About me
I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (Greece), I did my PhD in Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Barcelona (Spain) and my postdoc at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institute (Sweden). In January 2020, I was promoted to assistant professor funded by a career development grant from the Karolinska Institutet. In May 2020, I set up my own independent group at the Department of Neuroscience as principal investigator.
I am interested in how the brain distinguishes between somatosensory reafference (touches that are produced by our voluntary movements) and somatosensory exafference (touches that are produced by external factors). To do so, I use psychophysical, kinematic, and electromyographic assessment, and neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, MEG) methods.
Lab page: https://www.kiltenilab.org/
Research description
Try to tickle yourself. No matter how hard you try, the resulting sensation will always feel less ticklish and less intense compared to the sensation produced by somebody else tickling you. In our lab, we study how the human brain predicts the somatosensory stimuli that are generated by our actions and how this prediction affects our perception.
Academic honours, awards and prizes
01.01.2020 – now Assistant Professor in Medical Science at Karolinska Institute (https://staff.ki.se/position-as-assistant-professor)
01.01.2020 – 31.12.2023 Starting Grant in Medicine and Health from the Swedish Research Council (https://www.vr.se/english/calls-and-decisions/grant-decisions/decisions/2019-08-06-medicine-and-health.html)
04.12.2019 Recognized as being among the top 10% most cited PLOS ONE authors
19.10.2019 – 23.10.2019 FENS Travel Grant (https://www.fens.org/News-Activities/News/20191/07/SfN-travel-grant-awardees-have-been-announced/)
10.2019 KI Travel Grant, Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (554€)
30.11.2018 Representative of Neuroscience Department of Karolinska Institute in the inauguration of the Biomedicum Research Facility as one of the six young promising researchers from Biomedicum.(https://ki.se/en/ki/calendar/inauguration-karolinska-institutet-biomedicum)
11.2018 – 10.2020 KI Research Grant, Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (9.000€)
07.2018 Article (Kilteni et al. 2018) featured in Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights for particularly interesting or important research ‘From Brain to Behaviour’ (https://www.nature.com/collections/ed-highlights-brain-behaviour)
10.2018 KI Travel Grant, Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (855€)
01.2017 – 01.2019 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowship, Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (score: 95.8%) (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/201238/brief/en)
01.2018 – 12.2018 Elected Treasurer of Karolinska Institute Postdoctoral Association, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
2016-2017 KI Research Grant, Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
01.2016 – 12.2016 Wenner Gren Foundation fellowship, Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden [second year of fellowship declined to accept the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship]
12.2013 ARFV/EuroVR Award for most promising research applied to Industry
2008 Thomaides Foundation Award for publishing original research article based on Diploma Thesis