Brain Plasticity and Connectivity: Language, Memory and Reward
This programme focuses on studying the nervous system’s structural and functional reorganisation capacity, and its role in development, neurological injuries, learning, memory, neurorehabilitation and/or interventional processes. The research is carried out by combining neuroimaging techniques with specific experimental paradigms in order to understand the mechanisms of plastic changes in the brain and behaviour. The research interests include language learning and its dysfunctions, the dynamics of memory formation and reward processing, and motivation. Understanding the mechanisms and limits of neuroplasticity in adults’ and children’s cognitive functions through basic research will lead to improvements in intervention programs that ameliorate the sequelae induced by neurological diseases and improve cognitive capacities in healthy individuals.
Principal Investigators
Antonio Rodriguez-Fornells
ICREA Researcher
Ferran Pons
Full Professor
Toni Cunillera
Associate Professor
Mireia Hernandez
Associate Professor
Gaye Soley
Assitant Professor
Joan Birulés
Assistant Professor
Claudia Peñaloza
Ramon y Cajal Researcher (Assistant Professor)
Technologies & Methods
- Electroencephalography
- Magnetic Resonance
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- iEEG
- Eye tracking
Research Team
Marta Ramon
Associate Professor
Patricia Leon Cabrera
Assistant Professor
Emma Segura
Postdoctoral Trainee
Callum Mark Griffin
Early Stage Researcher
Shunkai Wang
Early Stage Researcher
Weijing Xing
Early Stage Researcher
Lu Wang
Early Stage Researcher
Anna Gasa-Roqué
Early Stage Researcher
Marc Ballestero
Early Stage Researcher
Andrea Escoté i Requena
Early Stage Researcher
Claudia Alvarez Martin
Early Stage Researcher
Lucia Gonzalez Sanchez
Early Stage Researcher
Active Projects
Contracte del Programa Ramon y Cajal
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. RYC-2017-23486. Daniel.
Brain Correlates of Socially Interactive Language Learning (BraSILL)
Unió Europea. 101062671. Antonio Rodriguez-Fornells.
NEURAL EVIDENCE ON THE INVOLVEMENT OF SELF-MONITORING AND INTRINSIC VALUE IN INFORMATION SEEKING AND AVOIDANCE
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). PID2021-127130NB-I00. Antonio Rodriguez-Fornells.
Investigación neurofisiológica de la interacción de la recompensa y la función inhibitoria en la formación de hábitos alimentarios no saludables en humanos adultos
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). PID2021-127743OB-I00. Lluís Fuentemilla.
Indexical representation and lexical learning in audiovisual contexts: A challenge or an advantage for typically developing infants and clinical populations?
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). PID2021-128159NB-I00. Ferran Pons.
Grup de Cognició i Plasticitat Cerebral
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR). 2021 SGR 01099. Antonio Rodriguez-Fornells.
La lengua extranjera como factor de distancia psicológica
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). PID2021-127053NB-I00. Mireia Hernandez.
Lifestyle-SVD: Exploring the impact of lifestyle factors on cognitive and emotional functioning via small vessel disease (SVD) biomarkers in healthy older adults and stroke patients.
National Academy of Neuropsychology. Claudia Peñaloza (and Maria Mataro).
Selected publications
Ballestero-Arnau, M., Rodríguez-Herreros, B., Nuño-Bermúdez, N., & Cunillera, T. (2023). Sporadic fasting reduces attentional control without altering overall executive function in a binary classification task. Physiology & Behavior, 260, 114065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.114065
Birulés, J., Bosch, L., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Pons, F. (2024a). Time course of attention to a talker’s mouth in monolingual and close-language bilingual children. Developmental Psychology, 60(1), 135–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001659
Birulés, J., Bosch, L., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Pons, F. (2024b). Time course of attention to a talker’s mouth in monolingual and close-language bilingual children. Developmental Psychology, 60(1), 135–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001659
Braida, B., Rodríguez-Ferreiro, J., & Hernández, M. (2023). The foreign language effect on motivational quotes. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 26(2), 416–424. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000505
Gasa‐Roqué, A., Rofes, A., Simó, M., Juncadella, M., Rico Pons, I., Camins, A., Gabarrós, A., Rodríguez‐Fornells, A., & Sierpowska, J. (2024). Understanding language and cognition after brain surgery – Tumour grade, fine‐grained assessment tools and, most of all, individualized approach. Journal of Neuropsychology, 18(S1), 158–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnp.12343
Gomez‐Andres, A., Cerda‐Company, X., Cucurell, D., Cunillera, T., & Rodríguez‐Fornells, A. (2024). Decoding agency attribution using single trial error‐related brain potentials. Psychophysiology, 61(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14434
Marte, M. J., Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2023). The cognate facilitation effect on lexical access in bilingual aphasia: Evidence from the Boston Naming Test. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 26(5), 1009–1025. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728923000251
Navarrete-Orejudo, L., Cerda-Company, X., Olivé, G., Martin, N., Laine, M., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., & Peñaloza, C. (2023). Expressive recall and recognition as complementary measures to assess novel word learning ability in aphasia. Brain and Language, 243, 105303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105303
Olivé, G., Peñaloza, C., Vaquero, L., Laine, M., Martin, N., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2023). The right uncinate fasciculus supports verbal short-term memory in aphasia. Brain Structure and Function, 228(3–4), 875–893. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-023-02628-9
Peñaloza, C., Grasemann, U., Miikkulainen, R., & Kiran, S. (2023). Modeling Bilingualism as a Dynamic Phenomenon in Healthy and Neurologically Affected Speakers Across the Lifespan: A Commentary on “Computational Modeling of Bilingual Language Learning: Current Models and Future Directions.” Language Learning, 73(S2), 78–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12566
Varkanitsa, M., Peñaloza, C., Charidimou, A., & Kiran, S. (2023). Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Burden: An Independent Biomarker for Anomia Treatment Responsiveness in Chronic Stroke Patients With Aphasia. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 104(10), 1630–1637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2023.05.008