Flavia Aluisi

M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna (2012)
Part of the thesis was conducted at the University of Crete (Greece), where she investigated the morphology and neural connections of the Superior Colliculus in animal models.

Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University of Haifa (Israel, 2019)
Dissertation on the role of the dorsolateral striatum in multidimensional learning. The work introduced an innovative computational model (Weighted Attention Model) to dissociate learning from decision-making processes.

April 2025 – Present
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Bologna – DIBINEM
Project: "Role of the medial fronto-parietal circuit in non-human primates"
Supervisor: Prof. Patrizia Fattori
Funding: Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) – MNESYS Project
Activities: In vivo neural recordings in non-human primates, surgical targeting, data analysis, and computational modeling.

July 2022 – March 2025
Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago, USA)
Lab PI: Prof. Mark Bevan
Funding: NIH – National Institutes of Health; ASAP – Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s
Research on basal ganglia and Parkinson’s disease using in vivo recordings and optogenetic manipulations in transgenic mouse models.

September 2019 – June 2022
Postdoctoral Fellow, CNRS – Université de Paris, Spatial Orientation Group
Lab PIs: Dr. Desdemona Fricker, Dr. Mathieu Beraneck
Funding: ANR – Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France)
High-density electrophysiological recordings of bursting neurons in the presubiculum; multimodal manipulation of sensory inputs during passive head rotations.

June 2019 – July 2019
Visiting Researcher, IMN – Université de Bordeaux
Supervisor: Dr. Thomas Boraud
Funding: Internal IMN-CNRS funding
Research in executive control circuits within the basal ganglia.

• Aluisi, F., Rubinchik, A., & Morris, G. (2018). Animal Learning in a Multidimensional Discrimination Task as Explained by Dimension-Specific Allocation of Attention. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00356

• Aluisi, F., Callahan, J., Lara Gonzalez, E., Brophy, M., Bevan, M. Progressive dysregulation of external globus pallidus activity in the Mito-Park model of Parkinson’s disease. (In preparation)

• Kour, G., Aluisi, F., Morris, G. Animal behavior reveals a novel mechanism for attention update in multidimensional decisions. (Under review)

• Aluisi, F., Callahan, J., Lara Gonzalez, E., Brophy, M., Bevan, M.
  Progressive dysregulation of external globus pallidus activity in the Mito-Park model of Parkinson’s disease
  Gordon Research Conference on Basal Ganglia, Ventura (CA), USA – March 2024
  Funding: NIH-NINDS (R01 NS041280, R01 NS121174) and ASAP 020600

• Aluisi, F., Dauguet, M., Simonnet, J., Laurens, J., Graupner, M., Fricker, D.
  Characterization of directionally tuned signals in mouse Presubiculum during passive rotation using high-density probes
  FENS Forum, Paris – July 2022
  Funding: ANR – Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), BURST Project

• Aluisi, F., Kour, G., Zahar, Y., Retailleau, A., Morris, G.
  A novel paradigm for multidimensional set shifting in rats
  International Basal Ganglia Society (IBAGS) – Mérida, Mexico – March 2017
  Funding: University of Haifa, Sagol Department of Neurobiology

• Aluisi, F., Rubinchik, A., Morris, G.
  A novel paradigm for multidimensional set shifting in rats
  Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN) – Eilat, Israel – December 2016

• In vivo electrophysiology: Neuropixels, Cheetah (Neuralynx), SpikeGLX in rodent and primate models

• Behavioral analysis: DeepLabCut for pose estimation; design of multimodal decision-making paradigms

• Programming: MATLAB and Python for signal processing, data analysis, visualization, and simulation

• Machine learning: Supervised learning models, classification of neural signals, pattern decoding

• Animal training and ethics: Operant conditioning; experimental design in compliance with EU animal research directives

• Statistical modeling: Advanced statistical inference and computational modeling for decision-making processes

• Data processing & visualization: MATLAB, Python (Pandas, Seaborn, Matplotlib), Jupyter, GraphPad Prism

• Data management: SQL; FAIR-compliant data handling

• Scientific illustration: Adobe Illustrator, BioRender, Affinity Designer

• Experimental systems: LabVIEW for real-time behavioral control

• Productivity & collaboration: Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Microsoft Office, Overleaf, GitHub

• Italian: Native

• English: Fluent (C1)

• French: Intermediate (B1)