Research Scientist at the Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di sanità

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone:+39 0649903171

Fax: +39 06 3217090

Address:Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health

Istituto Superiore di Sanità

Viale Regina Elena 299 - 00161 Roma

Short bio

My main expertise pertains to the study of animal behaviour and closely related disciplines (e.g. psychobiology, neuroethology, psychopharmacology). I graduated at the University of Parma (Italy) in 2008 with a thesis in Ethology and subsequently obtained a PhD in Ethology at the University of Florence (Italy) in 2013 with a research project on impulsivity and gambling proneness in rats.

Thanks to a L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science 2016 Award, I carried out research activities as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Unit of Cognitive Primatology and Primate Centre, where I focused my research on the social modulation of risky decision-making in non-human primates and rodents.

Currently, I am working as a research scientist at the Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health of Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Rome, Italy), within a group that has a consolidated experience and tradition in the behavioural phenotyping of animal models, with a special focus on critical periods such as infancy and adolescence.

Up to now (2017), I have co-authored about 30 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Research interests

My primary interest is the study of animal behaviour in a functional and evolutionary perspective. For my research projects, I have dealt with multidisciplinary research topics at the intersection between laboratory work and natural settings, studying different species and combining data from different fields.

Currently, my research is mainly devoted to the development and validation of animal models of human behavioural disorders, with particular reference to conduct and impulse control disorders and behavioural addictions (i.e. gambling disorder).

The behavioral methodology I use comprises operant tasks for decision-making with delayed and/or uncertain reward as well as maze-based tasks for emotional/motivational domains. I have a good experience in the refinement of innovative methods to measure impulsivity and gambling proneness in rats. I am also familiar with different imaging techniques in rodent models.