People
Dr. Chiara Santolin (Principal Investigator, R4)
I am a cognitive scientist specializing in language acquisition and comparative cognition. I serve as a Principal Investigator at the Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu and I lead the NeuroDevCo group. My research explores the types of cognitive mechanisms serving the early stages of language learning in humans. To tackle this problem, I take a comparative perspective, investigating how newborns and infants as well as other animals detect linguistic structures from the speech signal.
I earned my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Padova (Italy) in 2016, with a specialization in animal cognition. After completing my doctorate studies, I did a post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (USA) focusing on infant language learning. I then joined the Center for Brain and Cognition at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) as post-doctoral fellow where I mainly worked on the acquisition of syntax and syllabic structures, categorization processes and preferences for speech in infants, and learning of linguistic constraints in rats.
In 2024, I was awarded an ERC Starting Grant (European Union) for my project Gates to Language (GALA), which aims at investigating the origins of neural and cognitive mechanisms at the onset of language learning, testing humans at different developmental stages (0 to 10 month old), rats as animal model, and different sensory inputs (linguistic, auditory non-linguistic, and vibro-tactile).
Post-doctoral researchers
Gonzalo García-Castro
I am a post-doctoral researcher investigating language acquisition and how young minds make sense of the world. My work focuses on developmental psychology and psycholinguistics, studying how humans process language at different stages in development: from newborns to infants, toddlers, and adults. Under the GALA project, I investigate how neonates, infants, and non-human animals process different syllabic structures, searching for common mechanisms supporting language processing. To do this, I use a combination of eye-tracking, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and computational modelling. with a special focus on computational reproducibility. Bayesian statistics are a big part of how I try to make sense of data.
In 2024 I obtained my Ph.D. at the Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, supervised by Prof. Núria Sebastian-Galles. I earned my B. Sc. in Psychology from the Universidad de Oviedo in 2013, and my M. Sc. in Neurosciences at the Universitat de Barcelona in 2018.
Ph.D. students
Flora Chartier
I am a Ph.D. student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Biomedicine. I am interested in the early acquisition and processing of language by infants, using different techniques such as behavioral ones, eye-tracking and fNIRS.
I obtained my M. Sc. in Integrative Biology and Physiology, specialized in Behavioral Neurosciences in La Sorbonne Université and spent a year working as a research engineer on the early acquisition of language in the INCC–Language & Cognition team in Paris. I am currently involved in the GALA project investigating how babies, at only a few months old, perceive syllables.
Staff
Laura S. Piracún-García
I work as research assistant for the GALA project. I facilitate research by aiding data collection, providing logistic and administrative support, and taking care of the call center to invite families to participate in our studies. I obtained my M. Sc. in International Experimental and Clinical Linguistics at the University of Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany), and my BA in Psychology at Bethany College (Kansas, USA). I am very interested in research aiming to understand language acquisition mechanisms and strategies, with a special focus on understudied populations, languages, and dialects.
Silvia Valls Santafé
I am a research assistant involved in the GALA project. I am currently finishing my degree in Biomedical Engineering at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where I have developed a strong interest in neuroscience and cognitive development. As part of my role, I support the team by preparing the experimental setup, collecting the data and accompanying families and their infants throughout the studies. In parallel, I am working on my final degree project, which focuses on developing a multimodal system to study brain activity in 4 to 5-month-old infants by integrating Electroencephalography (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and functional diffusion correlation spectroscopy (fDCS). The goal is to combine the high temporal resolution of EEG with the spatial one provided by the other two optical techniques. As part of this work, I am also developing a custom component to ensure good signal quality, especially in infants with dense or dark hair, improving the overall reliability of the system. I am very interested in the intersection between technology and neuroscience, and I am committed to continue contributing to research that improves our understanding of how infants perceive and learn from the world around them.