Valentina obtained her Bachelor's degree in 2006 in Cognitive Science and Psychobiology and her Master's degree in 2008 in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Padova, Italy. As an undergraduate student, she was attracted to science and research by the influence of odors on human motor behavior. Since then, she has investigated how normal and abnormal chemosensory abilities, both in healthy and neurologically impaired participants, affect motor performances. During her PhD, she also developed a keen interest in body odors and their effect on social interactions. From 2012 to 2015, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, USA to expand her expertise in human socio-chemosignal communication. In November 2015, she joined SISSA to work on projects related to the cognitive and emotional aspects of human sociochemosignal communication in healthy participants as well as individuals with atypical development (i.e, autism spectrum disorder).
Valentina is currently post-doc at Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA) in Lisbon.
Publications:
Parma, V. & deMarchena, A.B. (2015). Motor signatures in autism spectrum disorder: the importance of variability. Journal of Neurophysiology (commentary).
Mutic, S., Parma, V., Wudarczyk, O.A., Brünner, Y.F., & Freiherr, J. (2015). You smell dangerous: communicating fight responses through human chemosignals of aggression. Chemical Senses.
Parma, V., Miller, S.S., Ferraro, S., Åhs, F., & Lundström, J.N. (2015). Enhancement of odor sensitivity following repeated odor and visual fear conditioning. Chemical Senses. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjv033
Cellini, N., Parma, V. (2015). Breaking sleep learning through olfactory Trojan horses. Frontiers in Psychology, 6:364. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00364
Parma, V., Bulgheroni, M., Tirindelli, R., & Castiello, U. (2014). Facilitation of action planning in children with autism: the contribution of the maternal body odor. Brain and Cognition, 88: 73-82.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2014.05.002
Parma, V., Zanatto, D., Straulino, E., Scaravilli, T. & Castiello, U. (2014). Kinematics of the reach-to- grasp movement in vascular parkinsonism: A comparison with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease patients. Frontiers in Neurology, Movement Disorders, 5: 75 doi: 10.3389/fneur.2014.00075
Parma, V., Castiello, U., Köster, E.P., & Mojet, J. (2014). Selecting food. The contribution of memory, preference and action. Appetite, 76, 186-196.
Parma, V., Zanatto, D., & Castiello, U. (2013). Visuo-olfactory integration during action observation and execution of reach to grasp movements. Neuroreport, 24(14):768-772. doi: 10.1097/WNR. 0b013e328363d3ec
Parma, V., Bulgheroni, M., Tirindelli, R., & Castiello, U. (2013). Body odors promote automatic imitation in autism. Biological Psychiatry, 74(3), 220-226. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.01.010
Parma, V., Bulgheroni, M., Scaravilli, T., Tirindelli, R., & Castiello, U. (2013). Implicit olfactory processing attenuates motor disturbances in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Cortex, 49(5): 1241-1251. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.05.017
Parma, V., Straulino, E., Zanatto, D., Cantagallo, A., Tirindelli, R., & Castiello, U. (2012). Implicit olfactory abilities in traumatic brain injured patients. Neuropsychology, Development, and Cognition. Section A, Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 34(9), 977- 988. doi: 10.1080/13803395.2012.711811
Parma, V., Tirindelli, R., Bisazza, A., Massaccesi, S., & Castiello, U. (2012). Subliminally perceived odors modulate female intrasexual competition: an eye movement study. PloS ONE, 7(2), e30645. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030645
Parma, V., Roverato, R., Ghirardello, D., Bulgheroni, M., Tirindelli, R., & Castiello, U. (2011). When flavor guides motor control: an effector independence study. Experimental Brain Research, 212, 339- 346. doi: 10.1007/s00221-011-2733-9
Parma, V., Ghirardello, D., Tirindelli, R., & Castiello, U. (2011). Grasping a fruit. Hands do what flavour says. Appetite, 56(2), 249- 254. doi: 10.1016/ j.appet.2010.12.013
Parma, V., Tornasi, C., Grossi, P., Atzori, M., Perini, P., Calabrese, M., Tirindelli, M., Gallo, P., & Castiello, U. (2010). Specific smell dysfunctions in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 1(1), 101- 106. doi: 10.4172/2155-9562.1000101
Castiello, U., Zucco, A., Parma, V., Ansuini, C., & Tirindelli, R. (2006). Cross-modal interactions between olfaction and vision when grasping. Chemical Senses, 31, 665-671. doi: 10.1093/ chemse/bjl007
