"Language is the main ability that makes us human"

My deep interest in the neural underpinnings of language processing has led me to work in several excellent institutions in Europe:  Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), KU Leuven (Belgium), Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC – University of Trento) (Italy) and the Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy (CRAN - Université de Lorraine (UL) and French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS)) (France). Mobility gave me the chance to become an expert in several neuroscientific methods at the intersection of experimental neuropsychology, neuroimaging and computational science.

Funded by a prestigious senior FWO (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen) fellowship, I am currently senior postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven (Belgium) and visiting postdoctoral researcher at Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy (CRAN, France) UMR 7039, CNRS. In my research I am currently addressing the neurobiology of meaning compositing during implicit processing  by combining neuroimaging techinques (i.e., fMRI, EEG ), cutting-edge statistical analysis (MVPA, RSA), and NLP models.

Since 2020, I am adopting advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) models to test the hypothesis that medial and anterior temporal cortex, posterior middle temporal gyrus and angular gyrus differentially contribute to the representation of word meaning depending on the context, in particular the relative weight of episodic and semantic memory content within a paragraph. Specifically, we are investigating how a specific NLP marker – Time - is represented in the brain activity patterns by means of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Previously (2018-2020), I conducted postdoctoral research in semantic processing at The FairLab, which is housed at Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) of the University of Trento. 

During my PhD training (2013-2018) at KU Leuven, under the guidance of Prof. Rik Vandenberghe and Prof. Patrick Dupont, I combined neuroimaging (fMRI), cutting-edge multivariate methods (i.e. Multivariate Pattern Analysis (MVPA) and Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA)) and computational models in order to investigate how the semantic meaning of written words is represented in the human brain. 

Since 2018, I have been board member of WiNRepo (Women in Neuroscience Repository), an online repository aiming at increasing the visibility of women in neuroscience and women from under-represented countries. We recently authored a white paper, published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, which has been supported by over 50 eminent scientists. Currently, we are collaborating with several organizations (e.g., Black in Neuro, Brainhack, Alba network (FENS)) and institutions (e.g., FWO) by helping them with analyzing data and providing strategies for improving gender balance and diversity. I also volunteer for the “Penne amiche della scienza”, the Italian version of “Letter to a pre-scientist”, which aims at humanizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals, demystify STEM career pathways and inspire young students to explore a future in STEM.