Marinella Majorano earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of Parma, and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Padua. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Verona. Her research, using a combination of experimental and observational methods, examines language acquistion (perception and production), word learning, language development and the development of reading and writing. She studies typically developing infants and children and a variety of clinical populations, especially children with Specific Language Imparirment, children with cochlear implants and children and adolescents with learning disabilities. She is interested in the interaction between individual aspects (especially sensori-motor skills) and relational components (especially mother-infant interaction) in the determination of both short term and long term developmental outcomes.

* Language and social development in typically and atypically developing infants and children
* Early speech perception and production
* Mother-child interaction and effects on child language outcomes
* Educator-child interaction and peer relationships in educational contexts
* Phonology and lexicon

Marisa Lousada is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Health, University of Aveiro (ESSUA), Portugal, teaching several topics related with language development, language impairment, speech sound disorders, assessment instruments for speech and language. Marisa Lousada is the head of the Speech and Language Therapy course. She has a PhD in Health Sciences and Technologies from the University of Aveiro (2012).
She already participated as a team member in different research and development projects. Her major research interests are language development, language impairment, speech sound disorder and dementia.
She is a research member of the Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS). She has co-authored many publications in peerreviewed international journals and contributed to many publications at national and international meetings.

Her major research interests are language development, language impairment, speech sound disorder and dementia.

Mirela Duranovic is an Associate Professor in Logopedics (Speech-Language Pathology) at the University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dr. Duranovic teaching, research, and clinical interests are in the area of specific learning difficulties, language development and other topics from the field of speech-language pathology. She has authored numerous research and clinical papers, chapters in books and books about dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties. In addition, she has presented widely at national and international conferences and congresses on the topics mentioned above. She coordinated many international and national projects and initiatives. She is president of the Dyslexia Association in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is member of the Commision for accreditation of higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Lithuania. She was visiting professor at the University of Sarajevo and University of Novi Sad.

Her current interests include literacy acquisition with a special emphasis on dyslexia, the analysis of cognitive processes involved in reading and spelling of readers with and without dyslexia in Bosnia, the development of reading and spelling in children with and without dyslexia, and cross-linguistic comparisons.

Satoru Yokoyama is an associate professor at Chiba Institute of Science, Japan. His area of expertise is psycho- and neuro-linguistics. He uses psycho-physiological measures and neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, MEG, and so on. The current research interests are how humans process language, how humans effectively learn foreign language, and how humans are motivated for learning.

Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics

Dr. Chin-Hui Chen pursued her PhD in language and communication research at Cardiff University, the UK and has published papers on media representations of older adults. Her research interest is on language and communication studies in relation to older age and ageing. She is currently working on research projects exploring the various communication strategies employed in contexts involving teaching elderly students in Taiwan.

My research orientation ranges across various disciplines including language/communication, sociology (mainly social gerontology or issues, like ageism), social psychology (especially on social identity and stereotypes) and human resource management (especially atypical use of manpower).

Dr. Calixto Machado graduated as MD in 1976. He continued his medical training to become Specialist in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, First Degree in 1980, and Second Degree in 1984. In 1990 he became the youngest Dr. in Sciences in his country. Dr. Machado received clinical training in specialized neurology centers in Sweden, Italy, and Austria.Dr. Machado has trainedmany medical students, neurology residents, fellows, and doctorate students in neurosciences from Cuba and the rest of the world.
During the last 30 years he has run many research protocols, such as: brain death, coma, persistent vegetative states and other disorders of consciousness, stroke, autism, etc. He has published more than 260 peer reviewed articles, book chapters, and 3 books. His Book "Brain Death: A Reappraisal" has been recognized with great enthusiasm among neurologist, neurosurgeons, intensivists, and physicians specialized in transplants.
In 1992, he was the first Cuban neurologist who was a member of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), nominated as a Corresponding Fellow. He has been the President of the Organizing Committee of the International Symposia on Brain Death, and the International Symposia on Disorders of Consciousness, since the 90’s. In December 2015, he will hold the "VII International Symposium on Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness".
He has been awarded 17 times with the Best Annual Scientific Medical Research in Cuba. In 2005 he was bestowedwith the American Academy of Neurology “Lawrence McHenry Award", for the excellence in neurology, and in 2011, he was awarded as the "Researcher of Year” by the International Academy for Child Brain Development (Philadelphia, USA), and by the International Association of Functional Neurology and Rehabilitation (Orlando, USA). These were the first times that a Hispanic neurologist, and a neuroscientist from a developing country, received those acknowledgements.
He is Senior Professor and Researcher in neurology and clinical neurophysiology at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Havana, Cuba. He is the President of the Cuban Society of Clinical Neurophysiology. Leading the National Commission for the Determination of Death, he chaired the edition of the Cuban Law for the diagnosis of death. Dr. Machado is a Corresponding Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, Chairman of the Network on Defining Death of the International Association of Bioethics, member of The World Federation of Neurology, and the International League against Epilepsy. He is a Senior Academics of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. In the academic field Dr. Machado is recognized as a world expert in neurological disorders such as brain death, coma, disorders of consciousness, neuroimaging, clinical neurophysiology, and stroke.
His appointments as visiting professor includes: Miami University (Department of Philosophy and Bioethics), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer and Cornell University in New York, the Institute of Neurology at Columbia University, the Neuroanesthesia and Neurocritical Care Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the George Washington University, and the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Jackson's Memorial Center in Miami.
During the last 10 years Dr. Machado has been invited at Johns Hopkins on several occasions, as a key-note speaker, and he has impressed the Neuroscience Critical Care team, stimulating scholars to begin a fruitful scientific exchange with Dr. Machado. He has been supported by an International Visiting Scholarship Program co-sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University and a private foundation.
Dr. Machado has continuously demonstrated a strong desire to develop and maintain close relations between U.S.-based and Cuban Neuroscientists, and he is recognized by the American Academy of Neurology as the only bridge among American and Cuban scholars.

Brain death (BD) Vs. human death
Historical accounts on the definition and determination of human death
Ethical considerations on the definition and diagnosis of human death
Did the BD concept appear to benefit organ transplants?
Cuban Law for the determination and certification of death. Comparison with other standards
Ancillary test for brain death diagnosis
Disorders of consciousness
Are PVS cases isolated from the outer world? Medical and bioethical dilemmas
Cuban perspective on bioethics of end-of-life dilemmas
Neuroimaging assessment of comatose, PVS and MCS cases
Autonomic assessment of disorders of consciousness
Autonomic, EEG, and behavioral arousal signs in a PVS cases after Zolpidem intake
Assessing early signs of ischemia in acute stroke by quantitative electric tomography
Neuromonitoring in the intensive care