Short BIO

I began studying Experimental Psychology with a thesis on neural network modelling (2003) and went on to earn a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Sapienza University of Rome (2007). During my doctoral studies, I spent research periods at MIT in Cambridge (USA) and at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany), where I shifted towards neurophysiological methods and developed a focus on motor control. This new direction was further deepened and refined during a three-year research fellowship at the University of Ferrara (2007-2010). In 2010, I joined the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, initially as a Senior Postdoc and, in 2012, as Team Leader at the Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences. At IIT, I had the opportunity to contribute to the broader goal of studying humans to build better robots—and, in turn, using robots to better understand humans—an approach that has since shaped my way of thinking. This work was carried out in part through several EU-funded projects (Poeticon, Siempre, Poeticon++, and Entimement). In 2016, I joined the IIT Center for Translational Neurophysiology, hosted by the University of Ferrara, where the same conceptual framework has been further developed with a focus on clinical applications (e.g., EU projects CoBRA, PRIMI). In 2017, I became an Associate Professor, and in 2022, a Full Professor of Physiology at the University of Ferrara. To date, I have published about 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and have been honoured with more than 60 invitations to present my work. My scientific output has been cited over 6,000 times (Google Scholar).

Research interests

Neurophysiology of Motor Control

The Motor System in Action Perception

The Motor System in Speech Perception

Verbal and Non-Verbal Interpresonal Coordination

Main Methods

Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation; Electromyography; Electroencephalography; Motion Capture; Eye-Tracking

Current Positions

FULL PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY (since October 2022). University of Ferrara, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Section of Physiology

RESEARCHER (since Apr 2017). Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), CTNSC@UNIFE - Center for Translational Neurophysiology

COORDINATOR (since January 2025). Joint UNIFE-IIT PhD program in Translational Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies