Irene Balboni

Biography and Academic Background

I am a cognitive neuroscientist working on multilingualism, language aptitude and dyslexia (with some work on screen exposure during infancy on the side). I pursued my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Padua and KU Leuven, where I investigated animal vision and moved to human cognition during my Master’s in Neuroscience at Maastricht University, focusing on thalamo-cortical functional connectivity during audio-visual learning in dyslexia.

I earned my PhD between the Universities of Fribourg and Geneva, directly working within the NCCR framework. As some of you might know, my doctoral research examined the complex interactions between multilingualism, language aptitude, and dyslexia using neuroimaging, behavioural and genetic data, shedding light on how individual differences shape language processing.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher still within the NCCR, continuing our quest for the neural markers behind individual differences in language learning, the relationship between general cognition mechanisms and language, and the relationship between multilingual experience and language representation.

Beyond my research, I am strongly committed to science communication, public outreach, and diversity in STEM. I serve on the board of Penne Amiche della Scienza, a pen-pal initiative connecting researchers with elementary and lower secondary school students, and the Women in Neuroscience Repository, which promotes the visibility of women in neuroscience. My outreach work also includes direct science communication with children and running training sessions for teachers and education professionals on the neuroscience of foreign language learning and the neurobiology of screen exposure in the first 6 years of life.

Motivation to join the Steering Committee

I grew up and matured academically within the interdisciplinary and collaborative context of the NCCR, seeing the growth of this ambitious project from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Having spent the last six years here, this network has truly been my academic home.

My candidacy for the Steering Committee stems from a desire to give back to this community and support early-career researchers. Having navigated my own development within the network, I want to bring a practical insider perspective, helping to keep the NCCR productive and thriving while ensuring it remains a supportive, welcoming place to work and collaborate.