Congratulations to Emma Delhaye on being selected by FCT’s Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus! We are very glad that Emma’s work has been recognized in a highly competitive call and are delighted that she will continue her research at CICPSI.
Emma’s project is entitled “Learning from amnesia: uncovering the mechanisms underlying rapid cortical learning strategies”. It builds on evidence showing that amnesic patients can learn new information by integrating it directly in the cortex, avoiding the hippocampal route, by using strategies like unitization or fast-mapping. The goal is to reach a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying such rapid cortical learning. This is an important endeavour as it will improve our understanding of memory functioning and will allow to extend the benefits of such strategies to populations displaying memory difficulties due to hippocampal lesions acquired later in life (e.g., ageing). The project probes the cognitive mechanisms of unitization and fast mapping through a series of behavioural and electrophysiological experiments in diverse populations including healthy participants, aphantasics and bird experts.
