The research program is mainly concerned with the study of cognitive and emotional processes involved in different psychiatric and neuropsychological conditions, and the investigation of the individual variables which predict psychological wellbeing, also in a developmental perspective.

1) Role of inhibitory control in healthy and psychopathological conditions

Inhibitory mechanisms play a fundamental role in cognition, as proved by a broad literature on their role in executive functions and memory. Specifically, efficient retrieval of information from long-term memory, which is crucial for enabling successful living, is also linked to the ability to forget related but potentially interfering information. Research has shown that this type of beneficial forgetting is likely to be achieved via inhibition of competing memory traces. Such inhibitory processing can be triggered incidentally, as well as in a motivated manner. The goal of this research line is to unveil the mechanisms of the inhibitory processing underlying incidental and motivated forgetting and to assess whether successful memory inhibition and motor response inhibition rely on overlapping inhibitory processing as suggested by influential models of forgetting. Importantly, this research line encompasses not only healthy, but also clinical samples, by testing patients with psychopathological disorders (e.g., patients with schizophrenia, substance-related disorders, behavioural addictions, eating disorders), in order to clarify their inhibitory cognitive profile, thus providing novel insights for therapy.

2) Individual determinants of psychological wellbeing

This research line, included in the field of Health Psychology, has the main goal of detecting individual variables (in personality traits, cognitive styles, metacognitions, etc.), relevant to mental health (e.g., as assessed by perceived stress, psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction measures). Within this context, particular attention is given to abilities in emotion regulation and adaptive coping strategies, with projects aimed at testing the effectiveness of interventions to develop these abilities, since early developmental phases.

3) Use of tES (transcranial Electrical Stimulation) to reduce cognitive impairments and affective symptoms

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES) is a family of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (e.g., transcranial Direct Current Stimulation or tDCS, transcranial Random Noise Stimulation or tRNS, transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation or tACS) which uses very weak current flows to reversibly modulate brain activity and, in turn, motor/cognitive/affective functions strictly dependent on the stimulated areas. Since this neuromodulation technique offers many advantages, especially relevant for clinical aims, it could be a promising therapeutic tool, in association with cognitive trainings or psychotherapeutic interventions. Despite these favorable features, however, research is still trying to find the individual variables and stimulation parameters able to reliably produce the desired effects. In this perspective, the aim of this research line is to test the comparative effectiveness of different tES protocols in modulating cognitive and affective processes, in both healthy participants (to investigate anatomo-functional relations potentially underlying various mental disorders), and different kinds of patients (in a rehabilitative perspective).