Pastora Martínez-Castilla is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Madrid, Spain. She has maintained an active research profile since joining the institution in December 2010, with 57 publications, over 7,500 reads, and 631 citations to her name. Her research program focuses on prosodic processing in neurodevelopmental disorders , particularly examining Down syndrome and Williams syndrome through the lens of temporal sampling theory. Dr. Martínez-Castilla investigates how rhythm perception deficits cascade into broader language difficulties, with special attention to Spanish-speaking populations. Her work spans from basic research on phonological processing to applied studies on family interventions for children with rare genetic conditions like PACS1 syndrome. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a growing emphasis on cross-disciplinary approaches , integrating music cognition with language development research. She has made significant contributions to assessment methodology, adapting the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) battery for Spanish speakers and developing the PRAUTOCAL corpus for studying prosody in Down syndrome. During the pandemic, her research expanded to examine the emotional impact of lockdowns on caregivers of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders across multiple countries. Dr. Martínez-Castilla maintains an extensive collaborative network across European institutions, with frequent co-authorship with researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Valladolid, and University College London. Her work demonstrates a consistent trajectory from theoretical foundations to practical applications in clinical and educational settings.
