Lino Nobili
Department of Neurosciences (DINOGMI), University of Genoa. IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini
Biological naturalist Consciousness requires living metabolic hardware
Lino Nobili is a professor of child neuropsychiatry and neurology at the University of Genoa and IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, after leading stereo-EEG sleep and epilepsy research at Niguarda Hospital in Milan. His intracranial recordings in human patients demonstrated that sleep and wakefulness are not uniform whole-brain states, showing that local cortical columns and thalamic circuits can enter slow-wave sleep while other regions remain wake-like.
In long-standing collaboration with Marcello Massimini and Andrea Pigorini, Nobili’s stereo-EEG work established the intracellular and local field basis of cortical OFF-periods during sleep and pathological unconsciousness. In October 2026, he co-authored “Simultaneous recordings link intracranial and scalp correlates of somatosensory awareness” (bioRxiv 10.64898/2026.10.03.756393), pairing depth electrodes in insulo-opercular cortex with high-density scalp EEG to isolate the generator of the somatosensory awareness negativity.
His work anchors the clinical neurophysiology of state transitions, showing how local bistability and region-specific tonic activation govern whether a sensory signal enters conscious experience.
Known for. Intracranial stereo-EEG of human sleep, local sleep-wake dissociations, simultaneous intracranial and scalp correlates of conscious awareness
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- Marcello MassiminiUniversity of MilanThe Perturbational Complexity Index, TMS-EEG measurement of consciousness, disorders of consciousness assessment, sleep slow waves
- Andrea PigoriniDepartment of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of MilanIntracranial stereo-EEG and single-pulse electrical stimulation of human cortex, simultaneous sEEG and high-density scalp EEG of somatosensory awareness, cortical bistability and OFF-periods
- Simone RussoDepartment of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of MilanSimultaneous intracranial sEEG and high-density scalp EEG recordings of somatosensory awareness, cortical response dynamics
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- Tristan A. BekinschteinDepartment of Psychology / Consciousness and Cognition Lab, University of CambridgeClinical biomarkers of consciousness, local-global auditory paradigm, transitions from wakefulness to sedation, neural dynamics of awareness
- Tomas Berjaga-BuisanComputational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, BarcelonaNon-equilibrium thermodynamics of whole-brain models, fluctuation-dissipation theorem violations as a non-invasive consciousness marker
Lino Nobili is listed with the other biological naturalists, who hold that consciousness requires living metabolic hardware. The theory family behind that position is set out in the index of consciousness theories. Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers.