Ionta, Silvio

Short Biography

In 2003 Silvio Ionta received the MSc in Experimental Psychology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy. He kept collaborating with the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory directed by Prof. Salvatore M. Aglioti at the Department of Psychology, University “La Sapienza”. For his PhD in Functional Neuroimaging he moved in 2005 to the Institute of Advanced Bio-Medical Technologies directed by prof. G.L. Romani at the Dept. of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, University of Pescara-Chieti “G. D’Annunzio”.
In 2007 he obtained a grant from the Italian Ministry of Instruction, for completing the last period of PhD studentship abroad. He chose the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience (LNCO) directed by Prof. Olaf Blanke at the Brain-Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and, after havin accomplished his PhD in 2008, he started his post-doctoral position at the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience (EPFL).
In 2012, together with Roger Gassert, he received a grant from NCCR Neural Plasticity and Repair (Rehabilitation Technology Matrix; Project 8) of the SNF to start his research assistant position at the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab, Inst.f. Robotik u. Intelligente Systeme, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Full CV

Research Awards

2012 - “Prix de la Recherche” of the Ligue Suisse pour le Cerveau. Lausanne, Switzerland
2007 - “Best Poster Presentation” at the Body Representation Workshop. Manchester, UK
2004 - “Young Investigator Award”. National Congress of the Italian Association of Psychology. Sciacca, Italy

Selected Publications

Ionta S, Sforza A, Funato M, Blanke O (2012). Anatomically plausible illusory posture affects mental rotation of body parts. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience (in press)

Ionta S, Heydrich L, Lenggenhager B, Mouthon M, Fornari E, Chapuis D, Gassert R, Blanke O (2011). Multisensory mechanisms in temporo-parietal cortex support self-location and first-person perspective. Neuron 70: 363-374.

Ionta S, Ferretti A, Merla A, Tartaro A, Romani GL (2010). Step-by-step: the effects of physical practice on the neural correlates of locomotion imagery revealed by fMRI. Hum Brain Mapp 31: 694-702.

Ionta S, Blanke O (2009). Differential influence of hands posture on mental rotation of hands and feet in left and right handers. Exp Brain Res 195: 207-217.

Urgesi C, Candidi M, Ionta S, Aglioti SM (2007). Representation of body identity and body actions in extrastriate body area and ventral premotor cortex. Nat Neurosci 10: 30-31.

Ionta S, Fourkas AD, Fiorio M, Aglioti SM (2007). The influence of hands posture on mental rotation of hands and feet. Exp Brain Res 183: 1-7.