OUR TEAM

Principal Investigator

Ori Ossmy, PhD, FHEA

Professor in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Head of the Physical Cognition Lab and a faculty member of the School of Psychological Sciences, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD), and Centre for Educational Neuroscience (CEN) at Birkbeck, University of London.

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Postdoctoral Researcher

Tommaso Ghilardi, PhD

Studies the development of perceptual, cognitive, and motor mechanisms involved in human planning. Uses behavioural, neural, and computational approaches.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Giulia Serino, PhD

Studies perceptual and cognitive development in lab and natural settings, with a focus on attention. Combines behavioural and neural techniques.

PhD Student

Hélène Grandchamp Des Raux

Studies the effects of embodied experiences on adaptability and reasoning. Uses altered gravity as a model system to understand the relation between sensorimotor adaptability to cognitive adaptability.

PhD Student

Jazmine Hall

Studies early motor markers for Autistic Spectrum Condition in newborns, and its relations with subsequent cognitive skills. Part of the BabyGrow project.

PhD Student

Maria Paz Cebrecos

Studies the motor and neural origins of collaborative and competitive behaviours. Uses motion tracking, EEG, and video coding techniques.

PhD Student

Nina Peleg

Interested in using cognitive neuroscience methods to better understand how children learn spatial skills in classrooms and how to improve educational practices using spatial tasks. Leads the BetterTogether project.

PhD Student

Marianna Muszynska

Studies embodied cognition in children with ADHD. Uses virtual reality and computerised games for digital phenotypic of ADHD characteristics. Leads the BlockQuest project.

PhD Student

Arezoo Alford

Studies the development of human planning with focus on whether planning is probabilistic and biased. Tests how perceptual, neural, and motor planning processes unfold from moment to moment. Leads the ACT-UP project.

PhD Student

Sophie Hascher

Interested in how virtual reality and Neurofeedback can be used to enhance wellbeing and mental health. Her doctoral research focuses on developing behavioural intervention to sugar addiction.

PhD Student

Mahnoor Tariq

Studies how sensory inputs affect children's acquisition of planning skills. Conducts intervention studies in the lab using EEG, Eye-tracking, motion-tracking and video to examine how multi-sensory information during physical tasks shapes planning and problem-solving skills.

PhD Student

Linda Cerminara

Linda's research aims to explore neural plasticity during the initial years of parenthood, particularly how cognitive adaptation shapes parents' interactions with their child and their child development

PhD Student

Virag Lakner

Studies the computational origins of human planning. Works on building computational model of multi-step actions and their underlying processes in children and adults.

PhD Student / Research Assistant

Maryam Haq

Studies the effects of embodied training in a virtual reality environment on high-level cognitive skills. Leads the Adaptable Basketball project in the lab. In her PhD, interested in testing the role of the vestibular system in cognition.

Research Assistant

Eman Ahmad Kanaaneh

Supports the development of 'Intelligent Toys' as a novel technology to study child development in naturalistic settings. Her work focuses on developing the protocols and the 3D printing designs

Research Assistant

Ishan Dubey

Works on developing a computational model for physical reasoning that adapts to new physical laws such as altered gravities.

Research Assistant

Melissa Dexter

Studies the ageing of adaptability, cognitive control, and physical reasoning using online gaming with young and older adults.

Collaborators

Denis Mareschal, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Natasha Kirkham, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Elisa Ferre, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Matthew Longo, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Silvia Seghezzi, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Emily Farran, University of Surrey, UK

Andrew Tolmie, University College London, UK

Sam Wass, University East London, UK

Gillian Forrester, University of Sussex, UK

Saber Sotoodeh, University of Sussex, UK

Hannah Rowan, University of Sussex, UK

Rani Moran, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

Xiaoyun Chen, Lancaster University, UK

Matan Mazor, University of Oxford, UK

Georgina Donati, University of Oxford, UK

Yair Lakretz, École normale supérieure, France

Roy Mukamel, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Danyang Han, Zhejiang University, China

Karen Adolph, New York University, USA

Catherine Tamis-Lemonda, New York University, USA

Lana Karasik, City University of New York, USA

John Franchak, University of California, Riverside, USA

Rick Gilmore, Penn State University, USA

Jeffrey Lockman, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Brianna Kaplan, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Minxin Cheng, Northeastern University, USA

Dor Abrahamson, UC Berkley, USA

Research Assistant Volunteers & Placement Students

Maria Rodriguez (BlockQuest project)

Stefka Stefanova (BlockQuest project)

Mariana Sarmento (SMARTOYS project)

Reeshu Varma (SMARTOYS project)

Saumya Sharma (SMARTOYS project)

Sandra Hernandez Chang (SMARTOYS project)

Nina Randisi (SMARTOYS project)

Elena Veleva(SMARTOYS project)

Oscar O'kelly Mateos (SMARTOYS project)

Weronika Domagala (ACT-UP-Training project)

Giorgia Armani Achilli (ACT-UP project)

Anya Noik (BetterTogether project)

Karl Kevorkian (BetterTogether project)

MSc Students (2025-2026)

Laura Guthrie

Sydney Steans-Gail

Anastasia Zhukova

Jan Duplinszki

Alex Popescu

Amina Khatun

Kabi Sivagi

Sarah Manistre

Anastasia Stakhiv

Sofus Mustatova

Sandra Hernandez-Chang

Cate Custance

Nadiya Elyse Greaser

Tania Khanam

Matthew Price

Katie Savva

Sarah Witkowski-Baker

Rebecca Bartram