Nata a San Cesario di Lecce (LE) il 15/02/1990, ha conseguito la laurea triennale in Scienze e Tecniche Psicologiche presso l’Università degli Studi di Torino nel 2012 e la laurea magistrale in Neuroscienze e Riabilitazione Neuropsicologica presso l’Università Alma Mater Studiorum di Bologna nel 2014, sviluppando una tesi finalizzata ad indagare meccanismi cognitivi e circuiti neurali implicati nella distinzione Sé-Altro in soggetti neurologicamente sani e pazienti affetti da cerebrolesione acquisita. Nel 2015 ha svolto attività di ricerca presso l’ImpAct Team (INSERM) diretto dal Prof. A. Farné presso il Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre (Lyon, France), prendendo parte ad un progetto di ricerca inerente l’integrazione multisensoriale visuo-acustica in pazienti affetti da negligenza spaziale unilaterale. Da novembre 2016 è studentessa di Dottorato in Neuroscienze Cliniche presso l’Università Degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca, all’interno del laboratorio diretto dalla Prof.ssa N. Bolognini (Laboratory for Multisensory and Neuromodulation Research), occupandosi dello studio della plasticità cerebrale nell’ambito della percezione multisensoriale e della rappresentazione corporea in soggetti neurologicamente sani e pazienti affetti da stroke e sclerosi multipla, attraverso l’utilizzo di tecniche di stimolazione cerebrale non invasiva (TMS, tDCS).
PROGETTO DI RICERCA
Multisensory integration and crossmodal plasticity: a neurophysiological approach
- Curriculum: Neuroscienze Cliniche
- Tutor: Nadia Bolognini
In the wide research field of multisensory integration, one of the most intriguing question is how multisensory interactions shape and drive brain plasticity. Integrating different multimodal signals streaming both from an object/an environmental event and from our body is essential for having a coherent and meaningful perceptual experience.
The present project faces this issue by investigating mechanisms of multisensory-based plasticity either in healthy individuals and in neurological patients (i.e. acquired-brain injury and multiple sclerosis). More specifically, multisensory perception and body representation will be assessed through different research techniques and approaches, including behavioral experimental paradigms, anatomo-clinical analyses and, from a neurophysiological perspective, by using non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). These neuromodulation techniques will be used as tools to uncover the neural correlates of multisensory capabilities, as well as for driving (or inhibiting) local plastic processes in selected neuronal populations in order to interact and modulate multisensory-based cerebral plasticity; on the other hand, such techniques will be applied in brain-damaged patients, in conjunction with multisensory-based therapies, with the aim to reinforce the innate ability of the brain to perceive multisensory events. The project has indeed the final goal to uncover mechanisms of multisensory integration in the human brain, whether and how they are affected by acquired-brain injuries and degenerative brain diseases, and their potential to support everyday adaptation to environmental changes.
