I received my PhD in Psychology from Lancaster University under the supervision of Dr. Elena Geangu, Dr. Eugenio Parise, and Prof. Gavin Bremner in 2018. My dissertation work was focused on the mechanisms involved in the generation of empathy in infancy. Specifically, I investigated the neural correlates underlying affect sharing and theory of mind taking into account individual differences. I also had the chance to explore the role of facial mimicry on affect sharing in infancy. In my research I used multiple tools including EEG, EMG and behavioural measures.
I joined the Cambridge Babylab in January 2018 as a postdoctoral research fellow to work on the Brain Imaging for Global HealTh (BRIGHT) project. My main focus within the project is to examine whether the linguistic environment of UK and Gambian infants has an impact on vocabulary growth and language processing efficiency across the second year of life. I am also interested on investigating the relationship between early brain responses to audio-visual social cues and later language development.
For more information on Maria M.’s work, visit: http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/people/formermembers/maria-magdalena-crespo-llado