, B., Nater, U. M., Piperno, G., Silani, G., Stijovic, A., & Lamm, C. (2024). Everyday helping is associated with enhanced mood but greater stress when it is more effortful. Scientific Reports, 14(1), Article 24120. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-75261-z
Keysers, C., Silani, G., & Gazzola, V. (2024). Predictive coding for the actions and emotions of others and its deficits in autism spectrum disorders. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews , 167, Article 105877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105877
Stijovic, A., Siegel, M., Kocan, A. U., Bojkovska, I., Korb, S., & Silani, G. (2024). Defining social reward: A systematic review of human and animal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 150(12), 1472-1509. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000455
Chiappini, E., Massaccesi, C., Korb, S., Steyrl, D., Willeit, M., & Silani, G. (2024). Neural Hyperresponsivity During the Anticipation of Tangible Social and Nonsocial Rewards in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Concurrent Neuroimaging and Facial Electromyography Study. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 9(9), 948-957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.04.006
Freund, A., Fuchshuber, J., Silani, G., & Unterrainer, H.-F. (2024). The relationship between attachment, primary emotions and positive/negative spirituality: a path analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, Article 1375850. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1375850, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1375850