We study how the human brain learns and organizes abstract representations of concepts in memory starting from basic sensory-motor experience. We try to understand which aspects of perception and action act as fundamental building blocks for the development and acquisition of abstract concepts and how language and symbolic acquisitions, in turn, shape perception and action.

 

We mainly study human adults at the Experimental Psychology Labs and the NeuroImaging Labs @CIMeC, combining psychophysics with neuroimaging (fMRI, M-EEG).

 

We also study children with different cognitive/perceptual skills (e.g. dyscalculics and/or dyslexics and typically developing) and infants from the first hours of life at the BabyLab and at the Neonatal Neuroimaging Unit @CIMeC, using experimental psychology methods as well as neuroimaging (EEG).

 

Finally, sometimes we have the privilege to perform field work investigating the effects of culture on cognitive/perceptual skills, studying adults and children from amazonian and african indigenous traditional oral cultures.

 

Our research spans over two main areas: language and maths.