academic interests:

• Developmental neuropsychology and its clinical applications: I believe that looking at how the brain develops to allow us to act and interact with the environment is crucial for our understanding of the mind. I am currently involved in several projects concerned with applications of neuroimaging techniques to research of the developing mind.
  • One of my ongoing projects is at the Child Study Centre, University of Toronto, under the supervision of Dr. Philip D. Zelazo. We are investigating the relation between preschool children's EEG activity and their ability to perform well on executive function tasks. A poster summarizing the relevant research findings has been submitted for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2006 Annual Meeting.

  • As a research technician at the Hospital for Sick Children, I am involved in several projects which investigate the use of MEG to map children's eloquent cortex. My main focus has been on the development of a protocol for pre-surgical motor mapping, to be used in cases of children with epilepsy.

• Control of action and thought: One of the essential aspects that we achieve with development and training is an increased ability to control how we act in particular situations, how we think about our actions and about the actions of others, and how we plan for the future. I have been involved in several projects ongoing at the Child Study Centre, looking at variables affecting control of action and thought in children (working memory capacity; emotionally salient contexts) and in adults (mindfulness meditation practice).

• Attention and working memory: My undergraduate thesis for the Psychology Research Program, under the supervision of Dr. Anthony R. McIntosh, used an event related potentials (ERP) methodology to investigate the relation between two essential and interconnected aspects of cognition, attention and working-memory.

• Cognitive science and philosophy of mind: Scientific research is always being conducted from a particular philosophical perspective, which shapes both the general purposes of the research and the methodology which is chosen. It is particularly important to be aware of the particular philosophical framework in which research is conducted and its fundamental assumptions. I am particularly interested in neuroscientific research (such as neuroimaging and computational modelling) conducted from a perspective which takes into account the view of the mind as an embodied, dynamic, connectionist network.

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other interests:

• Fiction (reading): because subway rides seems significantly longer otherwise and, of course, life needs the spice of the imaginary.
  • Currently reading: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins.

  • Latest: Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago: a magical story of will (for love and for science) in the age of the Inquisition.

• Music (listening): because music is beautiful.

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