brainlab / Lab members
Luisa Maria Valencia Torres
Early Stage Researcher
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the Universitat de Barcelona, where I specialized in Health Psychology and Basic and Applied Psychology Research. During my studies, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Iria San Miguel and Dr. Marc Via on the NORAMP project (The Locus Coeruleus–Norepinephrine System at the Interface Between Motor and Auditory Processing). My Bachelor’s thesis, titled Exploring the Impact of Motor Variability on Sound Self-Generated Effects, examined how reaction times and motor variability modulate auditory perception in self-generated contexts. By integrating behavioural data and EEG measures, I explored how individual differences in action timing influence sensory attenuation and prediction mechanisms. During this period, I was awarded a Collaboration Scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, which allowed me to gain hands-on experience in EEG acquisition, preprocessing, and data analysis, as well as in participant coordination and experimental design. Later, I completed a Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at Maastricht University, where my research focused on predictive processing and oscillatory dynamics in relation to hallucination proneness, supervised by Dr. Antonio Criscuolo and Prof. Dr. Sonja Kotz.
Currently, I am beginning my PhD under the supervision of Dr. Iria San Miguel and Dr. Marc Via, funded by an FI-STEP predoctoral fellowship co-funded by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) and the European Union. My research explores interindividual differences in motor–auditory perception, focusing on how motor variability, reaction times, and arousal mechanisms shape perceptual experience. Using a combination of EEG, pupillometry, and salivary biomarkers, together with psychometric and genetic approaches, my goal is to understand how biological and behavioural variability influence auditory prediction and perception.
CONTACT:
Tel.: +34 934 034 424
Passeig Vall d’Hebron 171
08035 Barcelona
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