External Affiliates (6)

Alessandro Martini

Present position

Alessandro Martini is Full professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Padova University School of Medicine; previous Chief of ENT and  of Padova Hospital Neurosciences and Sense Organs Department; previous Director Universitary Neurocience Dept. and Bioacoustic Laboratory, University of Padova.

Major Research Interests

  • Genetic causes of deafness and on malformation pathology of ear, cochlear implants and implantable prothesis. Principal Investigator in many Italian and European research projects  (HEAR, GenDeaf, RegenEar).
  • In the Laboratory of Bioacoustics is carried out a research on molecular and in vitro cellular on neuronaland resulting organ of Corti cell lines, in order to analyze the causes of hearing disorders and correlated therapies.

Angelo Bisazza

Angelo Bisazza is Professor of Psychobiology at the University of Padova and member of the Accademia Galileiana.

His early research focused on inter- and intra-specific diversity in reproductive strategies in teleost fishes with emphasis on evolution of male ornaments through female mate choice. In early nineties, he described the presence of functional brain asymmetries in fish and amphibians and later he investigated the genetic and environmental factors influencing the direction and strength of brain asymmetries in fish as well as the selective advantages and the disadvantages of cerebral lateralisation.

In recent years his research addressed the evolution of cognitive abilities in vertebrates, investigating in particular the mechanisms underlying numerical abilities in teleost fishes.

Carlo Semenza

Graduated in Medicine, 17-7-1974, Diploma in Psychiatry, 26-7-1978 , University  of Padova.

Present Position: Full Professor, University  of Padova (2008-).

Full Professor of Neuropsychology University of Trieste, Italy (1995-2008).
Head of the Dept. of Psychology University of Trieste (1997-2000);
Head of Clinical Psychology School Trieste (1997-2000-2002);
Associate Professor University of Padova (1980-1995).

Research Fellow, Boston VA Hospital, 1977-1978, 1981, 1983;

Visiting Professor/Teaching: University  of Melbourne (1988), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1991), Boston University, (1991), Victoria University (1997), University of Athens, 2010, 2012, 2013, Basque Center for Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian (2013).

Founder-organiser European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy, 1983-present.

Francesca Simion

Present position

Full professor MPSI-04 (Developmental Psychology), University School of Psychology, University of Padova, Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation  (DPSS)

Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and Developmental Cognitive Psychology.

Director of the Neonatal Lab, located in UOC Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Pathology, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health Università di Padova- Azienda Ospedaliera.

Member of the Scientic Committees ERC and ANF.

Major Research interests

 The focus of my research is Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, the study of functional brain development over the first years of life. The key questions  concern  the innate predispositions of the human system at birth and how specialized cognitive functions emerge in the brain during development.

Gian Michele Ratto

Gian Michele Ratto graduated in Physics in Genova at the end of 1984 and right afterward he joined Roger Tsien laboratory in Berkeley as a post doc where he employed the newly synthetized dye fura2 to measure calcium dynamics in vertebrate photoreceptors during photo response.

After a brief period in Pisa with a fellowship from the Accademia dei Lincei, he moved to Cambridge (UK) until 1992 where he studied the cellular mechanisms of the early development of light sensitivity of mammalian photoreceptors.

He returned to Pisa in 1993 where he eventually joined Lamberto Maffei’s laboratory, and finally he became tenured scientist in 1997 at the Institute of Neuroscience.

Michela Sarlo

Michela Sarlo (Pesaro, 19/10/1970) is an Associate Professor in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology at the University of Padova, Department of General Psychology.

She received a MSc in Psychology (1996) and a PhD in Cognitive Sciences (2002) from the University of Padova.

Her primary areas of research and teaching include affective neuroscience and psychophysiology of emotion. Specifically, her current research interests are focused on:

  • the role of emotion in complex decision-making processes: neural and peripheral correlates of cognitive-emotional interaction;
  • the processing of threat stimuli in healthy individuals and in specific phobics: the attentional bias and its cortical, autonomic, and behavioral correlates;
  • the role of REM/NREM sleep on wake emotional processing and cognitive performance: the relationship between EEG activity, autonomic changes and behavior.