Dr Paola Araiza-Alba

Dr Paola Araiza-Alba is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Project Lead at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne. Her research sits at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and immersive technology, with a focus on how people perceive their bodies and how these processes relate to mental health. 

She leads research within the Body Perception Box project, where she investigates the neural and computational processes underlying body image disturbance and develops virtual reality based embodiment interventions. Her work combines experimental neuroscience methods with immersive technologies to test how changing perceptual experiences can produce measurable improvements in mental health related outcomes. 

Before joining the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Paola led cognitive neuroscience research in the immersive technology sector, focusing on AI and virtual reality approaches to emotional regulation, sleep, and wellbeing. Her work aims to bridge fundamental neuroscience with scalable, technology enabled mental health interventions. 

🔗 Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S0hDxa4AAAAJ&hl=en