People

The Per2Con people (PI, Post-Doc & PhD)

Manuela Piazza (Principal Investigator)

Manuela is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in the neural underpinnings of high-level cognition. Her work currently focusses on how the human brain transforms basic sensory-motor input in abstract representations of concepts. At the University of Trento she is Full Professor and member of the Committee for Recruitment and Career Advancement. She is also member of the Scientific Board of the French "Fyssen Foundation" and of the "Paris Child Brain Institute". Check her Google Scholar profile.

Marie Amalric (Visiting Fellow INSERM)

Marie is a recently appointed INSERM reseacher, based at NeuroSpin, France. Marie's research focuses on how the human brain learns, represents, and manipulates abstract mathematical concepts. Her projects look at the conceptual changes that occur over the course of math education in children and their neuronal underpinnings using a combination of behavioral and fMRI methods. She currently collaborates with the Per2Con on a study on "the language of logic in the human brain". Check her Google Scholar profile.

Paula Maldonado (Post-Doc researcher - Foundation Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto - CARITRO)

Paula's research focuses on how the human brain represents quantities and how it performs mental arithmetics. She used structural MRI to investigate the functional and structural brain changes occurring when adults learn novel arithmetical operations. Her current project investigates the learning trajectories of children with DSA, using neural and behavioural approaches. Check her Google Scholar profile.

Irene Petrizzo (Post-Doc researcher - Italian Ministry of University and of Research - PRIN)

Irene's research focuses on the neuro-cognitive indicators of the functional integrity of the dorsal visual pathway through the use of EEG and psycophysics. She is also interested in their development during the lifespan and in their alterations in dyscalculia. Check her Google Scholar profile.

Valerio Rubino (PhD student - European Next-Generation EU - PNRR)

Valerio is interested in learning and abstraction of structural forms. His work combines behavioural, modelling, and neuroimaging approaches.

 

Jessica Muraro (PhD student)

Jessica has a background in psychology and speech therapy. She formerly worked at the Child Neuropsychiatry Unit of the APSS, in Trento, as speech therapist; now on leave to get a PhD. Her research is twofold: on one side, she uses evidence-based approaches to evaluate the methodological quality of instruments currently used to assessing and treating learning disabilities. On the other side, her project delves in the study of space, time, and number perception and cognition in children with learning disabilities to better characterise their common and specific patterns of deficits in these areas.

Collaborators

Alumni (ex PhD/Post-Doc)​​

  • Alireza Karami PhD (now Post-Doc @ NeuroSpin, FR with S.Dehaene)
  • Elena Eccher PhD (now Post-Doc @ CIMeC, IT with G.Vallortigara)
  • Simone Viganò PhD (now Post-Doc @ Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Leipzig, DE with C.Doeller)
  • Gisella Decarli PhD (now Post-Doc @ DIPSCo, UNITN, IT)
  • Pedro Pinhero-Chagas PhD (now Assistant Professor @ UCSF, USA)
  • Valentina Borghesani PhD (now Assistant Professor @ University of Geneva, CH)
  • Qing Cai Post-Doc (now Professor @ NYU Shanghai, PRC)
  • Lola DeHevia Post-Doc (now Senior Researcher @ CNRS Paris, FR)
  • Andre Knops Post-Doc (now Senior Researcher @ CNRS Paris, FR)
  • Alessandro Chinello PhD (now Neuropsychologist @ Ospedale Policlinico, Milano, IT)
  • Susanna Revkin PhD (now Clinical Psychologist @ Praxisgemeinschaft Salvatorgasse Wien, A)

Masters and Trainees

2024-25
Masters: Gabriele Pierguidi, Michela Terzani
Trainees: Gaia Minari, Manuel Gallo, Cristina Groppali, Marta Mosele
2023-24
Masters: Riccardo Bonafini, Caterina Beltrame, Maria Giovanna Mulas, Ekim Celikai
Trainees: Tommaso Ballarini, Federico Graziani
2022-23
Masters: Carlos Vicente Esteves, Sangyeob Baek, Riccardo Bonafini, Maria Ivanova Gyurovska
Trainees: Tommaso Ballarini, Federico Graziani, Margherita Zocca, Giulia Vigna, Letizia Volpi
2021-22
Masters: Anna Burato, Cecilia Comoli
Trainees: Rebecca Barbieri
2020-21
Masters: Donatella Zingaro, Valerio Rubino
Trainees: Jessee Sagoe, Samantha Sartin, Chiara Di Domenico
2019-20
Masters: Giovanna Lucchini, Antonio DiSoccio
Trainees: Marlen Gironimi, Simone Offer, Arianna Cavagna
2018-19
Masters: Elena Eccher, Silvia Collazuol, Chiara Nardelli
Trainees: Giulia Sganzerla, Samuele Bolotta, Martina Zanotto, Vittoria Scuderi, Maria Ravera