Prof Manuel Martin-Loeches

Full Professor of Psychobiology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Graduated in Psychology in 1987, PhD degree in Psychobiology in 1991 with a dissertation on “Computerized Electroencephalography in Alzheimer’s Disease and Multi-Infarct Dementia”, developed at the Department of Human Physiology of the School of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid. Thereafter, he spent a postdoctoral stay in Germany (Konstanz University and Humboldt University of Berlin), where he studied the electrophysiology of working memory processes. Returned to Spain in 1996 with a Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education to work at the Pluridisciplinar Institute UCM (Brain Mapping Unit), he continued his labor on working memory and other cognitive processes, mainly language, as well as on several mental diseases, such as schizophrenia. In 2001, he moved to the Center UCM-ISCIII for Human Evolution and Behavior, where he is since then in charge of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section, developing his research in a number of cognitive processes narrowly linked to human evolution, such as language (semantic and syntactic processes), social emotions (pride, shame, guilt). social contexts, religion, art, subliminal perception, and the self, among others.

 

Author of over 150 scientific articles, 15 book chapters, 7 complete books, and over 100 congresses. Within his main scientific contributions, it can be remarked the development on an electrophysiological signal, the Recognition Potential, which permits to determine the timing of lexical access to semantic information and stablish this in earlier latencies than previously assumed. Another important contribution in the field is the evidence of early influences on syntactic processing of extra-linguistic factors, such as emotions or social context. He has also proposed a model on the evolutionary origins of artistic expression in humans, based upon current views of embodied cognition.

 

A large portion of his time is devoted to disseminate to general public the knowledge acquired along his scientific labor, frequently appearing in TV and radio broadcasting programs as well as in newspapers. In this regard, he has published books on brain and human behavior for the public, and given numerous conferences on these topics.