Dr. Michelle Failla’s research focuses on understanding the role of social communication in pain responses and management. She is particularly interested in studying pain in populations with differences in social communication, across the lifespan, from autism spectrum disorder to Alzheimer’s Disease. She works to understand how altered neural processing of pain may contribute to differences in expression or experience of pain. She uses a variety of techniques such as psychophysics, neuroimaging, behavioral testing, and big-data approaches to investigate responses to physical pain.