The PhD Course in Cognitive Neuroscience was established at SISSA in 1995, following the arrival from Cambridge, UK of Tim Shallice, who was appointed professor "per chiara fama". Alessandro Treves and Mathew Diamond teamed up with him to start what was to be the most interdisciplinary among SISSA's training programs, and they were soon joined by Raffaella Rumiati. Five years later, another chiara fama appointment expanded the reach of the course to the study of language: that of Jacques Mehler, from CNRS Paris.

Over the years a diverse ensemble of colleagues has given an important contribution to training students in the course, including Paolo Battaglini (now at the University di Trieste), Luciano Domenici (now at the University of L'Aquila), Antonino Vallesi (now the the University di Padova), Giosuè Baggio (now at NTNU, Trondheim), Giorgia Silani (now at the University of Vienna).

Former SISSA student Judit Gervain (now at the University of Paris Descartes) has written the piece attached below about the research in Jacques Mehler's lab.