Alessandro D'Ausilio

Prof. Dr. Alessandro D'Ausilio


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

22Years (2005-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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1 March 2009 in Current Biology
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Journal Article
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ADAlessandro D'Ausilio
Alessandro D'Ausilio
FPFriedemann Pulvermüller
Friedemann Pulvermüller
PSPaola Salmas
Paola Salmas
IBIlaria Bufalari
Ilaria Bufalari
CBCHIARA BEGLIOMINI
CHIARA BEGLIOMINI
Luciano FadigaLuciano Fadiga
Luciano Fadiga

25 October 2011 in Behavior Research Methods
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Journal Article
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ADAlessandro D'Ausilio
Alessandro D'Ausilio

24 July 2009 in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
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Luciano FadigaLuciano Fadiga
Luciano Fadiga
Laila CraigheroLaila Craighero
Laila Craighero
ADAlessandro D'Ausilio
Alessandro D'Ausilio

1 March 2015 in Trends in Cognitive Sciences
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Journal Article
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ADAlessandro D'Ausilio
Alessandro D'Ausilio
GNGiacomo Novembre
Giacomo Novembre
Luciano FadigaLuciano Fadiga
Luciano Fadiga
PKPeter E. Keller
Peter E. Keller

14 May 2009 in Brain
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Journal Article
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PFPatrik Fazio
Patrik Fazio
ACAnna Cantagallo
Anna Cantagallo
Laila CraigheroLaila Craighero
Laila Craighero
ADAlessandro D'Ausilio
Alessandro D'Ausilio
ARAlice C. Roy
Alice C. Roy
Luciano FadigaLuciano Fadiga
Luciano Fadiga
Broca's area has been considered, for over a century, as the brain centre responsible for speech production. Modern neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence have suggested a wider functional role is played by this area. In addition to the evidence that it is involved in syntactical analysis, mathematical calculation and music processing, it has recently been shown that Broca's area may play some role in language comprehension and, more generally, in understanding actions of other individuals. As shown by functional magnetic resonance imaging, Broca's area is one of the cortical areas activated by hand/mouth action observation and it has been proposed that it may form a crucial node of a human mirror-neuron system. If, on the one hand, neuroimaging studies use a correlational approach which cannot offer a final proof for such claims, available neuropsychological data fail to offer a conclusive demonstration for two main reasons: (i) they use tasks taxing both language and action systems; and (ii) they rarely consider the possibility that Broca's aphasics may also be affected by some form of apraxia. We administered a novel action comprehension test—with almost no linguistic requirements—on selected frontal aphasic patients lacking apraxic symptoms. Patients, as well as matched controls, were shown short movies of human actions or of physical events. Their task consisted of ordering, in a temporal sequence, four pictures taken from each movie and randomly presented on the computer screen. Patient's performance showed a specific dissociation in their ability to re-order pictures of human actions (impaired) with respect to physical events (spared). Our study provides a demonstration that frontal aphasics, not affected by apraxia, are specifically impaired in their capability to correctly encode observed human actions.

14 August 2006 in European Journal of Neuroscience
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Journal Article
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ADAlessandro D'Ausilio
Alessandro D'Ausilio
EAE. Altenmüller
E. Altenmüller
MBM. Olivetti Belardinelli
M. Olivetti Belardinelli
MLMartin Lotze
Martin Lotze