Alfonso Caramazza

Alfonso Caramazza is Daniel and Amy Starch Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative at Harvard University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1995.

Prof. Caramazza’s research explores the nature and organization of language processing and conceptual representations in the brain.

His earlier work focuses on lexical access and language comprehension; he has studied these topics extensively in patients, documenting a series of dissociations within the language system in the presence of neurological injury (e.g., after stroke). In addition to patient work, his research group also explores the neural organization of language processing (e.g., grammatical category, action content) in healthy individuals using a variety of research techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and behavioral techniques.

Prof. Caramazza's research also explores the nature of conceptual representations through projects that examine the neural organization of categorical knowledge in sighted and blind individuals, often focusing on particular categories of interest (e.g., animals, tools).

Prof. Caramazza obtained his bachelor's degree (1970) from McGill University and his Ph.D. (1974) from Johns Hopkins University. His work has been recognized through various honors including the Doctor Honoris Causa by the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium (1993), the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award (1989), the J.-L. Signoret Prize in the Biology of Cognition (Language) from the Ipsen Foundation (1996), an honorary professorship from Beijing Normal University (2005), election to the Society of Experimental Psychologists (2004), and many invitations to give keynote addresses and named lectures. He is also listed as a highly cited scientist by the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge.

Prof. Caramazza serves and has served on the advisory boards of various scientific organizations, including the Fondation Fyssen (Paris, France), the Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the Trieste Cognitive Science Encounters, the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA, Trieste, Italy), the Aphasia Research Center (Boston, USA), and the Institute of Psychology at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, (Rome, Italy). Prof. Caramazza is former Editor-in-Chief of Cognitive Neuropsychology and he serves on the editorial boards of several journals in the brain and cognitive sciences.

For a list of publications, please consult the curriculum vitae included on the bottom of this page.