Mariagrazia Ranzini

Research Interests

I am an experimental psychologist with a strong interest in cognitive neurosciences. My main domain of expertise concerns numerical cognition. I study numerical cognition in relation to other aspects of human cognition, such as spatial attention, working memory, hand action, synaesthesia. I am currently Marie Curie Fellow, working on the project GRINP: Grasping and Reaching In Number Processing. The GRINP project is focused on the study of the neural underpinnings of number processing and its impairment. GRINP builds upon action-based theories of cognition - considering many aspects of human cognition as built on motor action - and on the idea that the neural bases for abstract concepts representation are networks of functionally-related recycled mechanisms. Through a comprehensive approach which couples neuropsychological with neuroimaging methods, I am testing to which extent number magnitude recruits the same sensorimotor network involved in the planning and execution of hand movements.

Education
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Pavia (2010)
Laurea (M.Sc.), Psychology, University of Pavia (2004)

Representative publications

• Ranzini, M., Semenza, C., Zorzi, M., and Cutini, S. (2022). Influences of hand action on the processing of symbolic numbers: a special role of pointing?. PLOS ONE, 17(6), e0269557.

• Ranzini, M., Scarpazza, C., Radua, J., Cutini, S., Semenza, C., and Zorzi, M. (2022). A common neural substrate for number comparison, hand reaching and grasping: A SDM-PSI meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Cortex, 148, 31-67.
• Felisatti, A., Ranzini, M., Blini, E., Lisi, M., and Zorzi, M. (2022). Effects of attentional shifts along the vertical axis on number processing: an eye-tracking study with optokinetic stimulation, Cognition, 221.
• Ranzini, M. and Girelli, L. (2019). Colours+ Numbers differs from colours of numbers: cognitive and visual illusions in grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81(5), 1500-1511.
• Ranzini, M., Carbè, K., and Gevers, W. (2017). Contribution of visuospatial attention, short-term memory and executive functions to performance in number interval bisection. Neuropsychologia, 99, 225-235.
• Ranzini, M., Lisi, M., and Zorzi, M. (2016). Voluntary eye movements direct attention on the mental number space. Psychological research, 80, 389-398.
• Ranzini, M., Lisi, M., Blini, E.A., Pitteri, M., Treccani, B., Priftis, K., and Zorzi, M. (2015). Larger, smaller, odd or even? Task-specific effects of optokinetic stimulation on the mental number space. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 1-12.
• Ranzini, M., and Girelli, L. (2012). Exploiting illusory effects to disclose similarities in numerical and luminance processing. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 74, 1001-1008.
• Ranzini, M., Lugli, L., Anelli, F., Carbone, R., Nicoletti, R., and Borghi, A.M. (2011). Graspable objects shape number processing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5:147.
• Ranzini, M., Dehaene, S., Piazza, M., and Hubbard, E.M. (2009). Neural mechanisms of attentional shifts due to irrelevant spatial and numerical cues. Neuropsychologia, 47, 2615–2624.
• Hubbard, E.M., Ranzini, M., Piazza, M., and Dehaene, S. (2009). What information is critical to elicit interference in number-form synaesthesia? Cortex, 45, 1200-1216.

Links

• Personal Google Scholar webpage
• Personal ResearchGate webpage
• An Introduction to the GRINP project and some current studies (in Italian)