HIT Featured Talks: Olivia Morgan Lapenta

Department of Developmental Psychology - Padua

09.02.2015

Modulating Multisensory Integration- and Mirror-Neurons - related cognitive processing with tDCS

Time: February 9th, 2015, 14.30

Venue:  Via Venezia 8, aula 1 DPG
Speaker:  Olivia Morgan Lapenta (CV)
Affiliation: Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, and visiting researcher at IIT in Genova

Abstract: 

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an effective, low cost, easy to use, safe and portable non-invasive neuromodulatory tool. For this reason it has been increasingly applied in experimental neuropsychological and neurophysiological investigations. An interesting field of tDCS research focus in understanding how multimodal stimuli are integrated. In this context it has been demonstrated that tDCS is an interesting tool to investigate influences of audio, visual and motor modalities into each other as well as to define the role of several associative areas in audio-visuo-motor perception and motor planning. Finally, given to its neuromodulatory effect, by uncovering the role of the abovementioned loci, future research can explore effects of modulating these networks in populations with impairments in multisensory integration.