Malgaroli Antonio

Biography

Ordinary Professor of Human Physiology Education Degree in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan, 1985. Specialization in Psychiatry, University of Milan, 1991. Postdoctoral at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Milan, 1985-1989 Postdoctoral at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, USA, 1989-93. Professional experience Researcher at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Milan, 1985-89 "Postdoctoral Fellow" Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, USA, 1989-93 Head Unit, Units of Neurobiology of Appearance, S.Raffaele Scientific Institute, 1993- Researcher, Istituto Scientifico S.Raffaele, 1993-2000 Professor of Physiology, Faculty of Mathematical Physics and Natural Sciences, University of Milan, 1997-2009 Associate Professor of Human Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Vita-Salute University S. Raffaele, 2000 Summer Investigator, MBL, Woods Hole, 1999 & 2000 Ordinary Professor of Physiology (BIO / 09), Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Vita-Salute University S. Raffaele, 2004-2016 Ordinary Professor of Physiology (BIO / 09), Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute University S. Raffaele, 2016 - Psychiatric Consultant at the Center for Food and OCD Disorders, Ville Turro San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, 2016- Receipts received Two Year Research Award entitled "G. Moruzzi ", 1989-91 Chemofux Award, University of Vienna, 1991 Plenary Reading, Annual Symposium of the Italian Society of Cell Biology and Differentiation, 1993 Plenary Reading, "Berlin Neuroscience Forum", 1999 Member of the American Neuroscience Society since 1990 Member of the American Physiological Society since 2000 Human Frontier award (1998-2001) Herbert W. Rand Award, MBL, Woods Hole, USA, 1999 Herbert W. Rand & Frank Lillie Award, MBL, Woods Hole, 2000 EMBO, Elected as Member, 2000 Physiological Society London, Elected as a Member, 2000

Research Interest

What are they and what are our "mental processes"? The response is related to the organization of our encephalus, which contains at least 100 billion neuronal cells. These neurons are strongly interconnected. They communicate through the synapses, microscopic contact points, specializing in the transport of electrochemical signals. Mental processes are likely to depend on this complicated network of contacts characterized by enormous flexibility. This flexibility or plasticity of the synapses is related to their ability to modify in terms of transmission force, shape, number of connections, position, molecular composition, based on the functional needs of the moment. Processes such as those that elicit a memory, an emotion, a thought, an idea, a hypothesis, depend on this network of synapses and its plastic modifications. Theremind , it is therefore a kind of symbolic system, a machine that constructs, uses, manipulates, correlates mental representations that are expressed and maintained in the form of specific networks of synaptic connections. Some of the fundamental questions that one might want to answer is "what are and where these mental representations are located", "how are they induced and modified", "how can they have effects that last for a lifetime?" In our laboratory, we try to correlate human and animal behavior with functional and anatomical changes in synaptic networks. These can not be evaluated with the currently available imaging technologies that do not have the necessary resolution but require more advanced technologies some of which are currently being developed in our lab. These include some optogenic technology and some innovative sensors for measuring synaptic activity both in vitro and in vivo. Among the research aspects we are working on are: 1) mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and in the prefrontal cortex and their role in learning and decision making; 2) The synaptic and behavioral effects of rapid-acting antidepressant drugs; 3) The response to acute and chronic stress on the prefrontal cortex and on fronto-limbic circuitry; 4) The role of the Pale Ball Globe and the Prefrontal Pale-Bark Circuitry in decisions and operational memory and in some forms of OCD; 4) The characterization of synaptic changes found in an animal-based activity-based anorexia (ABA) model and the translation of these findings to clinical forms of anorexia nervosa in humans.