MRC Career Development Award Fellow
School of Psychological Sciences & Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet St, London London WC1E 7HX
Phone: +44 (0)20 3926 1132

Office: 511, Malet St
Email: m.vaghi@bbk.ac.uk
Website: www.vaghilab.org & https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/9441673/matilde-vaghi

My research investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms that give rise to psychiatric symptoms. The lab employs a multimodal approach, integrating computational modelling, advanced neuroimaging, and pharmacological methods, to achieve an individual-level understanding of the neurocognitive basis of compulsivity. A central aim is to elucidate the brain mechanisms underlying the emergence, maintenance, and remission of psychiatric symptoms across the lifespan, with the ultimate goal of advancing personalised treatment approaches for individuals affected by psychiatric disorders.

I did my undergraduate degree in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience (BSc and MSc) at Vita-Salute San Raffaele, in Italy before moving to Cambridge to pursue a PhD in Experimental Psychology under the supervision of Trevor Robbins and Ed Bullmore (2017). After an initial postdoc in Cambridge, I moved to London to work at the MPC for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing research to work under the mentorship of Ray Dolan and Robb Rutledge. I was then awarded an independent Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award to work with Russ Poldrack at Stanford University. In 2024, I set up my group at Birkbeck University of London, funded by the MRC, where we seek to reach an individual-level understanding of the cognitive and brain mechanisms of compulsivity.

· 2024-2029: Medical Research Council – Career Development Award. £ 1,697,142

· 2020-2023: Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship. $ 163,980

· 2020-2022. NARSAD Young Investigator Grant. $ 70,000

· 2017-2018: Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry. £ 12,500

· 2017: Grindley Grant, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge. £ 1,600

Apergis-Schoute AM, van der Flier FE, Kanen JW, Vaghi MM, FIneberg NA, Sahakian BJ, Cardinal RN, Robbins TW. Perseveration and shifting in obsessive-compulsive disorder as a function of uncertainty, punishement and serotonergic modulation (2023). Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science .

Bedder RL, Vaghi MM, Dolan RJ, Rutledge RB. Risk taking for potential losses but not gains increases with time of day (2023). Scientific Reports 13: 5534.

Vaghi MM, Hagen MP, Jones HM, Bissett PG, Poldrack RA (2022). Specific psychiatric dimensions relate to worsening of self-regulation in response to stressful life events Translational Psychiatry 12: 171.

Marzuki AA, Vaghi MM, Conway-Morris A, Kaser M, Sule A, Apergis-Schoute AM, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW (2022). Atypical action updating in a dynamic environment associated with Adolescent obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 63: 1591-1601.

Isobe M, Vaghi MM, Fineberg NA, Apergis-Schoute AM, Bullmore ET, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW, Chamberlain SR (2021). Set-shifting related basal ganglia deformation as a novel familiarmarker of obsessive-compulsive disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry 22: 1-4.

Ersche KE, Lim TV, Murley A, Rua C, Vaghi MM, White TJ, Williams GBM, Robbins TW (2021). Reduced glutamate turnover in the putamen is linked with automatic habits in human cocaine addiction Biological Psychiatry, 89: 970-979.

Romero-Garcia R, Seidlitz J, Whitaker KJ, Morgan SE, Fonagy P, Dolan RJ, Jones PB, Goodyer IM, Suckling J, NSPN Consortium (2020). Schizotypy-related magnetization of cortex in healthy adolescence is colocated with expression of schizophrenia-related genes. Biological Psychiatry, 88: 248-259.

Vaghi MM, Moutoussis M, Váša F, Kievit RA, Hauser TU, Vértes PE, Shahar N, Romero Garcia R, Kitzbichler MG, Bullmore ET, NSPN Consortium, Dolan RJ (2020). Compulsivity is linked to reduced adolescent development of goal-directed control and fronto-striatal functional connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), 117:25911-25922.

Váša F, Romero-Garcia R, Kitzbichler MG, Seidlitz J, Whitaker KJ, Vaghi MM, Kundu P, Patel AX, Fonagy P, Dolan RJ, Jones PB, Goodyer IM, NSPN Consortium, Vértes PE, Bullmore ET (2020). Conservative and disruptive modes of adolescent change in human brain functional connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), 117: 3248-3253.

Gillan CM*, Vaghi MM*, Hezemans FH, van Ghesel Grothe S, Dafflon J, Brühl AB, Savulich G, Robbins TW (2020). Experimentally-induced and real-world acute anxiety have no effect on goal-directed behaviour. Psychological Medicine, 1-12.

Mihalik A, Ferreira FS, Rosa MJ, Moutoussis M, Ziegler G, Monteiro JM, Portugal L, Adams RA, Romero-Garcia R, Vértes PE, Kitzbichler MG, Váša F, Vaghi MM, Bullmore ET, Fonagy P, Goodyer IM, Jones PB, NSPN Consortium, Dolan R, Mourão-Miranda J (2019). Brain behaviour modes of covariation in healthy and clinically depressed young people. Scientific Reports, 9: 11536.

O’ Callaghan C, Vaghi MM, Brummerloh B, Cardinal R, Robbins TW (2019). Impaired awareness of action-outcome contingency and causality during healthy aging and following ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions. Neuropsychologia, 128: 282-289.

Robbins TW, Vaghi MM, Banca P (2019). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Puzzles and Prospects. Neuron, 102: 27-47.

Vaghi MM, Cardinal RN, Apergis-Schoute AM, Sule A, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW (2019). Action-outcome knowledge dissociates from behavior in obsessive-compulsive disorder following contingency degradation. Biological Psychiatry: CNNI, 4: 200-209.

Ghio M, Haegert K, Vaghi MM, Tettamanti M (2018). Sentential negation of abstract and concrete conceptual categories: a brain decoding MVPA study. Philosophical Transactions R. Soc. 5: 373.

Fineberg NA, Apergis-Schoute AM, Vaghi MM, Banca P, Gillan CM, Voon V, Chamberlain SR, Cinosi E, Reid J, Shahper S, Bullmore ET, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW (2018). Mapping Compulsivity in the DSM-5 Obsessive Compulsive and related disorders: cognitive domains, neural circuitry and treatment. International Journal Psychopharmacology, 21: 42-58.

Vaghi MM, Hampshire A, Fineberg NA, Brühl AB, Sahakian BJ, Chamberlain SR, Robbins TW (2017). Hypoactivation and dysconnectivity of a fronto-striatal circuit during goal-directed planning as an endophenotype for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Biological Psychiatry: CNNI, 2: 655-663.

Vaghi MM*, Luyckx F*, Sule A, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW, De Martino B (2017). Compulsivity reveals a novel dissociation between action and confidence. Neuron, 96: 348-354.

Tettamanti M, Vaghi MM, Bara BG, Cappa SF, Enrici I, Adenzato M (2017). Effective connectivity gateways to the Theory of Mind network in processing communicative intention. Neuroimage, 155: 169-176.

Vaghi MM, Vértes PE, Kitzbichler MG, Apergis-Schoute AM, van der Flier FE, Fineberg NA, Sule A, Zaman R, Voon V, Kundu P, Bullmore ET, Robbins TW (2017). Specific frontostriatal circuits for impaired cognitive flexibility and goal-directed planning in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evidence from resting-state functional connectivity. Biological Psychiatry, 81: 708 717.

Bandelow B, Baldwin D, Abelli M, Bolea-Alamanac B, Bourin M, Chamberlain SR, Cinosi E., Davies S., Domschke K, Fineberg N, Grunblatt E, Marke J, Kim Y, Maron E, Masdrakis V, Mikova O, Nutt D, Pallanti S, Pini S, Strohle A, Thibaut F, Vaghi MM, Won E, Wedekind D, Wichniak A, Woolley J, Zwanzger P, Riederer P (2017). Biological markers for anxiety disorders, OCD and PTSD: A consensus statement. Part II: Neurochemistry, neurophysiology and neurocognition. The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 18: 162-214.

Bandelow B, Baldwin D, Abelli M, Altamura C, Dell’Osso B, Domschke K, Fineberg N, Grunblatt E, Jarema M, Maron E, Nutt D, Pini S, Vaghi MM, Wichniak A, Zai G, Riederer P (2016). Biological markers for anxiety disorders, OCD and PTSD - a consensus statement. Part I: Neuroimaging and genetics. The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 17: 321-365.

Ghio M, Vaghi MM, Perani D, Tettamanti M (2016). Decoding the neural representation of fine grained conceptual categories. Neuroimage. 132: 93–103.

Ghio M*, Vaghi MM*, Tettamanti M (2013). Fine-grained semantic categorization across the abstract and concrete domains. PLoS ONE. 8: e67090.

Vaghi MM (2021). Neurocognitive endophenotypes of OCD Ed. Fineberg & Robbins, Springer Nature

Chamberlain SR, Solly JE, Hook RW, Vaghi MM, Robbins TW (2021). Cognitive inflexibility in OCD and related disorders Ed. Fineberg & Robbins, Springer Nature