I am a neurologist and neuroscientist formally trained in Rome, Italy. In 1992 I went to UCLA to study split brain patients with Eran Zaidel, PhD. I subsequently joined the brain imaging group of John Mazziotta, MD PhD. I am currently Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School go Medicine at UCLA. I am also Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center.
In my research, I use brain imaging (mostly fMRI) and non invasive neuromodulation (both TMS and tDCS) to study human systems neuroscience. My main interests are in the neural systems and cognitive mechanisms for imitation, empathy, and social cognition, and in mechanisms of plasticity in the human brain. I study the brain in health and disease, in the latter case both neurological and psychiatric conditions.
My book Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others summarizes for the general reader my research on mirror neurons, imitation, and empathy. My lab website is
http://iacoboni.bol.ucla.edu
