Ricerc@Sapienza

My research investigates the critical role of the cerebellum in cognitive and affective functions and its interaction with cortical brain circuits.

The main goal is to characterize the impact of cerebellar pathologies (damage or dysfunction) on cognitive deficits and affective disorders in patients. This is achieved by analyzing neural correlates using advanced neuroimaging methods (fMRI, DTI, VBM) to map functional and structural cerebello-cortical interactions.

The approach is applied across various clinical conditions, including:

• Dementia (Alzheimer's Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia)

• Social Cognition (Autism Spectrum Disorders - ASD)

• Psychiatric Disorders (Depression, Bipolar Disorders)

Furthermore, the research explores therapeutic applications through non-invasive cerebellar stimulation (tDCS) to improve cognitive performance and modulate dysfunctional cerebello-cerebral circuits.

A complementary research line studies the heart-brain interaction in emotional regulation, specifically how interoceptive feedback influences affective neural circuits, highlighting the cerebellum's role as a key integrator of interoceptive and emotional signals for adaptive behavior.