02 Nov 21. Welcome Joana Leitão

Edinburgh Imaging would like to welcome Joana Leitão, Research Associate in fMRI, to the University. Joana will be working in the Edinburgh Imaging Facilities assisting researchers in setting up & designing fMRI studies, as well as analysing fMRI data.

Career to date

Joana Leitão did her PhD on Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen (with an interlude at the University of Birmingham, UK), where she combined simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) & Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to study multisensory & attentional processes.

In her postdoctoral post at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, Joana switched gears towards the study emotional processes. In this context, Joana developed interactive & self-engaging experimental tasks through the use of video games, & incorporated different behavioural, physiological, & facial electromyography measures with fMRI, to take into account the componential nature of emotional processes.

Bridging her doctoral & postdoctoral research topics, she is also interested in investigating how emotional information is transferred across sensory modalities & how it can affect multisensory integration. In addition, Joana is very much interested in transmitting her knowledge to the next generation of researchers & to the population as a whole.

Future work in new appointment

At the University of Edinburgh, Joana will act as the fMRI Support Scientist in the Edinburgh Imaging Facilities, where she will be responsible for assisting researchers in setting up & designing fMRI studies, as well as analysing fMRI data.

Joana’s interests are:

• multisensory integration
• emotion
• knowledge transfer & public outreach
• open access & open science

We asked Joana her thoughts regarding joining the University.

“I am very happy to be joining this vibrant & multidisciplinary community.

I look forward to working with other researchers during the development of fMRI studies, & am happy for opportunities to apply my experience in a more clinical & applied context.”