Lucia Maria Sacheli

I am an experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. I graduated in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca (2009) and I obtained my PhD in Cognitive, Social and Affective Neuroscience (2013) at Sapienza University of Rome. I am currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, where I coordinate and co-supervise post-docs and PhD students working on various cognitive neuroscience projects in human participants.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

My research activity revolves around the neuro-cognitive mechanisms underlying social and motor interactions, the impact of social and personality variables on these mechanisms, and their development throughout the life-span, from early childhood to aging. I address these topics in behavioral studies including neurophysiological measures (obtained with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques or functional magnetic resonance imaging) and/or the measurement of movement kinematics (with motion capture techniques), and by studying motor interactions in neurological and psychiatric populations and in atypical development.

I have also carried out studies aimed at exploring experience-dependent plasticity by investigating the impact of motor experience (for example, in musicians) and of learned non-use (for example, in orthopedic patients) on motor planning and on the ability to predict others’ actions, and the potential of rehabilitation protocols based on motor imagery and imitation for the recovery of motor deficits.

More recently, I have been exploring new intervention options for treating specific learning disorders.

Topics for PhD Research Projects:

• Social disturbances in acquired or developmental pathological conditions
• Rehabilitation of motor deficits through motor cognition
• Treatment protocols in specific learning disorders

ADDITIONAL INFO

Link to ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lucia-Maria-Sacheli