A short introduction
My scientific career is focused on a key goal of Cognitive Neuroscience: The understanding of the neuroanatomical bases of individual differences in human cognition. I have mainly paid attention to three psychological aspects that represent particularly well what defines a human being: cognitive abilities, language skills, and social cognition.
In the field of cognitive abilities, I aimed at understanding the relationship between brain structure and intelligence, as well as how intellectual abilities change across time along with their neural basis, either spontaneously or induced by means of cognitive training –e.g., working memory training or videogame practice. In the field of language learning and brain plasticity, I researched how brain structure predicts individual differences in a second language acquisition, and how language experience shapes our brain, either structurally as a consequence of lifelong exposure (e.g., bilingualism) or functionally as a result of short-term exposures. In the field of social cognition, my goal was to better understand the brain mechanisms responsible for perceiving other people’s social status and what are the neural basis of the individual differences in sensitivity for social hierarchies.
In common to all my works it is possible to observe two main characteristics: A differentialist perspective –what is it that makes us differ in our abilities?-; and the use and advanced analysis of magnetic resonance imaging, always trying to disentangle how the structural properties of the brain (as opposed to its function) may account for individual differences observable in those three domains. These properties include gray matter morphology at the cortical and subcortical levels, as well as the integrity of brain connections in the white matter.