Lorina Naci facts for kids
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Dr. Lorina Naci is a smart Albanian-Canadian scientist. She studies the brain as a psychologist and neuroscientist. She was born in Tirana, Albania. In 2017, she won a special award called the "Young International Talent" scholarship from the L'Oréal-UNESCO program, which supports women in science. In 2023, she became a fellow at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, which is a great honor.
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About Lorina Naci
Lorina Naci was born in Tirana, Albania. She first studied in Albania. Then, she won a scholarship to study in the United States at the University of Georgia in Athens. After that, she received another scholarship to study in England at the famous University of Cambridge.
She earned a special science degree called a doctorate. Then, she started working as a researcher at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. There, she joined the Western Brain and Mind Institute to work with another brain scientist, Adrian Owen. She is married to a Canadian scientist who also works in science.
In 2017, Dr. Naci won the International Talent Award from the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program. Later that year, she moved to Dublin, Ireland. She joined the Global Brain Health Institute and became a professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin.
Her Amazing Work
Dr. Lorina Naci is known for her important research on the human brain. She has helped us understand how some patients, who seem to be in a deep sleep, might still be aware.
Talking to Patients in a Vegetative State
In 2013, Dr. Naci and Adrian Owen found a new way to communicate with patients who are in a persistent vegetative state. These patients look awake but cannot respond or talk.
They used a special brain scanning machine called a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner. While the patient was inside the scanner, they asked simple yes or no questions. They watched the patient's brain activity on the fMRI. This allowed them to see if the patient's brain showed signs of understanding and answering the questions. It was a huge step forward!
The Hitchcock Film Experiment
In 2014, the Canadian team did another interesting experiment. They showed a movie by Alfred Hitchcock to healthy people and two patients who were in a coma.
They used the fMRI scanner to look at everyone's brain activity while they watched the film. They found something amazing: the brain of one of the coma patients, a young man, reacted to the movie in a very similar way to how a healthy person's brain reacted. This suggested he might be aware and understanding the film. However, the other patient, a young woman, showed no brain activity related to the movie.
Worldwide Attention
The work done by Dr. Owen and Dr. Naci caught the attention of people all over the world. Their discoveries were reported in many newspapers, including the New York Times. They were also discussed on TV channels like BBC News, CNN, and Sky News.
Their research was featured on many radio shows and in popular magazines. It has also been shown in six different TV documentaries. These include famous shows like 60 Minutes in the USA and Panorama on BBC in the UK. This shows how important and groundbreaking their discoveries are for understanding the human brain.
See also
In Spanish: Lorina Naci para niños
