Dr Giulia Orioli is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist working with newborns and infants in their first year of life. Her research investigates how from very early on in life infants develop their understanding of the relationship between themselves (in particular, their body) and their environment, both physical (the space around them) and social (through language). Giulia completed her PhD at the University of Padova, in Italy, with Prof. Teresa Farroni. Her doctoral thesis investigated newborns and infants’ representation of peripersonal space, i.e. the space immediately surrounding the body, where every human action and interaction take place. After her PhD, Giulia was a postdoctoral research associate first at Goldsmiths, University of London, and then at the University of Birmingham, working with Prof. Andy Bremner. Before joining the School of Psychology as assistant professor, she held a Leverhulme funded Early Career Fellowship investigating how newborns and infants develop the understanding of the complex relationships between their bodies and selves and the external world.