ABOUT ME
Lorna Garcia Penton, PhD
I obtained a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Havana (UH). I later pursued a Master's degree at the Cuban Neuroscience Center (CNC) under the guidance of Prof Mitchell Valdes-Sosa. I completed my PhD at the BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, in collaboration with Prof. Manuel Carreiras, where I investigated the neural mechanisms of bilingualism across lifespans (including children, young adults, and older people).
Subsequently, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC), collaborating with Prof. Adrian Nestor to gain expertise in machine learning techniques applied to fMRI data analysis. In 2020, I joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, UK, as a Research Associate. I worked alongside Mirjana Bozic to explore the neural mechanisms involved in combinatorial processing across languages.
During the same year, I became a Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow at the MRC Cognition and Brain Science Unit (CBU), where I collaborated with Prof. Matt Lambon Ralph. In this role, I investigated language and semantic impairments in people with dementia. Since 2022, I have been clinical research coordinator and program manager at the Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders, working closely with Prof. James Rowe.
When I'm not working, I enjoy spending quality time with my husband and kids, engaging in workouts, walking, and running.
Education
PhD. in Linguistics (Cum Laude), May 8, 2017. The University of the Basque Country, Spain
MSc. in Cognitive Neuroscience, March 26, 2007. CNC, Havana, Cuba.
BSc. in Psychology, September 7, 2003. Psychology Faculty, UH, Havana, Cuba
Professional experience
Clinical Research Coordinator (2022–present) Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow (2020–2023), MRC CBU, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Research Associate (2020), Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017–2019), Department of Psychology, UTSC, Canada.
Predoctoral Researcher (2010–2017), BCBL, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
Researcher/Academic (2009–2010), Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Diego Portales University, Chile.
Researcher (2003–2008), Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, CNC, Cuba.