Students

Sara M. Romanella, MSc

Sara M. Romanella, MSc
Visiting PhD Student

Education History:
M.Sc., Clinical Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
B.A., Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

After working as a clinical psychologist for 3 years, I had the opportunity to visit Boston for a semester to learn about Neuroscience at Harvard University. It was during that visit that I first met Dr. Emiliano Santarnecchi and learned about the innovative applications of noninvasive brain stimulation at the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation. I was fascinated by this work and knew it had to be a part of my future.

Upon returning home, I quit my job as a clinical psychologist (with some sadness as I do miss my patients), and decided to pursue a career in research. I am currently second-year PhD Student at the University of Florence and a collaborator with the Siena Brain Investigation and Neuromodulation Lab (SiBIN-Lab).

As part of my studies, I have been granted the opportunity to come back to Boston for 18 months as a visiting PhD Student. During my time in CNBS, I will be working on new potential approaches employing noninvasive brain stimulation in different diseases and investigating cortical activity under external perturbation to enhance cognitive performance, modify cortical plasticity, and manipulate sleep stages. I am also interested in biophysical modeling as a tool to provide a more ecological and individually-tailored stimulation and treatment.

Areas of Interest:
Biophysical Modeling, Sleep, Brain Connectivity and Plasticity, Placebo Effect, Neurophysiology, Neuroimaging, Cognitive Functions, Alzheimer’s Disease, Computational Neuroscience.

Research Methods:
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), Transcranial Alternate Current Stimulation (tACS), Electrophysiology, Functional and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI-MRI), Polysomnography.

Contact Information:
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sara_Romanella.
Twitter: @SaraRomanella