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I am a neurologist and neuroscientist originally from Italy, currently Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Laboratory of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA. I use a variety of brain imaging approaches. In particular, I use functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and I combine these techniques with an approach called image-guided TMS. Image-guided TMS allows to target brain areas activated during an imaging study to produce a TMS-induced transient disruption of the functions of the stimulated brain area. My research focuses on the neural basis of sensory-motor integration, imitation and social behavior in humans. In particular, my group investigates the human mirror neuron system. Our work on the neural mechanisms of imitation, a fundamental form of learning and non-verbal communication during development, and of empathy, the ability to understand the feelings of other people, has been published in the journals Science, Nature Neuroscience and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. We are also investigating the neural systems that help us understanding the intentions of others (recent paper in PLoS Biology) and how people interact in social relations.
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