For the City Times

STEVENS POINT — A world renown Italian neuroscientist will speak at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Thursday, May 16.

Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neurophysiologist and director of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Parma, Italy, will discuss the “Mirror Brain: Neural Basis of Empathy.” His presentation is at 3 p.m. Thursday in Room 135 of the Chemistry Biology Building, 2101 4th Ave., Stevens Point.  It is free and open to the public.

Dr. Rizzolatti is best known for his discovery of mirror neurons, a fascinating population of cells that revolutionized the way humans understand each other. Mirror neurons are important for how we learn through observation, including the ability to understand and communicate emotional states and to develop language.

He will be in Stevens Point for his granddaughter’s May 18 graduation from UW-Stevens Point. Irene Rizzolatti, an international student from Milan, Italy, is majoring in political science and Spanish.

Dr. Rizzolatti has received numerous awards for his contributions to understanding the brain and behavior, including the Golgi Prize for Physiology and the Grawemeyer Prize for Psychology. He has been president of the European Brain and Behavior Society and the Italian Society for Neuroscience and awarded honorary foreign membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.