Since my pre-college days (circa 1991), I have been investigating in one way or another the basic unconscious and conscious (e.g., urges, impulse control, working memory) brain mechanisms in human action production. My overarching career goal is to home in on the basic cognitive and neural processes responsible for conscious states. In 2010, I was honored to be nominated along with six other neuroscientists/psychologists for the Virtual Nobel Prize in Psychology (organized by the University of Klagenfurt, Austria). In 2011, I had the honor of serving as an Early Career Reviewer at the Center for Scientific Review of The National Institute of Health (NIH).

I was Born in Buenos Aires in 1974 and raised in the US (Miami) since the age of six. I was interested in experimental psychology and what was then called psychobiology since my pre-college days in Miami, when I came across books by Clark Hull and Donald Hebb. Later, I was mentored by Robert B. Tallarico at the University of Miami (B.A., 1996, Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude). I received my Ph.D. working with my doctoral advisor, Robert M. Krauss at Columbia University. During this time, I also worked with the neuropsychologist Michele Miozzo. My dissertation research ("The Motor Components of Semantic Representation") was awarded the Richard Christie Memorial Award. From fall 2003 till fall 2007, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow (NIH NRSA Award) at Yale University, working with my postdoctoral advisor, John Bargh. During this time, I also collaborated with the neuroscientist Jeremy Gray.

Following my postdoctoral training, I was hired as an Assistant Professor of Social Cognitive Neuroscience at San Francisco State University (where I am director of the Action and Consciousness Laboratory) and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. I am also boardmember of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO; Buenos Aires).

My research focuses on the differences between the conscious and unconscious brain circuits underlying human action production. From a systems neuroscience perspective, the research integrates cognitive, neurobiological, and neurological approaches that illuminate the nature of the basic unconscious mechanisms and conscious (e.g., cognitive conflict, urges, working memory) mechanisms in action production. The ultimate aim of my lab is to home in on the subset of basic neural and cognitive mechanisms responsible for conscious states and thereby learn about how the brain yields adaptive action and also maladaptive action, as in the case of some neurological disorders. Investigations at my laboratory tend to fall into three primary research lines.

Line 1: Action-related determinants of what enters consciousness. Representative paradigms and topics: visual masking, binocular rivalry, refreshing, inattentional blindness, and the Sperling task.

Line 2: Action-related subjective modulations of processes that are already consciously available. Representative paradigms and topics: self-control, sense of agency, and interference paradigms, such as the Stroop and flanker tasks.

Line 3: Actional components of mental representation. Representative paradigms and topics: indirect cognitive control, ideomotor processing, situated cognition, priming, motor components of semantic representation, and folk theories about action production.

In trying to understand the nature of complex nonconscious processes, one eventually encounters the thorny question, "Then what is consciousness for?" I have developed a theoretical framework (Supramodular Interaction Theory [SIT] and the PRISM principle) explaining the primary function of conscious states (see my 2005 Psychological Review article). I had the honor and pleasure of presenting this framework in an invited talk to the Harvard Department of Psychology. As well, the theory was covered in the media by MSNBC and the BBC. For more information about the theory, please visit the Action and Conscious Laboratory web site.

In collaboration with John Bargh, Jeremy Gray, Adam Gazzaley, and Mark Geisler, I am evaluating SIT using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques. In addition, with the assistance of the neurologist Stephen Krieger and colleagues at the UCSF Memory and Aging center, we are examining the implications that SIT and the lab's research has for disorders of awareness and disorders involving action selection (e.g., frontotemporal dementia).