Konstantina Kilteni
E-mail: konstantina.kilteni@ki.se
Visiting address: ,
Postal address: C4 Neurovetenskap, C4 Forskning Kilteni, 171 77 Stockholm
About me
I am an Assistant Professor (biträdande lektor) at the Neuroscience Department of KI. I run the Somatosensation and Gargalesis lab (kiltenilab.org) and I am interested in touch and tickle sensations.
Research
Anything related to touch fascinates me!
Our research focuses on understanding how we perceive touch (somatosensation) and tickle (gargalesis). In particular, we want to know why we perceive touch that is produced by our own movements different from the touch of other people, and how the brain best supports this distinction. We are also interested in understanding what makes touch ticklish and why our brain does not allow to tickle ourselves. To answer our questions, we perform behavioral and neuroimaging experiments with healthy participants.
Teaching
I am co-organizing and teaching in the course Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroanatomy at KI.
Articles
- Journal article: ISCIENCE. 2025;28(2):111643
- Journal article: COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY. 2024;7(1):522
- Article: ELIFE. 2023;12:e90912
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF THE NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES. 2023;455:122488
- Article: JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY. 2023;130(4):871-882
- Article: JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE. 2023;43(28):5251-5263
- Article: SCHIZOPHRENIA. 2022;8(1):57
- Article: ISCIENCE. 2022;25(4):104077
- Article: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE. 2021;54(7):6422-6444
- Article: PAIN. 2021;162(5):1539-1544
- Article: ISCIENCE. 2020;23(2):100843
- Article: JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE. 2020;40(4):894-906
- Article: ELIFE. 2019;8:e42888
- Article: PLOS ONE. 2019;14(1):e0209899
- Article: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. 2018;9(1):1617
- Article: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 2017;114(31):8426-8431
- Article: COGNITION. 2017;165:1-9
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2016;6:30628
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2016;6:28879
- Article: FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE. 2016;10:145
- Article: PLOS ONE. 2016;11(2):e0148060
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2015;5:13948
- Journal article: FRONTIERS IN ROBOTICS AND AI. 2014;:9
- Article: PRESENCE-VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY. 2012;21(4):373-387
- Article: PLOS ONE. 2012;7(7):e40867
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All other publications
- Preprint: PSYARXIV. 2025
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2024
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2024
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2023
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2023
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2023
- Book chapter: SOMATOSENSORY RESEARCH METHODS: NEUROMETHODS. 2023;p. 35-53
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2022
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2022
- Editorial comment: JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY. 2021;126(4):967-975
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2021
- Preprint: RESEARCH SQUARE. 2020
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2020
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2019
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2019
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2019
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2019
- Conference publication: COGNITIVE PROCESSING. 2018;19:S16
- Review: FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE. 2015;9:141
- Conference publication: 2014 IEEE VIRTUAL REALITY (VR). 2014;:167-168Demonstration: VR-HYPERSPACE- The Innovative Use of Virtual Reality to Increase Comfort by Changing the Perception of Self and Space
- Published conference paper: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS. 2013;19(4):597-605
- Conference publication: 2013 IEEE VIRTUAL REALITY CONFERENCE (VR). 2013;:1Drumming in Immersive Virtual Reality: The Body Shapes the Way We Play
- Corrigendum: PRESENCE-VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY. 2013;22(1):88
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Grants
- Self vs others: perceptual and neural mechanisms of self-touchSwedish Research Council1 May 2025 - 30 April 2028
- Encoding of tactile expectations during voluntary movement1 January 2025 - 31 December 2026
- The Puzzle of Self-Tickling: From Darwin’s observations to modern neuroscience insightsBIAL Foundation1 January 2025 - 31 December 2026
- The ticklish brainDutch Research Council1 November 2024 - 31 October 2025
- The neuroscience of human tickle perceptionEuropean Research Council1 January 2023 - 31 December 2027
- Group Leader Grant in MedicineÃ…ke Wiberg Foundation1 January 2023 - 30 November 2024
- Tactile predictionsKI Research Grant1 January 2023 - 31 December 2024
- Swedish Research Council1 January 2020 - 31 December 2023
- Group Leader Grant in MedicineÃ…ke Wiberg Foundation1 January 2020 - 31 December 2021
- Startup Grant in NeuroscienceStrategic Research Program in Neuroscience1 January 2020 - 31 December 2021
- KI Research GrantKI Research Grant1 January 2018 - 31 December 2019
- Marie Sklodowska Curie postdoctoral fellowshipEuropean Commission1 January 2017 - 31 December 2018
- Wenner-Gren Postdoctoral fellowshipWenner-Gren Foundation1 January 2016 - 31 December 2016
- KI Research GrantKI Research Grant1 January 2016 - 31 December 2017
Employments
- Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, 2020-
Degrees and Education
- PhD, Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, 2014
- Bachelor and Master degree, Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 2008
Distinction and awards
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow of the Week, European Commission, 2023
- Outstanding female academic by Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, 2023
- Unity of Women and Science, Spanish Ministry of Science, 2023
- ERC Starting Grant Research Highlights, European Research Council, 2022
- Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions ambassador, European Commission, 2018
Supervision
- T Stephani, 2024
- A Hoffmann, 2024
- N Cemeljic, 2023
- Z Xiong, 2023
- Leonie Seidel, 2022
- X Job, 2020
Visiting research fellowships
- Postdoc Cognitive Neuroscience, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡
Thesis evaluation
- S Abagnale, Opponent, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 2024
- M Azaroual, Opponent, Inserm, 2024
- J Rudolph, Examination board member, Radboud University Nijmegen, 2024
- N Paraskevoudi, Opponent, University of Barcelona, 2022
Other expert reviewer/evaluation assignment
- Evaluator of major research grant applications in local competition, Dutch Research Council, 2024
- Evaluator of major research grant applications in local competition, KID PhD grant evaluator, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, 2023
- Evaluator of research applications in national competition, Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, 2023
- Evaluator of research applications in national competition, Südtirol Research Foundation, 2021
- Evaluator of research applications in international competition, EU Expert Project Reviewer, European Council, 2020
- Evaluator of research applications in national competition, Israel Science Foundation, 2020
- Evaluator of research applications in international competition, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Evaluator, European Commission, 2019
- Evaluator of research applications in national competition, Swiss National Science Foundation, 2019