Giovanni Di Liberto

Giovanni is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science and Statistics, at Trinity College Dublin. He is also affiliated with the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) and the ADAPT Centre. Using computational methods grounded in Computer Science and Engineering, Giovanni's team investigates how the human brain processes speech and music, impacting a range of research domains, from the study of early brain development to hearing impairment.

Giovanni's scientific interests centre on understanding the brain mechanisms underlying speech comprehension. In his work, he develops data analysis methods and applies them to brain data to identify the neural processes responsible for the transformation of a sensory stimulus into its abstract meaning. Brain electrical data is measured with either non-invasive (e.g., electroencephalography) or invasive (e.g., electrocorticography, ECoG) technologies. The first aspect of his research is methodological and has produced novel experimental and analysis frameworks to investigate cortical auditory processing.

The second aspect of his research is to use such novel methods to test theories on auditory perception, such as the hierarchical processing of speech and predictive processing theories (e.g. predictive coding). Finally, the third part of his work is translational and involves the identification of solutions to utilise his novel methods in applied settings, for example as tools to develop brain-computer interfaces (COCOHA project) or as objective measures for the monitoring of language development and healthy ageing.

Giovanni received his Bachelor's degree in Information Engineering in 2011 and his Master's degree in Computer Engineering in 2013, both from the University of Padova, Italy. After a period working on his thesis at University College Cork (UCC, Ireland), he joined Edmund Lalor's research lab in Trinity College Dublin where he pursued a PhD in auditory neuroscience in the School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. He received his PhD in 2017 and he joined the Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs at École Normale Superieure (Paris) immediately after, under the supervision of Alain de Cheveigné and Shihab Shamma.

He is now affiliated with School of Computer Science and Statistics, ADAPT Centre, The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Rinn AI, The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.