My research
The leading thread behind the seemingly disparate branches of my research can be summed up in this single question:
How can the human genome build a brain that can acquire a language, and other typically human cognitive skills?
I then try to address this question for the development of both language and social cognition, and at all the relevant levels of description: cognitive, neural and genetic.
In previous work I investigated the very first stages of language acquisition, through the study of newborns' speech perception capacities. I particularly focused on their ability to process speech rhythm. I am also interested in the neural and evolutionary basis of these perceptual capacities.
During my postdoc I started approaching language acquisition from the pathological side, by studying developmental dyslexia, which I see as a neuropsychological model of phonological acquisition. I naturally went on to study specific language impairment.
More recently I have broadened my interests to social cognition, as well as to other neuro-developmental disorders (including autism and schizophrenia), insofar as they can inform us on the genetic and neural basis of cognitive development.
Ongoing research projects
Exploring the phonological deficit in developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment
Genetic, neurological and cognitive characterisation of developmental language disorders
Normal and pathological development of social cognition
Previous research projects
Theories of developmental dyslexia
Language acquisition, rhythm, infant speech perception, and evolutionary precursors
