Psychology Professor Giordana Grossi publishes book tribute to groundbreaking work of late neuroscientist

Psychology Professor Giordana Grossi is co-editor of “Changing Brains: Essays on Neuroplasticity in Honor of Helen J. Neville,” published by Routledge Taylor & Francis, which collects essays that pay tribute to Neville’s pioneering work on how experience shapes the brain.

Neville was a professor emerita at the University of Oregon and a brain scientist known internationally for her research on brain development and plasticity, and for developing practical applications based on her research aimed at educators, psychologists and neuroscientists.

Grossi and co-editor Aaron J. Newman (Dalhousie University) curated a collection of works that describe Neville’s research in perception, attention, and language, and highlight new developments inspired by her work, such as the effects of cochlear implants on language development, the changes in visual cortex associated with reading experience, and memory consolidation during sleep.

The book also illustrates Neville’s fruitful approach integrating her work on the human brain, carried out using non-invasive neuroimaging techniques, with research in behavioral neuroscience that explored the underlying cellular and molecular changes characterizing neural development. Finally, the book discusses Neville’s strong commitment to rigorous science and its translation into real-world programs designed to improve the human condition.

Grossi trained with Helen Neville as a post-doc before arriving at SUNY New Paltz. Her current research explores the cognitive and neural changes that are associated with learning a second language. She also studies sex and gender differences research, with special attention to the methodological and epistemological problems that characterize such research.

More information about research from the Department of Psychology is available here.