Chiara Santolin

Head of the research group NeuroDevelopment and Comparative Cognition which investigates cognitive and neural processes in human and non-human species, with a special focus on how early-life experiences (e.g., language) shape brain development and cognitive functions. The ongoing research is primarily oriented at uncovering the evolutionary origins of the mechanisms supporting early language learning, integrating methodologies from Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience and Biology.

Members of the research

• Gonzalo García Castro (Post-doctoral researcher)
• Flora Chartier (PhD student)
• Laura Piracún Garcia (Research assistant)
• Silvia Valls Santafé (Research assistant)

Chiara Santolin obtained a PhD in Psychology from the University of Padova (Italy) in 2016, with a specialization in animal cognition. To expand her research portfolio, she did a post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), from 2016 to 2017, focusing on infant cognition and language learning.

From 2017 to 2023 she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona (Spain) where she studied syntax, the learning of syllabic structures and speech preferences in young infants. She conducted her research at the Laboratori de Recerca en Infancia (UPF). She also conducted research on language processing in non-human animals. During this time, she obtained a Juan de La Cierva post-doctoral fellowship awarded by Spain's Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades.

In 2023, she obtained an ERC Starting Grant entitled Gates to Language (GALA; 101115991) from the European Research Council. The main goal of the project is investating the types of neural and cognitive mechanisms operating at the onset of language learning. To do so, I'm conducting a series of studies with humans at different developmental stages (0 to 10 month old) and rats as animal model, using different sensory inputs (linguistic, auditory non-linguistic, and vibro-tactile).

In May 2024, she joined the Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Deu as a Group Leader, and she founded the NeuroDevelopment and Comparative Cognition (NeuroDevCo) group. Link to the group website: https://neurodevco.github.io

Latest publications (chronological order)

Marcout C., Santolin C., Giurfa M. & Paoli M. Statistical olfactory learning in honeybees. Bioarxiv, 2025.

Santolin, C., Zacharaki, K., Toro, J. M., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2024). Abstract processing of syllabic structures in early infancy. Cognition, 244, 105663.

Tribak, I. G., Ciarrusta, J., Santolin, C., Zhang, F., Mayoral, X., Angulo-Chavira, A. Q., ... & Durduran, T. (2024). Perception of speech structures in six month-old infants: a multimodal study. Optical Tomography and Spectroscopy (pp. JS4A-30).

Santolin, C., Frey, C., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2024). Learning phonetic categories in infancy: The role of word-context information. Infant Behavior and Development, 76, 101961.

Santolin, C., Crespo-Bojorque, P., Sebastian-Galles, N., & Toro, J. M. (2023). Sensitivity to the sonority sequencing principle in rats (Rattus norvegicus). Scientific Reports, 13(1), 17036.

Zhang F., Ciarrusta J., Zacharaki K., Eken A., Santolin C., Senciales D., Pagliazzi M., Colomer N., Sebastian Galles N. & Durduran T. (2022). Integration of Functional Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy and Electroencephalography for Measuring Task-Triggered Brain Activation in Infants. Physics in Biology and Medicine. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11851/11229

Santolin, C., Garcia‐Castro, G., Zettersten, M., Sebastian‐Galles, N., & Saffran, J. R. (2021). Experience with research paradigms relates to infants' direction of preference. Infancy, 26(1), 39-46.

Sebastian-Galles, N., & Santolin, C. (2020). Bilingual acquisition: The early steps. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 2(1), 47-68.

Santolin, C., Rosa-Salva, O., Lemaire, B. S., Regolin, L., & Vallortigara, G. (2020). Statistical learning in domestic chicks is modulated by strain and sex. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 15140.

Project: Gates to Language (GALA)

Leader: Chiara Santolin

Funding entities: European Research Council (ERC)

Code: 101115991

Starting - finishing date: June 2024 - April 2029