Ignacio Lucas, from the Neurocognition, psychobiology of the personality and behavioral genetics group, defends his doctoral thesis online

Ignacio Lucas, from the Neurocognition, psychobiology of the personality and behavioral genetics group, has defended his doctoral thesis online on April 28th. Executive functions, emotion and personality: Activity of the prefrontal cortex through functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), is the title of the second thesis that has been defended by videoconference at the Universitat de Lleida (UdL), due to confinement by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was led by the professor at the UdL and head of the NNeurocognition, psychobiology of the personality and behavioral genetics group, Antón Aluja, under the supervision of the head of the Molecular Neurobiology and Development group, Joaquim Egea.

The doctoral thesis has been defended in English with the excellent "Cum laude" rating and the mention of international doctor. The court was made up of prominent neuroscientists, such as Dr. Jéròme Rossier, from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), former president of the Association of Personality Psychology, one of the world's experts in his field, by Dr. Cèsar Àvila , one of the best experts in Cognitive Neuroscience in Spain, professor at the Universitat Jaume I de Castelló and Dr. Carme Espinet, neuroscientist at the Molecular and Developmental Neurobiology group at the Lleida Institute of Biomedical Research.

The doctoral thesis is a pioneer in Spain for the use of the near infrared spectrometry technique (fNIRS), applied in the study of the activity of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Technique that allows studying how the brain works during experimental executive tasks such as working memory or the effect of human emotions.