Francesco Pavani

Pavani is professor at the facoltà di Scienze Cognitive and researcher at the Experimental Psychology Labs and Neurimaging Labs (CIMeC), Associate member of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, UK.

Main interests

My research interest concerns the multisensory aspects of perception and attention, in both healthy and pathological individuals. I combine psychophysics, neuropsychology and neuroimaging (EEG/fMRI) methods to investigate both the cognitive architecture of these phenomena in humans, as well as their neural basis. Main research areas include the study of: 1) functional and neural plasticity in deaf individuals and cochlear implant recipients; 2) construction and function of peripersonal space in humans; 3) body representation in healthy individuals and in patients with eating disorders; 4) multisensory space perception in neurologically-healthy and brain-damaged individuals.

Research projects

1. Functional and neural plasticity in deaf individuals and cochlear implant recipients

My research group study unisensory and multisensory perception/attention after long term auditory deprivation (profoundly deaf individuals) and auditory reafferentation (cochlear implant recipients), through combined behavioural and neuroimaging approaches. We are interested in characterising unisensory and multisensory abilities in deaf and cochlear implant individuals, with the aim to provide further understanding into the brain plasticity underlying these compensatory phenomena, practical insights for rehabilitation and pre-surgery predictor of cochlear implantation outcome.
Supported by: PRIN (MIUR, Italy), Comune di Rovereto, Provincia Autonoma di Trento

Collaborations: Gruppo Rovereto Impianti Cocleari (Italy), INSERM U821 “Brain Dynamics and Cognition” (France)

2. Visuo-tactile interactions in humans: the construction and function of peripersonal space

We study the visuo-tactile space around the body, through behavioural paradigms in humans. We are interested in understanding and characterise the plastic nature of this representation of near space when tools are used and when actions are performed.
Supported by: AVENIR (INSERM, France)

Collaborations: INSERM U864 “Espace et Action” (France)

3. Body perception in healthy individuals and patients with eating disorders

We study the contributions of different sensory modalities to body perception. We are interested in understanding how multisensory inputs can contribute to a coherent body representation in healthy individuals. In addition, we take a multisensory/perceptual approach to the distortions of body image/body schema observed in eating disorders syndromes.

Collaborations: IRCCS “Eugenio Medea” (Italy)

4. Multisensory space perception in neurologically-healthy individuals and brain-damaged patients

We study how the brain construct a stable representation of space for perception and action thought the integration of multiple inputs from different sensory modalities and taking into accounts signals from the motor system. In particular we are interested in the representation of space in audition and touch, in both in neurologically-healthy individuals and brain-damaged patients.

Collaborations: Dep. of Psychology, University of Oxford (UK)

Selected publications

Bottari D, Nava E, Ley P, Pavani F. (2010). Enhanced reactivity tovisual stimuli in deaf individuals. Restor Neurol Neurosci., 28,167-79.

Nava E, Bottari D, Portioli G, Bonfioli F, Beltrame MA, Formigoni P,Pavani F. (2009). Hearing again with two ears: recovery of spatialhearing after bilateral cochlear implantation. Neuropsychologia, 47,928-32.

Pavani, F., Galfano G. (2007). Self-attributed body-shadows modulatetactile attention.Cognition, 104, 73-88.

Pavani, F., Castiello, U. (2004). Binding personal and extra-personalspace through bodyshadows. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 14-16.

Pavani, F., Spence, C., Driver, J. (2000). Visual capture of touch:Out-of-the-bodyexperiences with rubber gloves. Psychological Science, 11, 353-359.

For the full listof publications, please CLICK HERE (available graphs about publications, collaborations network and citing articles network)