Dr. Emiliano Zaccarella is a cognitive neuroscientist leading the Merge Computations Group in the Department of Neuropsychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. He earned his PhD in Cognitive Sciences summa cum laude and held postdoctoral and substitute professorship roles at institutions including the University of Potsdam and Humboldt University, affiliated with the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. His research investigates the neural mechanisms underlying linguistic combination across modalities (visual, acoustic, and signed language) using fMRI, EEG/MEG, DTI, TMS, behavioral, and computational modeling. He aims to unravel the neural organization of hierarchical language processing (Merge) and its cognitive and evolutionary basis. He also teaches and supervises research students in neurolinguistics and language evolution.