Vision Science · Visual Working Memory · Spatiotemporal Prediction

Giuliana Martinatti Giorjiani

About Me

I am a cognitive neuroscientist chasing one simple question: How does our brain allow us to perceive and interact with a world that never holds still?

Curiously, neuroscience was not where my journey began. As an undergraduate, I spent three years studying aerospace engineering before attending a lecture on neurological disorders that completely changed the course of my career. I left the room convinced that not many things out there are as elegant and complex as our own brain. From that moment on, I wanted to understand not only how our brain works, but why it works the way it does.

I graduated with dual degrees in Science & Technology and Neuroscience from the Universidade Federal do ABC, Brazil, where I later completed a Master's degree in Neuroscience and Cognition with Prof. Marcelo Salvador Caetano and Prof. Claudinei Biazoli Jr. in the Timing and Cognition Lab. Between finishing my Master's and starting my PhD, I spent five years as a research assistant developing expertise in structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI/fMRI), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), psychophysics, eye tracking, and computational modelling. During this time, I worked with Dr. Joana Balardin at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Brazil and Prof. Jorge Almeida at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Currently, I am completing my PhD at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute of the Max Planck Society with Dr. Rosanne Rademaker in the Rademaker Lab. My research investigates how visual information held in working memory is shaped by task demands, how the visual system supports spatiotemporal predictions of moving objects, and which neural mechanisms allow us to anticipate future states of a dynamic enviorment despite incomplete sensory information.

More than anything, I am a curious person. Whether I am in the lab, learning how to fly an airplane, scuba diving, sketching or picking up an entirely new hobby, I'm driven by the same question: How does it all work?