Fabrizio Leo

Alumni of the Research Group Cognitive Neuroimaging

Main Focus

My interest in sensory processing stems from my undergraduate and PhD experience. During my undergraduate studies, my research focused on visual motion perception in humans, under the supervision of Prof. David Burr, at the University of Florence, Italy. For my PhD, I developed a nascent interest in studying the way in which the brain integrates contributions of different sensory modalities (particularly, vision and audition). I investigated this topic both in healthy subjects and in neurological patients with behavioral methods, under the supervision of Prof. Elisabetta Ladavas, at the University of Bologna. After 1 year of postdoctoral period at University College London, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (supervisor: Prof. Jon Driver), I moved to the Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, working under the supervision of Dr. Uta Noppeney. Here, I will combine psychophysical and neuroimaging methods to investigate the neural basis of multisensory integration.

Neural basis of multisensory integration

Curriculum Vitae


WORK EXPERIENCE

14/06/2010 – now – Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biological Cybernetics – Cognitive Neuroimaging Group - Research Scientist – supervisor: Dr. Uta Noppeney

01/04/2009 – 31/05/2010 – University College London (UCL) – Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN) – Honorary Research Associate – supervisor: Prof. Jon Driver

17/10/2008 – 16/10/2009 – Polo Scientifico-Didattico di Cesena – Research grant in “Psychosocial factors in the emphatic resonance in tactile and painful sensations in others. Neurophysiologic and behavioural studies” – supervisor: Prof. Alessio Avenanti

01/06/2007 – 31/05/2008 - Università degli Studi di Bologna – Research grant in “Multisensory representation of body schema” – supervisor: Prof. Elisabetta Làdavas

02/10/2006 – 01/06/2007 - Università degli Studi di Bologna – Assistant professor in “Rehabilitation techniques of cognitive deficits”

01/02/2006 – 31/01/2007 – Università degli Studi di Bologna – Research grant in “Multisensory integration in patients with elementary sensorial deficits” – supervisor: Prof. Elisabetta Làdavas


EDUCATION

02/2006 – 04/2009 - Università degli Studi di Bologna – PhD in ‘General and clinical psychology’ – supervisor: Prof. Elisabetta Làdavas

09/2005 – 01/2006 - Università degli Studi di Bologna - Centre in Cognitive Neuroscience (Cesena) – Training as graduate student – supervisor: Prof. Elisabetta Làdavas

03/2004 – 03/2005 - Universita’ degli Studi di Firenze – ASL Livorno - Training as a graduate psychologist

09/2003 – 09/2004 - Universita’ degli Studi di Firenze – Course on “Evalutation and development of human resources”

07/2003 - Università degli Studi di Firenze - Degree in Experimental Psychology – Graduate thesis: “Effect of two different mechanisms in visual perception of movement of ambiguous stimuli” – supervisor: Prof. David Burr


LANGUAGES

Italian, English, French


COMPUTER SKILLS

Matlab, Psychtoolbox 2 and 3, Video Card VSG (Visual Stimuli Generator), Eye Movement Recording Systems Eye-Tracker ASL 6000 and EyeLink High-Speed 250 Hz Eye-Tracker, Software Statistica and SPSS, X-GEN, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Linux


POSTER AND TALKS

Bertini, C., Passamonti, C., Leo, F., Làdavas, E., “Cross-modal and within-modal integration in patients with collicular lesions” International Multisensory Research Forum 2010 (IMRF), Liverpool (june, 2010) poster

Bertini, C., Passamonti, C., Leo, F., Làdavas, E., “Cross-modal and within modal integration in patients with Superior Colliculus lesions” workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Brixen (24-29 january, 2010) poster

Passamonti, C., Leo, F., Làdavas, E., “The impact of multisensory and unisensory integration on covert and overt orienting” International Multisensory Research Forum 2009 (IMRF), New York (july, 2009) poster

Leo, F., Bertini, C., Avenanti, A., Làdavas, E., “Independence of visual bias and audio-visual integration” workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Brixen (25-31 january, 2009) talk

Bertini, C., Leo, F., Avenanti, A., Làdavas, E., “TMS-based evidence for the independence of ventriloquism effect and multisensory integration” First Meeting of the Federation of the European Societies of Neuropsychology (ESN), Edimburgh (2-5 september, 2008) poster

Leo, F., Bertini, C., Làdavas, E., “Temporo-nasal asymmetry in multisensory integration mediated by the superior colliculus” International Multisensory Research Forum 2008 (IMRF), Hamburg (16-19 july, 2008) poster

Bertini, C., Leo, F., Avenanti, A., Làdavas, E., “TMS-based evidence for the independence of ventriloquism effect and multisensory integration” International Multisensory Research Forum 2008 (IMRF), Hamburg (16-19 july, 2008) poster

Leo, F., Bertini, C., Làdavas, E., “Multisensory integration in humans requires the activation of the superior colliculus” SINP, Bologna (09-10 may, 2008) talk

Ciaramelli, E., Leo, F., Burr, D.C., Del Viva, M., Làdavas, E., “Prefrontal lobe contribution to global perception” CVR Vision Conference, Toronto (19-23 june, 2007) poster

Ciaramelli, E., Leo, F., Burr, D.C., Del Viva, M., Làdavas, E., “Prefrontal lobe contribution to global perception” CNS 2007 Annual Meeting, New York (5-8 may, 2007) poster

Leo, F., Passamonti, C., Bertini, C., Bolognini, N., Làdavas, E., “Cross-modal localization in hemianopia” workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone (21-26 january, 2007) talk

Passamonti, C., Bertini, C., Leo, F., Làdavas, E., “Audio-visual training improves oculomotor exploration in hemianopic patients” workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone (21-26 january, 2007) poster

Leo, F., Passamonti, C., Bertini, C., Làdavas, E., “Multisensory-mediated auditory localization in hemianopic patients” 2nd meeting of the European Societies of Neuropsychology (EuroNPsy), Toulouse, Centre des Congrès Pierre Baudis (18 -20, october 2006) poster

Passamonti, C., Leo, F., Bertini, C., Làdavas, E., “Oculomotor improvement in hemianopic patients after audio-visual training” 2nd meeting of the European Societies of Neuropsychology (EuroNPsy), Toulouse, Centre des Congrès Pierre Baudis (18 -20, october 2006) poster

Leo, F., Passamonti, C., Bertini, C., Làdavas, E., “Multisensory-mediated auditory localization” International Multisensory Research Forum 2006 (IMRF), University of Dublin, Trinity College (18-21 june, 2006) poster

Del Viva, M., Burr, D.C., Danti, S., Leo, F., “Disambiguation of motion direction by first-order and second-order motion mechanisms” European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Paris (1-5 september, 2003) poster

MEMBERSHIPS

Societa' Italiana di Neuropsicologia

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