Publications
Selected publications (first / last author)
Preprints
#shared authorship
Sambuco#, N., Lupo#, A., Hawkins, P.C.T., Selvaggi, P., Antonucci, L.A., Bertolino, A., Blasi, G., … Mehta, M.A., Pergola, G. Reproducible human reward imaging phenotypes exhibit differential sensitivity to dopamine D2 receptor antagonism. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.14.724267v2
Sambuco, N., Versace, F. What a stimulus predicts, not what it depicts, determines striatal reward signals. bioRxiv. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.10.724107v1
Sambuco, N., Versace, F., Cinciripini, P.M., Robinson, J.D., Cui, Y., Bradley, M.M., Minnix, J.A. Emotion regulation or dual task? Dissociation of neural and behavioral measures. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.17.719189
Dang#, V., Sambuco#, N., Yammine, L., Versace, F. Do GLP-1 receptor agonists alter brain responses to reward-related cues? A systematic review. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.31.702984
Passiatore#, R., Sambuco#, N., Stolfa#, G., Antonucci, L.A., Bertolino, A., Blasi, G., Fazio, L., Goldman, A.L., Grassi, L., Grasso, D., Lupo, A., Mazza, C., Monteleone, A.M., Rampino, A., Ulrich, W.S., Whitman, E.T., Hariri, A.R., Weinberger, D.R., the Apulian Network on Risk for Psychosis, Pergola, G. Estimated head motion contributes to case-control magnetic resonance imaging morphometry differences in schizophrenia. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.04.26347600 #shared authorship
2026
Sambuco, N., Versace, F., Taylor, B.A. Cortical and subcortical signatures of incentive salience attribution in tobacco use disorder. Addiction Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/adb.70151
Sambuco, N., Scaramuzzi, G. F., Gasparre, D., Cornacchia, E., Bonvino, A., Antonucci, L. A., Pergola, G. & Taurisano, P. Baseline brain volumes predict cognitive decline more robustly than atrophy rates: Evidence for brain reserve. Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.03.022
2025
Sambuco, N., Bradley, M. M. & Lang, P. J. Amygdala structure and function: Association with transdiagnostic trauma severity in anxiety and mood disorder patients. Psychophysiology, 62(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70027
Sambuco, N., Stevens, E. M. & Versace, F. Beneath the surface of self-reports: Dissecting subjective and neural responses to age-specific visual stimuli. Psychophysiology, 62:e70013, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70013
2024
Sambuco, N. Cognition, emotion, and the default mode network. Brain and Cognition, 182, 106229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2024.106229
Sambuco, N. & Bradley, M. M. Amygdala and hippocampal activation in emotional imagery. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15091
2023
Sambuco, N., Bradley, M. M. & Lang, P. J. Dimensional distress and orbitofrontal thickness in anxiety patients. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 111708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111708
Sambuco, N., Bradley, M. M. & Lang, P. J. Hippocampal and amygdala volumes vary with transdiagnostic psychopathological dimensions of distress, anxious arousal, and trauma. Biological Psychology, 177, 108501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108501
2022
Sambuco, N. fMRI replicability during emotional scene viewing: Functional regions and sample size. Psychophysiology, 59(6), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14000
Sambuco, N., Bradley, M. M. & Lang, P. J. Narrative imagery: Emotional modulation in the default mode network. Neuropsychologia, 164, 108087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108087
Sambuco, N., Mickle, A. M., Garvan, C., Cardoso, J., Johnson, A. J., Kusko, D. A., Addison, A., Glover, T. L., Staud, R., Redden, D., Goodin, B., Fillingim, R. B. & Sibille, K. T. Vulnerable dispositional traits and chronic pain: Predisposing but not predetermining. The Journal of Pain, 23(4), 693–705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2021.11.007
Bradley, M. M. & Sambuco, N. Emotional memory and amygdala activation. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16, 896285. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.896285
2021
Sambuco, N. Sex differences in the aging brain? A voxel-based morphometry analysis of the hippocampus and the amygdala. NeuroReport, 32(16), 1320–1324. https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0000000000001728
Sambuco, N., Bradley, M. M. & Lang, P. J. Trauma-related dysfunction in the fronto-striatal reward circuit. Journal of Affective Disorders, 287, 359–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.03.043
2020
Sambuco, N., Bradley, M. M., Herring, D. R. & Lang, P. J. Common circuit or paradigm shift? The functional brain in emotional scene perception and emotional imagery. Psychophysiology, 57(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13522
Sambuco, N., Costa, V. D., Lang, P. J. & Bradley, M. M. Assessing the role of the amygdala in fear of pain: Neural activation under threat of shock. Journal of Affective Disorders, 276, 1142–1148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.07.110
Sambuco, N., Costa, V. D., Lang, P. J. & Bradley, M. M. Aversive perception in a threat context: Separate and independent neural activation. Biological Psychology, 154, 107926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107926
2018
Padmala#, S., Sambuco#, N., Codispoti, M. & Pessoa, L. Attentional capture by simultaneous pleasant and unpleasant emotional distractors. Emotion, 18(8), 1189–1194. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000401 #shared authorship