Manuela Macedonia

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Manuela Macedonia (2019)

Manuela Macedonia , also Manuela Macedonia-Oleinek (born August 12, 1963 ), is an Italian neuroscientist .

Life

Manuela Macedonia grew up in Saint-Vincent in the Aosta Valley . After high school in Italy she studied General Linguistics and German Philology at the University of Salzburg , study she joined in 1990 as Magistra from. Then she dealt with methods of teaching foreign languages ​​and taught her mother tongue, Italian . In 1999 she began a doctoral degree in cognitive psychology and applied linguistics at the University of Salzburg, and in 2003 she did her doctorate there with the psychophysiologist Wolfgang Klimesch with a dissertation on learning foreign languages ​​and memory .

From 2007 to 2011 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Neuroscience in Leipzig , where she carried out experiments with functional magnetic resonance imaging in Angela D. Friederici's group to determine the advantages of sensorimotor learning. She has been working at the Johannes Kepler University Linz since 2012 , initially as a postdoc, and since 2016 as a senior scientist, where she deals, among other things, with neuro-information systems and the development and testing of systems that are supposed to support people in learning processes. At the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, she worked from 2011 to 2018 in the research group Neural Mechanisms of Interpersonal Communication with Katharina von Kriegstein as Associated Researcher. Since August 2019 she has been working in the Lise Meitner research group "Cognition and Plasticity" under the direction of Gesa Hartwigsen. Here Manuela Macedonia is researching the influence of gestures on speech memory. At the University of Vienna she gave the lecture Introduction to Cognitive Psychology for Linguists .

Scientific work

Manuela Macedonia is a representative of embodiment : According to this, cognitive processes - including language and memory - are to be viewed as experience-based networks in the brain and not as abstract constructs of the mind. In behavioral experiments, Macedonia was able to show that gestures - compared to audiovisual learning - significantly increase the ability to remember vocabulary in the foreign language. This is due to the fact that gestures connect the vocabulary with strong sensorimotor networks in the brain, which make the linguistic information resistant to decay.

Knowledge transfer from neurosciences and science journalism

Manuela Macedonia has been involved in knowledge transfer from the neurosciences since 2010. In “Brain for Everyone”, a well-known series of lectures at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, she brings laypeople up-to-date with current knowledge from cognitive neuroscience.

Macedonia regularly writes popular science articles for the brain and mind on the subject of embodiment and memory for language. She writes the monthly column “Mit Hirn und Herz” in the daily newspaper Oberösterreichische Nachrichten .

The title Move! And your brain says thank you: how we become smarter, think better and protect ourselves from dementia was awarded the book trade prize The Golden Book in 2019 for more than 15,000 copies sold and placed seventh on the non-fiction annual bestseller list of the Main Association of the Austrian Book Trade (HVB) lined up.

Publications (selection)

  • 1999: Teaching foreign languages ​​sensibly: a practical guide for holistic foreign language teaching , with illustrations by Lisa Plangger, Veritas-Verlag, Linz 1999, ISBN 978-3-7058-5408-6
  • 2000: Language Games: Tips and Ideas for Language Learning. , Veritas-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7058-5617-2
  • 2004: Learning foreign languages ​​and memory: sensorimotor encoding using voice movement icons , Trauner-Verlag, Linz 2004, dissertation, ISBN 978-3-85487-777-6
  • 2014: Italian for work , Klett Sprachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-12-606975-5
  • 2014: Brain for beginners , together with Stefanie Höhl, with illustrations by Klaus Pitter, ISBN 978-3-9503770-0-2
  • 2014: Advanced brain , together with Stefanie Höhl, ISBN 978-3-200-03253-8
  • 2018: move! And your brain says thank you: how we become smarter, think better and protect ourselves against dementia , Brandstätter-Verlag, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-7106-0260-3
  • 2019: Get off the sofa! The 365-day challenge , Brandstätter-Verlag, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-7106-0378-5

Web links

Commons : Manuela Macedonia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Teach foreign languages ​​meaningfully: The author Manuela Macedonia-Oleinek . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  2. ↑ Tuugo: Gerichtssachverständigen- and court interpreters list ; Retrieved on Nov. 19, 2019
  3. ↑ a b c d Manuela Macedonia: CV . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  4. ↑ Raddoppiamento sintattico: A comparison of current theories . Diploma thesis 1990, University of Salzburg.
  5. ↑ JKU Linz: Mag.a Dr.in Manuela Macedonia . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  6. ↑ a b Veritas Publisher: Manuela Macedonia . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  7. ^ Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences: Manuela Macedonia . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  8. ↑ Profile of Dr. Manuela Macedonia . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  9. ↑ University of Vienna: Introduction to cognitive psychology for linguists . Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  10. ↑ Gold book for “Move! And your brain says thank you ”. Retrieved June 24, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Annual bestseller 2019 non-fiction hardcover. In: buecher.at. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Macedonia, Manuela
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Macedonia-Oleinek, Manuela
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian neuroscientist
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1963