Laboratory for Multisensory and Neuromodulation Research
Nadia Bolognini, PhD
Lab Director
University of Milano Bicocca
IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano
Milan Center for Neuroscience
Multisensory Integration
Neurorehabilitation
Social Cognition
The research activity of the laboratory is aimed at unconvering the mechanisms through which our brain integrates the information derived from the different senses, and how multisensory integration shapes human perception and behaviour. These issues are faced from a neurophysiological perspective, by using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (TMS, tDCS, TMS-EEG co-registration) as tools to interact and modulate multisensory interactions in the brain, as well as through the investigation of multisensory processing in neurological patients, with the final aim of exploring post-stroke crossmodal plasticity.
Bolognini N., Maravita A. Uncovering multisensory processing through non-invasive brain stimulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 2011.
Bolognini N., Convento S., Rossetti A., Merabet L.B. Multisensory processing after a brain damage: clues on post-injury crossmodal plasticity from neuropsychology. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2013.
The capacity of understanding others’ tactile sensations is a fundamental component of social behaviour. This complex process seems to be supported by a ‘mirror’ network for touch, which allows an automatic and unconscious simulation of others’ somatic states. In other words, the observation of touch experienced by others, even in the absence of direct tactile experience, is able to activate the same neural circuitry that is normally involved in the real experience of touch. We are studying the empathic sharing of touch mainly by using the mirror-touch synaesthesia as operational model. Mirror-touch synesthesia is a condition which causes individuals to experience the same tactile sensation that another person feels.
Bolognini N., Rossetti A., Fusaro M., Vallar G., Miniussi C. Sharing social touch in the primary somatosensory cortex. Current Biology 2014.
Stimolare il cervello
Manuale di stimolazione cerebrale non invasiva
A cura di Nadia Bolognini, Giuseppe Vallar
We are developing novel evidence-based approaches for cognitive, sensory and motor rehabilitation in neurological diseases, primaly stroke and neuropatic pain. Such approaches include techniques of non-invasive brain stimulation (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation -TMS - and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation - tDCS) and multisensory stimulation. The aim is to discover ways to interact with brain plasticity in order to guide functional recovery, or inhibit maladaptive processes that may hamper recovery.
Bolognini N., Ro T. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Disrupting Neural Activity to Alter and Assess Brain Function. Journal of Neuroscience, 2010.
Bolognini N., Pascual-Leone A., Fregni F. Using non-invasive brain stimulation to augment motor training-induced plasticity. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 2009.
Bolognini N., Rasi F., Coccia M., Làdavas E. Visual Search Improvement in Hemianopic Patients after Audio-Visual Stimulation. Brain 2005.
The Multisensory Plastic Brain along the Life Span: from Neural Basis to Clinical Applications, research topic edited by Nadia Bolognini and Sofia Crespi.
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