On this page you can find the internship projects currently available.
Apprenticeship at CIMeC
Sara Assecondi
e-mail: sara.assecondi@unitn.it
General topic: ageing, working memory, cognitive training, plasticity
Methodology: EEG, tCS, behavioural experiments, modelling, data analysis
Project description: We have several projects looking at how to promote healthy ageing. Students may be involved in literature research, experiment design, data collection and/or data analysis.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 3
Period: all year
Daniel Baldauf
e-mail: daniel.baldauf@unitn.it
General topic: Brain oscillations, Neural synchrony, Functional Connectivity, Cross-cortical Communication, Attention, Prefrontal Cortex
Methodology: Human NeuroImaging: MEG, fMRI/DTI, eyetracking-behaviour
Project description: We study brain connectivity and cross-cortical communication by analysing human neuroimaging data with high temporal resolution (MEG/EEG, fMRI), but also structural connectivity measures (human DTI/DWI etc.). A particular focus is put on brain networks that orchestrate functions of attention (i.e. the filtering of incoming sensory information). In their projects, students can get involved in all aspects of experimental work in the lab (i.e. design of an experiment, data collection, and data analysis). Students also get training in a variety of computational skills (programming in Matlab, with state-of-the-art analysis tools such as Brainstorm, FieldTrip, etc.)
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate/Professional training
Open positions: 4
Period: all year
Paolo Belardinelli
e-mail: paolo.belardinelli@unitn.it
General topic: Brain Plasticity, Oscillating Networks, Anatomy & Function
Methodology: TMS-EEG-MEG-MRI
Project description: We will study sensorimotor oscillatory mechanisms, the instantaneous interplay between homologous sensorimotor areas in the two hemispheres jointly with their measures of anatomical connections. Moreover, will study how anatomical and functional connectivity change across the life span.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Stefania Benetti
e-mail: stefania.benetti@unitn.it
General topic: Multisensory processes, Brain development and plasticity
Methodology: MRI (sMRI,fMRI, DTI), MEG, Psychophysics and Behavioural Studies
Project description: Four main lines of research:
- audio-visual speech processing: the role of lip-reading in speech perception/production; developmental trajectories of lip-reading abilities across life-time span; learning to process speech without listening or seeing speech; audio-visual speech processing in individuals with hearing-loss (e.g., deaf cochlear implant users); the relationship between lip- and text-reading;
- combining neurobiological and behavioural indices to predict speech and language outcome after cochlear implant in deaf children and adults;
- speech representation in the brain: how ‘auditory’ is speech phonology? The role of premotor and motor cortex in speech representation and processing in both typical and degraded/altered audio-visual conditions;
- study of functional principles of cross-modal plasticity following sensory deprivation with a particular focus on cross-modal plasticity in early and late deaf individuals.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Roberto Bottini
e-mail: roberto.bottini@unitn.it
General topic: we do fundamental research in psychology and neuroscience to understand how the mind represents knowledge
Methodology: fMRI, MEG, Behavioral Studies
Project description: There are several possible topics of investigation:
- Spatial and conceptual navigation in sighted and blind
- Egocentric vs allocentric coding of conceptual knowledge
- Cognitive maps for analogy and reasoning
- Development and decay of hippocampal cognitive maps in humans
- Conscious and unconscious conceptual processing
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions:2
Period: all year
Yuri Bozzi
e-mail: yuri.bozzi@unitn.it
General topic: mouse models of autism spectrum disorders
Methodology: gene expression, neuroanatomy, pharmacology, behavior
Project description: Investigating the role of immune dysfunction in autism pathogenesis; sensory-motor deficits in mouse models of autism.
Type of internship: curricular
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Luigi Cattaneo
e-mail: luigi.cattaneo@unitn.it
General topic: voluntary and affective movement; executive functions
Methodology: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; motion tracking of the human body; Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping in neurosurgical patients; MR-tractography.
Project description: we aim to describe the spatial and temporal dynamics of brain networks that transform explicit intentions and inner needs, together with information about the outside world, into voluntary or automatic movements. Particular attention is put on brain connectivity. Experimental models include neurostimulation and tractography in healthy human volunteers and lesion-behaviour mapping in neurosurgical patients.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Elisa Frasnelli
e-mail: elisa.frasnelli@unitn.it
General topic: Animal cognition
Methodology: Behaviour
Project description: Lateralization, learning, social behaviour
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Albrecht Haase
e-mail: albrecht.haase@unitn.it
General topic: Neuronal coding, Neural network dynamics, Connectivity, Olfaction, Learning & Memory, Sleep, Neurophysics, Neuroactive substances, Neurotoxins
Methodology: Two-photon microscopy, Calcium imaging, Optogenetics, Data analysis, Maschine Learning, insect models
Project description: we offer an involvement in different projects on the above-mentioned topics. Our core facility is a two-photon in vivo imaging platform, our standard models are honeybees, fruitflies, ants. Students will receive training in the required techniques, like in vivo morphological and functional imaging, immunohistochemistry, image postprocessing, advanced image analysis, programming platforms: MATLAB, LabView, Machine learning, Behavioural assays, Statistical data analysis, Genetic engineering, Beekeeping.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 4
Period: all year
Uri Hasson
e-mail: uri.hasson@unitn.it
General topic: Improve ability of neural networks to predict human behavior; hybrid training models incorporating human behavior
Methodology: NN model, Machine learning, analysis of neurobiological data.
Project description: Aim of the project is to study why deep NNs are reasonable models of the human visual and semantic system, and improve on their current capacities. We focus on Network Pruning as regularization method and tool for increasing predictive capacity of NNs.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 3
Period: Jan 2022 - July 2022
Aurelie Herbelot
e-mail: aurelie.herbelot@unitn.it
General topic: computational models of meaning
Methodology: distributional semantics, formal semantics, machine learning
Project description: Possible topics cover the following areas:
- integration of symbolic and distributional approaches to meaning;
- models of speaker-specific meaning;
- using biological algorithms for efficient NLP.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 2
Period: February 2022-June 2022 and September 2022-December 2022
Jorge Jovicich
e-mail: jorge.jovicich@unitn.it
General topic: development and application of quantitative MRI tools to characterize the human brain
Methodology: structural, functional and metabolic brain MRI
Project description: we have multiple ongoing projects (see group’s journal and conference publications). They include work with healthy volunteers and special populations from local or collaborative studies (e.g., neurosurgery, neurodegenerative diseases, sensory-deprived, etc.). Contact us to evaluate possibilities to contribute.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Uwe Mayer
e-mail: uwe.mayer@unitn.it
General topic: Neurobiology of Comparative Cognition
Methodology: Animal behavior measurements in combination with neurobiological, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical methods
Project description: We are interested in the study of brain functions from a comparative perspective using birds as animal models. We are currently running various projects investigating the neurobiological basis of spatial and social cognition, visual system and taste perception in domestic chicks. Please write us an email for more details.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 6
Period: all year
Veronica Mazza
e-mail: veronica.mazza@unitn.it
General topic: Attention, Perception, Aging, Visual working memory, Training
Methodology: EEG and behavioral measures
Project description: please consult the group's website for further details
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate/Professional training
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Carlo Miniussi
e-mail: carlo.miniussi@unitn.it
General topic: Non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation (TBS) techniques and their combination with other imaging techniques (e.g. TMS-EEG coregistration)
Methodology: TMS, tES, TMS-EEG coregistration
Project description: recording/Data Analysis
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate/Professional training
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Simona Monaco
e-mail: simona.monaco@unitn.it
General topic: Action and Perception
Methodology: behavioural and fMRI experiments
Project description: the project is focused on investigating how we use vision and touch to perceive objects and guide actions
Type of internship: Curricular and Professional training
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Eugenio Parise
e-mail: eugenio.parise@unitn.it
General topic: Infant Cognitive Development
Methodology: EEG/ERP, fNIRS, looking times
Project description: Cognitive basis of social communication in infants, Language development and understanding of words, Face perception, Core physic knowledge
Type of internship: Curricular/Professional training
Open positions: 3
Period: all year
Francesco Pavani
e-mail: francesco.pavani@unitn.it
General topic: The role of multisensory processes in challenging hearing conditions
Methodology: behavioural studies, virtual reality
Project description: Projects include research with people with hearing loss (with or without cochlear implants or hearing aids) and will examine cognitive and metacognitive skills when hearing in noise.
Type of internship: Professional internship for psychology graduates.
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Stefania Pighin
e-mail: stefania.pighin@unitn.it
General topic: mental simulation, decision-making under stress, medical decision-making
Methodology: behavioral studies
Project description : we are currently working on different projects on the above-mentioned topics. Students are offered the opportunity to be involved in various experimental phases (from experimental planning, to data collection and data analysis) by running experiments both inside and outside the laboratory.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 3
Period: all year
Orsola Rosa Salva
e-mail: orsola.rosasalva@unitn.it
General topic: The general aim is to investigate fundamental cognitive mechanisms, present already in the early post-natal development of different species, that allow the development of sophisticated cognitive skills. Within the field of animal/comparative cognition, I am currently focusing on the following areas:
- numerical cognition
- statistical and rule learning (abstraction of regularities from the visual environment, allowing flexible and adaptive behaviour)
- inborn mechanisms at the basis of the development of social cognition
All the research lines are designed in to be interpreted a comparative perspective to the human developmental literature (comparable tasks studied in human infants).
Methodology: Behavioural experiments with domestic chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus). Tests of spontaneous preferences between different visual or auditory stimuli in naive animals. Imprinting experiments (learning by exposure through filial imprinting, followed by recognition and generalisation tests). Methodologies for the automated tracking and measurements of animal behaviour.
Project description: Students can be assigned to one of the following projects:
- numerical cognition and crossmodal transfer of numerical information (e.g., experiencing one numerosity in the visual modality and recognising it when presented acoustically)
- spontaneous rule learning, abstraction of regularities from the visual environment, allowing the generalisation of the extracted rule to novel stimuli. A sophisticated cognitive skill that can be tested in young animals
- inborn recognition of motion patterns that characterise animate agents.
Type of internship: Curricular/Professional training (one semester per student only, for the professional training)
Open positions: 4
Period: all year
Paola Sgadò
e-mail: paola.sgado@unitn.it
General topic:
- vertebrate models of neuropsychiatric disorders;
- molecular bases of social cognition.
Methodology: social behaviour, immunohistochemistry, gene expression analysis, epigenetic, genome editing, viral tracing.
Project description:
- early social behaviour in vertebrates: molecular and a cellular mechanisms and link to autism spectrum disorders;
- development of novel strategies for genome editing in domestic chicks.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 4
Period: all year
Valeria Anna Sovrano
e-mail: valeriaanna.sovrano@unitn.it
General topic: animal cognition
Methodology: behavioral observation, visual discrimination test, operant conditioning, drug administration
Project description: studying fish, as animal cognition's model; spatial representation, objects categorization, visual and extra-visual perception, brain lateralization, biological basis of social behavior, numerical skills.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate/Professional training
Open positions: 7
Period: all year
Katya Tentori
e-mail: katya.tentori@unitn.it
General topic: Reasoning and Decision making
Methodology: Behavioral research; formal modelling
Project description: Inductive and probabilistic reasoning; causal cognition; information search; decision making, also in applied settings.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: September-June
Massimo Turatto
e-mail: massimo.turatto@unitn.it
General topic: Attention, Learning and Motivation
Methodology: Response times, Eye tracking
Project descriptio: We are interested in how the brain filter the irrelevant information, thus resisting distraction, and in how environmental stimuli gain attentional and motivational salience.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: all year
Luca Turella
e-mail: luca.turella@unitn.it
General topic: Control of movements - Understanding of actions and intentions
Methodology: fMRI/MEG/behavioral
Project description the student can be involved in two different types of projects: the first project aims to characterize the neural representations of the actions we perform in everyday life; the second project aims to characterize the neural networks underlying the understanding of the action and the intentions of others.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate/Professional training
Open positions: 4
Period: all year
Giorgio Vallortigara
e-mail: giorgio.vallortigara@unitn.it
General topic: Neuroscience of animal cognition
Methodology: early gene expression, qPCR, behaviour
Project description: Animacy detection, Number and space cognition
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 6
Period: all year
Moritz Wurm
e-mail: moritz.wurm@unitn.it
General topic: localize and characterize the neural processes of action understanding, from perceptual analysis to conceptual access
Methodology: fMRI, MEG, psychophysics
Project description: please consult the group's website for further details of the research projects. Students will be offered the opportunity to be involved in various experimental phases (from literature research to experiment design, data collection and data analysis).
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 3
Period: all year
Roberto Zamparelli
e-mail: roberto.zamparelli@unitn.it
General topic: Computational linguistics
Methodology: Programming (HTML/CSS, JS, Java)
Project description: The internship involves the design, improvement and translation of the web interface for a "Game with a Purpose" project under development at CIMEC. The project, "Actors Challenge", aims to test and deploy a multiplayer web game where participants compete on their ability to act out small text fragments in different contexts, with the side effect of producing a large dataset of validated, multilingual oral data on the relation between intonation and meaning-in-context. Such data can be used to train better prosodic models of human-computer interaction and improve our theoretical understanding of these phenomena. Good skills in HTML/CSS and some experience with web design. Knowledge of javascript and familiary with Java a plus.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: January 2022-December 2022
Roberto Zamparelli
e-mail: roberto.zamparelli@unitn.it
General topic: Computational linguistics
Methodology: NLP adversarial example generation for dataset
Project description: The internship involves the systematic generation of examples to test the sensitivity of different language models to various types of ill-formedness, either syntactic (e.g., "Who is it that Marco saw Anna?" or "What is it that seeing worries Carlotta?") or semantic (e.g., "I love animals more than hamsters", "I have two dogs but the dog is sick"). The intern will also conduct linguistic and statistical analyses of the relationship between the human acceptability for these phrases and their characteristics (e.g., does it sound better "I have more hamsters than animals" or "I have more animals than hamsters? Perché").
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 2
Period: January - December 2022
Roberto Zamparelli
e-mail: roberto.zamparelli@unitn.it
General topic: Theoretical linguistics, Psycholinguistics
Methodology: Theoretical and computational linguistics (parsing)
Project description: In collaboration with Cristiano Chesi (IUSS Pavia), we are exploring whether left-to-right, psycholinguistically plausible models of human parsing can be tuned to produce the range of word orders found inside determiner phrases (DPs) across a variety of languages. The elements that we will consider are determiners (articles, quantifiers, demonstratives), numerals, adjectives, nouns possessive phrases ("John's"), and relative clauses. Some knowledge of modern syntactic theories a prerequisite.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 1
Period: January - December 2022
Roberto Zamparelli
e-mail: roberto.zamparelli@unitn.it
General topic: Linguistics
Methodology: Linguistic example generation across languages for prosodic studies
Project description: The internship involves the creation and validation of testing materials for the Actors Challenge project. Tasks: creating context to elicit meaningful prosodic contrasts, and render them in other languages (English, Italian or German). Checking the web site’s functioning. The internship requires a working prototype of the Actors Challenge web game-with-a-purpose.
Type of internship: Curricular/Post-graduate
Open positions: 1
Period: June - December 2022
Massimiliano Zampini
e-mail: massimiliano.zampini@unitn.it
General topic: Multisensory Perception
Methodology: Behavioral
Project description: Olfaction, Olfactory alterations, Multisensory interactions involving olfaction, Body perception, Thermal perception.
Type of internship: Curricular
Open positions: 3
Period: all year