I obtained a BSc in psychology and an MSc in cognitive-neuropsychology at the University of Pavia, Italy.
After completing my PhD in cognitive science (Macquarie University, Sydney), I moved to the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (Frankfurt am Main) for a postdoc in neurophysiology.
My research focuses on the cognitive and neural correlates of face perception, both in normal subjects and in people with congenital prosopagnosia (i.e., the lifelong impairment in recognizing faces). An overview of this line of research can be found in my book entitled “Prosopagnosia: When all faces look the same” (Ed. Springer, 2013).
I am also actively involved in the investigation of the neurophysiological correlates of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. In particular, I am interested in the hypofunctioning N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) hypothesis for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.