Fabrizio Leo
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