I joined the D'Esposito Lab in the fall of 2010 after completion of my graduate studies at NeuroSpin (greater Paris area) under the supervision of Dr. Andreas Kleinschmidt. During my doctorate studies I investigated the functional consequences of spontaneous fluctuations in ongoing brain activity. Our findings led to the suggestion that a top-down control network comprising anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and thalamus maintains intrinsic alertness, and that this function might be carried by means of alpha band oscillations. Following these observations, I became interested in the behavioral, electrophyioslogical, and neuroanatomical study of intrinsic, tonic alertness in contradistinction to other attentional functions. In the D'Esposito lab I will use functional MRI and electrophysiological measurements in humans to pursue this research question.