SARAH BOUKARRAS

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name: Sarah Boukarras
ORCID: 0000-0001-9118-4658
Web site: https://agliotilab.org/lab-staff/senior-fellows/sarah-boukarras#anchor
Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=NyaW04MAAAAJ&view_op=lis...
OSF profile: https://osf.io/profile/

∙ EDUCATION

2020 PhD in Psychology and Social Neuroscience
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Supervisor: Prof. Matteo Candidi.
2015 Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Rehabilitation
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

∙ CURRENT POSITION

11/2025 – Researcher (RTD-A in PSIC-01\B)
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

∙ PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2022 – 2025 Postdoc Researcher (Assegnista)
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
2020 – 2022 Postdoc Researcher
IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
2016 – 2020 PhD Candidate
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
6 to 11-2019 Visiting PhD student.
Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK
2 to 10-2016 Research Intern
Department of Psychology, University of Milano Bicocca, Italy

∙ FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

2025 SAPIExcellence BE-FOR-ERC grant (50.000 €) “Social synchrony in
technology-mediated professional interactions (SoSTechPro)”
2023 Sapienza Research grant Avvio alla Ricerca (2.100 €),
“Central and peripheral markers of conflict and error monitoring. Non-invasive
brain and vagus nerve stimulation studies.”
2022 Sapienza Research grant Avvio alla Ricerca (2.000 €),
“Bio-behavioural synchrony during motor interactions: does physiological
attunement improve dyadic performance?"
2016– 2019 3-years PhD Scholarship,
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
2 to 10 - 2016 8-months Fellowship for a research internship in Milano
Awarded by Regione Lazio (Italy)

∙ ADDITIONAL COURSES

2023 ‘Synchrony Conference Workshop 2023’ (Colchester, UK)
Theoretical and practical workshop on fNIRS hyperscanning
2022 ‘Electrograstrogram: Theoretical and Practical Implications’ (Roma, IT)
Hands-on workshop on measuring and analyzing EGG data from humans.
2019 ‘PredPsych’ (Genova, IT)
Workshop on R-based toolbox for machine learning in experimental psychology.
2018 ‘Immersive Virtual Reality’ (Roma, IT)
Workshop on programming and designing immersive virtual reality scenarios.
(software: XVR, 3DStudio Max, Unity).

∙ SUPERVISION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

2016 – 2015 Mater’s students: 10, PhD students: 3.

∙ TEACHING ACTIVITIES

2025 - Co-teacher (3 CFU) of the Organizational Neuroscience course, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
2022 – 2025 Cultore della materia – Organisational Neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Lectures (8 hours) + exams panel.
2021 – 2022 Cultore della materia – Experimental Methods in Social Neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Lectures (4 hours) + exams panel.
2021 – 2025 Hands-on lecture (2 hours) on non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (tDCS and tACS) for the Cognitive Neuroscience course, Sapienza University of Rome.

∙ ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS
∙
2021 Organizer of the international conference “Neuroscience Goes Social 4.0”
at Sapienza University of Rome

∙ REVIEWING ACTIVITIES

I served as ad-hoc reviewer for the following journals: SAGE Open, Social Neuroscience, Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Psychological Research, Scientific Reports, Cortex, Cerebral Cortex, NPJ Science of Learning, Nursing Open, Behaviour & Information Technology, Annals of the New York Academy of Science.

∙ RECENT SCIENTIFIC DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES

9-2025 Symposium (organizer) “The biological correlates of interpersonal adaptation:
measuring neurophysiological synchrony in social interactions across varying levels
of complexity” XXXIII Congresso SIPF - Verona
2-2025 Invited Talk: “Measuring emotional contagion in organizational contexts:
An interpersonal neuroscience approach” Amsterdam Leadership Lab – Vrije
Universiteit – Amsterdam (NL)
9-2024 Talk “Emotional expression and contagion in leaders: an interpersonal neuroscience
approach” – XX Congresso Nazionale della Sezione di Psicologia per le
Organizzazioni (AIP) - Bergamo
5-2024 Poster “The contagious leader: behavioural and physiological correlates of emotional
contagion in organizational settings” – Meeting of the European Society for
Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ESCAN) – Gent (BG)
8-2023 Invited Talk: “The emergence of physiological synchrony during joint action: the role
of task novelty and social anxiety”. Lab meeting of the PPSP team (Guillaume Dumas
lab) in Montreal (online).
7-2023 Talk: “The emergence of physiological synchrony during joint action and its
association with task-related motor parameters and dyadic personality traits”.
Conference: 9th Joint Action Meeting (Central European University, Budapest).
3-2023 Talk: “Investigating the emergence of physiological synchrony during joint action: the
role of task-related motor parameters and individual dispositions.” Conference:
Women in Social Neuroscience (online event: youtube link).
7-2022 Talk: “Physiological synchrony and its relationship with dyadic performance in a
joint grasping task”. Conference: Attuned2022 – The 1st conference on attunement
(Interlaken, Switzerland).
6-2022 Invited talk: “Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation as a tool to facilitate
human-avatar motor coordination”. International workshop “Is Neurodoping
different?”. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Roma 3, Roma

∙ PUBLICATIONS
● Placidi, V., Cuomo, G., Boukarras, S., Era, V., Aglioti, S. M., & Candidi, M. (2026). Interpersonal coordination with a virtual outgroup increases motor preparation demands but it is not modulated by mPFC inhibition. Social Neuroscience, 21(1), 42-61.
● Boukarras, S., Placidi, V., Schepisi, M., Era, V., Panasiti, M. S., & Candidi, M. (2025). People are less likely to selfishly deceive those who achieved status through virtue rather than dominance or competence. Royal Society Open Science, 12(11).
● Fusaro, M., Lisi, M. P., Era, V., Porciello, G., Candidi, M., Aglioti, S. M., & Boukarras, S. (2025). The Transformative Power of Virtual Reality: Redefining Interactions in Virtual Platforms, Education, Healthcare, and Workplaces. Topoi, 1-16.
● Boukarras, S., Placidi, V., Rossano, F., Era, V., Aglioti, S. M., & Candidi, M. (2025). Interpersonal physiological synchrony during dyadic joint action is increased by task novelty and reduced by social anxiety. Psychophysiology, 62(3), e70031.
● Boukarras, S., Ferri, D., Borgogni, L., & Aglioti, S. M. (2024). Neurophysiological markers of asymmetric emotional contagion: implications for organizational contexts. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 18, 1321130.
● Boukarras, S., Ferri, D., Frisanco, A., Farnese, M. L., Consiglio, C., Alvino, I., ... & Aglioti, S. M. (2022). Bringing social interaction at the core of organizational neuroscience. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.
● Boukarras, S., Garfinkel, S. N., & Critchley, H. D. (2022). Cardiac deceleration following positive and negative feedback is influenced by competence-based social status. Social Neuroscience, 17(2), 170-180.
● Boukarras, S., Özkan, D. G., Era, V., Moreau, Q., Tieri, G., & Candidi, M. (2022). Midfrontal theta transcranial alternating current stimulation facilitates motor coordination in dyadic human–avatar interactions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(5), 897-915.
● Boukarras, S., Era, V., Aglioti, S. M., & Candidi, M. (2021). Competence-based social status and implicit preference modulate the ability to coordinate during a joint grasping task. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-10.
● Boukarras, S., Era, V., Aglioti, S. M., & Candidi, M. (2020). Modulation of preference for abstract stimuli following competence-based social status primes. Experimental Brain Research, 238, 193-204.
● Minio-Paluello, I., Porciello, G., Gandolfo, M., Boukarras, S., & Aglioti, S. M. (2020). The enfacement illusion boosts facial mimicry. Cortex, 123, 113-123.
● Era, V., Boukarras, S., & Candidi, M. (2019). Neural correlates of action monitoring and mutual adaptation during interpersonal motor coordination: Comment on “The body talks: Sensorimotor communication and its brain and kinematic signatures” by G. Pezzulo et al. Physics of life reviews, 28, 43-45.

PUBLICATIONS IN PREPARATION/UNDER REVIEW/PREPRINTS

● Rossano, F., Placidi, V., Era, V., Candidi, M., Aglioti, S., & Boukarras, S. Multiverse Interpersonal Physiological Synchrony: quantifying the impact of parameters selection on Windowed Cross-Correlation results (under review)
● March, F; Boukarras, S; Frisanco, A; Ay, B; Bianchi, F; Consiglio, C; Borgogni, L; Ferri, D; Aglioti, S. Functional Infrared Thermal Imaging for the Ecological Investigation of Stress in Organizations: Review and Empirical Evidence from a Consulting Firm (under review)