Associate Professor

WORK EXPERIENCE

AA 2024-now
Associate Professor of Physiology, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Department of medical biotechnology and translational medicine, Università degli studi di Milano, La Statale

22 April 2013
Phd in Neuroscience, Coordinator Prof. Vittorio Gallese, Università degli studi di Parma, Department of Human Physiology. Discussion of the thesis: "Somato-motor integration in the posterior perisilvian regions of the macaque: electrophysiological evidence and possible contribution to haptic recognition of objects"

11 July 2007
Degree in Clinical Psychology with an experimental thesis entitled: Memory as a cognitive probe in emotional processes: a neurophysiological approach, Università degli studi di Parma.

SCIENTIFIC INTEREST
I am primarily engaged in a multidisciplinary research project at the intersection of functional neurosurgery, intraoperative
neurophysiology, motor and cognitive neuroscience, aiming to investigate:
1. Cortico-subcortical networks involved in upper limb muscle control during object manipulation;
2. The role of the premotor cortex in the genesis of sensorimotor awareness;
3. Networks underlying the unique human praxis abilities.
4. The neural representation of muscle synergies.
In this context, I focus on integrating behavioural outcomes induced by direct electrical stimulation (DES) during awake brain surgery with electrophysiological recordings (EMG, ECoG) and neuroimaging techniques. This research is conducted in collaboration with the MoCA Lab, directed by Professor Gabriella Cerri (Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan), and the Neurosurgical Unit led by Professor Lorenzo Bello (Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan). In recent years, I have also initiated a complementary line of research in collaboration with Dr. Maurizio Ferrarin at the IRCCS Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, focusing on the neural representation of muscle synergies in healthy subjects combining high density EEG and EMG during controlled motor tasks, with the aim of bridging experimental and intraoperative electrophysiological findings.