Academia

I am a cognitive neuroscientist working at University College London, Institute of Neurology, Department of clinical and movement neurosciences | in James Kilner lab | E: a.pol@ucl.ac.uk


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Currently I’m working on answering two big questions: 
(a) How do we remember others’ bodies? –the mechanisms allowing encoding and memory maintenance of body-related information. (b) What is the effect of our inner bodily organs upon cognition? –the influence of oscillatory bodily signals such as the heartbeat on the brain. I research these and other questions by examining electrophysiological signals (somatosensory, motor-cortical potentials, ECG, GSR, respiration, etc.)

brief CV: [here to download]
extended CV: [here to download]

Research Interests

  • Sensorimotor processing
  • Sensory integration
  • Working memory
  • Neuroaesthetics
  • Interoception
  • Oscillatory bodily states

Publications

  • Arslanova, I., Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B., & Forster, B. (2019). Searching for bodies: ERP evidence for independent somatosensory processing during visual search of body-related information. Neuroimage. [accepted] 
  • Galvez-Pol, A., McConnell, R., & Kilner, J. (2018). Voluntary visual search is modulated by the cardiac cycle. bioRxiv. [preprint]
  • Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B., Capilla, A., & Forster, B. (2018). Persistent recruitment of somatosensory cortex during active maintenance of hand images in working memory. NeuroImage, 174, 153-163. [paper] 
  • Palser, E., Palmer, C., Galvez-Pol, A., Ricci, H., & Kilner, J. (2018). Alexithymia mediates the relationship between interoceptive sensibility and anxiety. Plos one 13(9) e0203212 [paper]
  • Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B., & Forster, B. (2018). Modulation of motor cortex activity in a visual working memory task of hand images. Neuropsychologia, 117,75-83. [paper] 
  • Galvez-Pol, A. (2017). Revealing mnemonic representations of the body in the brain. Doctoral thesis. City, University of London. [take a look] 
  • Galvez-Pol, A. (2017) De fotones a cognición: percepción, memoria y arte en el cerebro. In Schwartz & Bermúdez (Eds.). Nodos. Pamplona: Next Doors Publishers. [Take a look]
  • Nadal, M., Gomila, A & Galvez-Pol, A (2014). A history for Neuroaesthetics. In J. O. Lauring (Ed.), An Introduction to Neuroaesthetics: The neuroscientific approach to aesthetic experience, artistic creativity, and arts appreciation. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 3-49. [chapter]
  • Galvez, A., Darriba, A., Villacampa, J., Martorell, R., Prada, L., & Barcelo, F. (2013). Effects of aging and executive control on the flexible shifting of stimulus-response mappings in bi-field visuomotor task with increasing cognitive demands. Journal of Psychophysiology, 27, 54-54.
  • Nadal, M., Flexas, A., Galvez, A., & Cela-Conde, C. J. (2012). Neuroaesthetics: Themes from the past, current issues, and challenges for the future. Rendiconti Lincei – Scienze Fisiche e Naturali. [paper]

Preprints / manuscripts under review

  • Galvez-Pol, A., McConnel, R., & Kilner, J. (2018). Active sampling during visual search is modulated by the cardiac cycle.

In preparation

  • Galvez-Pol, A., Christensen J.F., Vladimir, M., & Kilner, J. The Queen Square ION set of facial expressions
  • Galvez-Pol, A., Katus, T., Eimer, M., Longo, M., & Tame, L. Homologous representations of tactile information in working memory 

Current Collaborators:

  • Beatriz Calvo-Merino (City, University of London)
  • Bettina Forster (City, University of London)
  • James Kilner (University College London)
  • Luigi Tame (Birkbeck, University of London)
  • Tobias katus (Birkbeck, University of London)
  • Eleanor Palser (University of San Francisco, USA)
  • Martin Eimer (Birkbeck, University of London)
  • Mathew Longo (Birkbeck, University of London)
  • Charlotte Rosso (Sorbonne Université, France)
  • Julia Christensen (Max Plank, Germany)