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ANTONINO VALLESI

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Position

Professore Ordinario

Structure

Dipartimento di Neuroscienze - DNS

Address

VIA GIUSTINIANI, 5 - PADOVA

Telephone

0498214450

E-mail

antonino.vallesi@unipd.it

Academic Positions
From 1/9/22. Full professor. Dip. Neuroscienze - Padova Univ.
From 1/4/14. Associate professor, Unipd
From 1/9/12 to 31/3/14. Researcher, Unipd
2009-12. Researcher, SISSA, Trieste
2007-09. Post-doctoral fellow. Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto

Education
- 19/2/07. PhD Neuroscienze (laude). SISSA
- Apr-Aug 2005. Study visit, ICN, UCL, London
- 20/6/03. Master degree in Psichology (cum laude). Padova Univ.

Prizes (sel.)
• 2017. SIPF prize, Roma
• 2011. Bertelson Award ESCOP
• 2011. TOYP Award Research, JCI

Grants (sel.)
• 2020-2023: Young Researchers project FINAGE, Italian Ministry of Health (co-PI).
• 2013-18: ERC Starting Grant LEX-MEA. GA 313692


Conference organization
28-30/9/2017. Cognitive Neuroscience of Executive Functions, Padova.

Invited talks (sel.)
4/05/20. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting (virtual), Boston
28/01/19. Institute for Psychology, Würzburg Univ., Germany
13/03/18. 60th Conf. Exp Psychologists, Marburg, Germany
17/11/17. Keynote Lecture SIPF prize. Rome
21/10/17. Ten years of Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento. CIMeC, Italy
11/08/17. Universidad de Costarica, San José, Costa Rica.
8/05/14. Escan conf., Dortmund, Germany
25/01/13. European Workshop in Cognitive Neuropsychology, Brixen
11/5/12. IV Dubrovnik Conference on Cognitive Science
29/2/12. CNRS, Lione 12/1/2012. Jagiellonian University, Cracovia
30/9/11. Bertelson Award Keynote Lecture, ESCOP, San Sebastian
18/3/10. Carleton University, Ottawa
28/9/09. SiNAPSA Neuroscience Conference, Ljubljana
11-12/6/09. The human frontal lobes and the mind. Univ. of Toronto

Supervision/Co-superv.: > 60 among post-docs, Phd, grad. students, trainees.

Evaluation activity
• Internat. grants: NSERC, Canada; Romanian NCDI; FET and MSCA actions; OPUS–NSC, Poland.
• Editorial Board: Frontiers in Psychol (Associate Ed.); BioMed Research Intern (Action Ed.); J Educ Develop Psychol
• Ad-hoc rev.: Plos Biol; Brain; Neurosci Biobehav R; Cereb Cortex; Neuroimage; Human Brain Mapping; J Cogn Neurosci; Cortex; Cognition etc.
• PhD thesis: Pompeu-Fabra; Granada; SISSA-Trieste; Roma Foro Italico; Pavia, Roma Sapienza.

Notices

My main research areas include: executive functions, hemispheric asymmetries, cognitive aging, anatomo-functional organization of frontal lobes, spatial and temporal attention, role of life experiences in shaping cognitive functioning. The main methods we use to investigate these research topics include: Neuroimaging, electroencephalography Event-related potentials, Neuropsychology, neuromodulation and experimental psychology.

Office hours

  • Thursday from 12:00 to 14:00
    at Dip. Neuroscienze, via Giustiniani 5, Padova (Unità Neurologia); Dep. Neuroscience, Via Giustiniani 5, Padova (Neurology Unit).
    Consiglio di prendere appuntamento in anticipo per email prima di presentarsi (antonino.vallesi@unipd.it). I advise students to write me an email well in advance before showing up (antonino.vallesi@unipd.it). The student reception could also be exceptionally held through Skype or Zoom platforms (after an email agreement).

Teachings

Publications

Selected Publications:
- Vallesi A., Babcock L. (2020). Asymmetry of the Frontal Aslant Tract is Associated with Lexical Decision. Brain Struct Funct, 225(3), 1009-1017. doi: 10.1007/s00429-020-02054-1.
- Ambrosini E., Capizzi M., Arbula S., Vallesi A. (2020). Right-lateralized intrinsic brain dynamics predict monitoring abilities. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. doi: 10.3758/s13415-020-00769-6
- Incagli F., Tarantino V., Crescentini C., Vallesi A. (2020). The effects of 8-weeks Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program on cognitive control: an EEG study. Mindfulness, 11, 756–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01288-3
- Arbula S., ...Vallesi A. (2020). Focal left prefrontal lesions and cognitive impairment: a multivariate lesion-symptom mapping approach. Neuropsychologia, 136, 107253.
- Pini L., Jacquemot C., Cagnin A., Meneghello F., Semenza C., Mantini D., Vallesi A. (2020). Aberrant brain network connectivity in pre-symptomatic and manifest Huntington's disease: a systematic review. Hum Brain Map, 41, 256-269.
- Tafuro A., Ambrosini E., Puccioni O., Vallesi A. (2019). Brain oscillations in cognitive control: a cross-sectional study with a spatial Stroop task. Neuropsychologia, 133, 107190.
- Ambrosini E., Arbula S., Rossato C., Pacella V., Vallesi A. (2019). Neuro-cognitive architecture of executive functions: A latent variable analysis. Cortex, 119, 441-456.
- Visalli A., Capizzi M., Ambrosini E., Mazzonetto I., Vallesi A. (2019). Bayesian modeling of temporal expectations in the human brain. Neuroimage, 202, 116097.
- Moretti L., Semenza C., Vallesi A. (2018). General slowing and education mediate task switching performance across the life-span. Front Psychol
- Furlan M., Babcock L., Vallesi A. (2018). Decoding rule search domain in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Plos ONE, 13(3), e0194054
- Visalli A., Vallesi A. (2018). Monitoring processes in visual search enhanced by professional experience: the case of orange quality-control workers. Front Psychol, 9, 145
- Capizzi M., Ambrosini E., Vallesi A. (2017). Individual differences in verbal and spatial Stroop: interactive role of handedness and task context. Front Hum Neurosci, 11, 545
- Vallesi A. et al. (2017). Structural hemispheric asymmetries underlie verbal Stroop performance. Behav Brain Res, 335, 167-173. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.08.024
- Tarantino V. ... Vallesi A. (2017). The neural bases of event monitoring across domains: a simultaneous ERP-fMRI study. Front Hum Neurosci, 11, 376
- Vallesi A., Arbula S., Capizzi M., Causin F., D’Avella D. (2015). Domain-independent neural underpinning of task-switching: an fMRI investigation. Cortex. Doi: 10.1016/j.cortex
- Ambrosini E., Vallesi A. (2017). Domain-general Stroop performance and hemispheric asymmetries: a resting-state EEG study. J Cogn Neurosci, 29(5), 769-779
- Ambrosini E., Vallesi A. (2016) Asymmetry in Prefrontal Resting-state EEG Spectral Power Underlies Individual Differences in Phasic and Sustained Cognitive Control. Neuroimage. 124(1), 843–857.

Research Area

My main research areas include: executive functions, cognitive aging, functional hemispheric asymmetries, frontal lobes, spatial and temporal attention, influence of life experiences and professions on cognitive processes and underlying neural mechanisms.
The main methods we use include Neuroimaging, Event-related potentials, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, neuromodulation.

Thesis proposals

Specific topics for the thesis may change depending on the period.

Topics: High-level cognitive processes (executive functions), hemispheric asymmetries, cognitive aging, relationship between functional connectivity and cognitive performance in healthy and pathological conditions (e.g., MCI, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders).
New: Thesis on systematic review or meta-analysis about neuroplasticity topics, such as the impact of life experiences such as profession (sommelier, musician, programmer...) on the cognitive system and the brain (including the structural and functional connectome).

Methods: Experimental Psychology, EEG/ERP, fMRI, Neuropsychology, Neuromodulation (depending on the period), systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Description of the ideal thesis student: the ideal student who is a best match with my supervision style takes her/his part on a thesis project very seriously, is knowledgeable from the technical-statistical and theoretical points of view, proactive and motivated, and seeks to know the theory behind the proposed research activity with a critical mind.

Note: I advice the master's candidates potentially interested to work with me to send their complete CV (including already passed exams) together with their request of supervision by email in advance. Moreover, please do not ask me about potential research projects too early with respect to the moment in which you are truly available to effectively and intensely work on your thesis. And please refrain from requesting me to be your thesis supervisor if you are simultaneously approaching tens of other professors. Kindly wait for their responses first.