Overview | Research directions | Members | Publications | Grants | Ongoing Collaborations

Overview

Growing evidence suggests that brain plasticity comprises interacting functional and structural components, yet how these components map onto each other and jointly shape behaviour remains one of the major open challenges in contemporary neuroscience. Our group addresses this problem by using transcranial non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS/rTMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), as causal tools to perturb cortical circuits and test how specific stimulation parameters translate into measurable changes in neural dynamics and cognitive outcomes.
A core principle guiding our work is that stimulation effects are not fixed “dose responses,” but emerge from the interaction between stimulation settings and the brain’s current operating regime. In particular, we focus on how moment-to-moment brain state, neural variability (often reflected in trial-to-trial fluctuations and neural noise), and the excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance jointly determine whether NIBS induces stable synaptic and cognitive plasticity or produces transient, non-specific effects. By treating variability as an informative signal rather than nuisance, we aim to identify markers of cortical readiness for change and predictors of individual responsiveness.

To dissect these mechanisms at the network level, we combine stimulation with high-temporal-resolution electrophysiology. TMS-EEG co-registration allows us to probe cognition while directly measuring how a controlled perturbation propagates through cortical circuits, revealing directed interactions and effective connectivity between regions. This approach enables us to (i) characterize the causal contribution of specific brain areas to behaviour, (ii) quantify how stimulation reshapes communication within and between networks, and (iii) determine how changes in E/I balance and neural variability modulate the strength, direction, and stability of these effective interactions. Ultimately, our goal is to build mechanistic, state-aware models of plasticity that link circuit dynamics to behaviour and support more precise, individualized stimulation protocols
 

Research directions

  • TMS-EEG coregistration in the exploration of the human cortical connectome
    The human brain is a complex network in which hundreds of brain regions are interconnected via thousands of anatomical pathways. Brain function emerges from the activation of these pathways, which can be dynamically reconfigured according to contingent demands. Such flexibility underlies the human brain’s ability to perform a wide variety of cognitive functions and to adapt and adjust to changing environments. We hypothesized that the efficiency of the brain is based on the system's ability to exploit the dynamics of these networks, and to selectively integrate sensory, cognitive, and motor representations at the appropriate level. In this context, a strategy to measure this dynamism is needed to probe the human brain and its integrity. This project aims to combine state-of-the-art multimodal neuroimaging and brain stimulation techniques, to achieve an advanced account of brain dynamics. To pursue this aim we propose an integrative approach, composed of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as well as TMS-EEG and EEG guided TMSfor the investigation of causal relationship brain-function.
  • Neurostimulation and neuromodulation for the induction of plasticity phenomena
    The core of the group activity is driven by the goal to understand if cortical plasticity can be induced and manipulated by means of non-invasive brain stimulation in healthy adult brains, to understand what is the relation between induced synaptic plasticity and cognitive plasticity, and how cognitive plasticity can be sustained by the activity of a “functional neuronal network” and how this network is related with the condition of the subject. To achieve these objectives, we use non-invasive brain stimulation techniques like TMS, rTMS, TBS and tES (i.e., tDCS, tACS, tRNS) alone or combined with other research methods (i.e., TMS-EEG co-registration).

Members

Publications

For a complete list see Carlo Miniussi personal page

Grants

  • MUR PRIN 2022 Adaptive Brain Connectivity and Cognition ABC&C (2023-2025).
  • HORIZON-WIDERA: TWINNIBS Twinning for excellence in non-invasive brain stimulation in Western Balkans. (2022-2025).

Ongoing Collaborations

  • Irina Harris, School of Psychology, Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
  • Jovana Bjekić & Saša R. Filipović, Human Neuroscience Group, Center for Neuroscience and Neuromodulation, Institute for Medical Research, University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Marta Bortoletto, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy
  • Maria Concetta Pellicciari, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, Università LUMSA Roma, Italy
  • Jesús Cespón & Susana Cid-Fernandez, NeuCogA-Aging, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  • Leo Tomasevich, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Germany