Laboratory of Methodologies in Neurorehabilitation

The Laboratory of Methodology in Neurorehabilitation studies and develops innovative methods and analyses relevant to the field of rehabilitation, with focus on clinical applications. The laboratory’s research activities are organized along three main lines:

Neurophysiology: the use of recording techniques (EEG and MEG) and stimulation techniques (TMS, tDCS, tACS) to investigate the neurophysiological correlates of cognitive processes and clinical states.
Neuropsychology: the development of neuropsychological tests and statistical methodologies for clinical assessment and understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved in rehabilitation.
Cognitive Neuroscience: the study of the neural bases of behavior and how this can be useful for rehabilitation

Within this framework, the lab focuses on specific domains such as communication, pragmatics, and language, while also analyzing factors that can modulate performance and cognitive recovery, with particular attention to the concept of Cognitive Reserve.

The research activities rely heavily on the Neurophysiology and Neuromodulation facilities, as well as Neuroimaging facilities.

Activities:

Electrophysiology for Neurorehabilitation: using standard techniques such as Event-related Potentials (ERPs) and Time-Frequency analysis, as well as more advanced methods like Connectivity and Network analysis. The current goal is to identify electrophysiological biomarkers useful for rehabilitation and to study the electrophysiological correlates of predictive mechanisms, language, communication, and Cognitive Reserve.
Study of the effectiveness of non-invasive neuromodulation techniques: analyzing the impact of methods such as TMS, tACS, and tDCS, along with the development of new statistical methods to explore their effectiveness.
Development of software and code for electrophysiological data analysis, aimed at optimizing the processing and interpretation of information obtained from recording techniques.

Post-Doc Researcher in Neuroscience and Neurophysiology, Neurophysiology Laboratory

Development of neuropsychological tests and evaluation methodologies, including strategies for identifying diagnostic cut-offs and creating new constructs useful in clinical neuropsychology.
“Cognitive constructs informed by emerging models in neuroscience, including the predictive brain framework.