Paula Alarcón

My main interest lies in understanding how sure we are of what we feel at a given moment, i.e. metacognition of affective states.
Studies on metacognition of emotion recognition have shown that we do know when we correctly recognise particular emotional states in others, but it remains unknown whether we are similarly able to do it for our own emotions. My aim is to investigate metacognitive monitoring of our own affective states, whether this ability can be trained via meditation practices, and whether it is impaired in autistic individuals. I plan to do that by comparing subjective reports of emotion to brain (EEG) and peripheral activity recordings, indicative of emotional responses.

Besides neuroscience, I have a thing for visual art, Japanese culture, and indie music.