Speakers

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

Dr. Giulio Bernardi is an Associate Professor in General Psychology. Before becoming head of the Sleep, Plasticity, and Conscious Experience (SPACE) research group at IMT School, he had research positions at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Center for Investigation and Research on Sleep at Lausanne University Hospital. Dr. Bernardi’s primary research focus concerns the local regulation of sleep and its implications for experience-dependent brain plasticity, cognition, and subjective conscious experience during both wakefulness and sleep.

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

University of Wisconsin-Madison

As a cognitive neuroscientist and philosopher, Benedetta’s multidisciplinary research focuses on uncovering the neural underpinnings of sensory disconnection – defined as a state of consciousness devoid of environmental perception. Her work leverages neuroimaging techniques, such as EEG and fMRI, alongside phenomenological sampling during sleep and sedation to investigate the complex relationship between brain activity and the subjective experience of the world.

University of Padua

University of L'Aquila

Aurora D’Atri is Associate Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and a senior member of the Laboratory of Sleep Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neurosciences at the University of L’Aquila. Her main research interests include the application of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to modulate EEG activity, sleepiness, and sleep patterns and the assessment of their effects on cognitive, emotional and behavioral functioning; investigation on the relationship between REM sleep features and daytime emotions; EEG alterations during the sleep-wake cycle in Alzheimer’s disease.

Donders Center for Medical Neuroscience

Martin Dresler has 20 years of sleep research experience, with a particular interest in the biological functions of sleep, cognitive aspects of sleep, and sleep research methodology. He leads the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, and is Associate Professor at Radboud University Medical Center. He received training in Biological Psychology, Philosophy and Mathematics at Bochum University, did his PhD at Marburg University and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, and performed postdoctoral research in Oxford and Stanford. 

Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition

Jean-Baptiste Eichenlaub is an Associate Professor at Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France) and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. During his PhD in France (Ruby Lab) and postdoctoral work in the UK (Blagrove Lab) and US (Cash Lab), he investigated the neural correlates of dreaming and the neurophysiological mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation. His current research focuses on REM sleep microstructure, sleep’s impact on waking cognition, and factors influencing dream recall.

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

University of Bern

Daniel Erlacher is an Associate Professor at the University of Bern, where he leads the Sport and Sleep Lab. His research explores lucid dreaming, motor learning, sleep stimulation, and dream awareness. He also investigates sleep’s role in regeneration, athletic performance, physical activity, memory consolidation, and motor processes in dreams. Beyond dream engineering and induction, he serves as Editor of the International Journal of Dream Research and Guest Editor for special issues on consciousness and dreaming.

University of Pisa

San Raffaele Hospital

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

University of Geneva

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

Giada is a researcher in affective neuroscience and principal investigator of the Affective Physiology and Interoception Lab. Her work investigates how emotions are grounded in the body, focusing on interoception, psychophysiology, and sensory experience. She combines behavioral, physiological, and neuroscientific methods to explore how emotions are represented, regulated, and embodied in the brain and body.

Northwestern University

University of Freiburg

University of Bern

Université de Montréal

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Sapienza University of Rome

Serena Scarpelli is the coordinator for the dreaming research line at the Laboratory of Sleep Psychophysiology at Sapienza University of Rome. Her studies on the electrophysiological correlates of dreaming are funded by various national and international organizations, allowing her to investigate EEG patterns associated with dream recall across diverse populations and age groups. Dr. Scarpelli also explores the relationship between dreaming and individual well-being, investigating dreams during the pandemic and oneiric experiences of pregnant women. Moreover, she studies parasomnias, including REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and sleep talking.

University of Zurich

University of Freiburg

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Eötvös Loránd University

Eötvös Loránd University

Integrative Neuroscience & Cognition Center

Başak is a postdoctoral researcher at the Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center (INCC) in Paris. Her work explores the brain dynamics of sensory information processing across different states of consciousness, including sleep. By combining behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging methods, she investigates the extent to which sensory and cognitive processing can occur during sleep, both in healthy and clinical populations, as well as in lucid dreamers.

Donders Center for Medical Neuroscience