Vittorio Gallese

Università di Parma | UNIPR · Dipartimento di Medicina e Chirurgia- Unità di Neuroscienze

The nature of concepts has always been a hotly debated topic in both philosophy and psychology and, more recently, also in cognitive neuroscience. Different accounts have been proposed of what concepts are. These accounts reflect deeply different conceptions of how the human mind works. In the last decades, two diametrically opposed theories of hum...

Brains have been copying reality imagetically for a few million years. This nervous obsession was essential for constructing consciousness and for creating descriptions of what is as well as predictions of what may be or will be. One curious consequence of this ability, for humans, was the invention of cinema, the art that Vittorio Gallese and Mich...

If cognitive neuroscience is meant to investigate what makes us human, cultural artifacts and artistic expressions should be at the top of the list of its explananda. Cognitive neuroscience, in tight cooperation and dialogue with the humanities, can shed new light on several theoretical issues related to aesthetics, traditionally dealt with exclusi...

The main gist of the present article consists in a call to arms for experimental aesthetics, motivated by the conviction that aesthetics is the still poorly investigated key entry point to a deeper understanding of how digital technologies shape our identity, our social relationships and the world where we are living. Aesthetics, as normally concei...

In this chapter, we analyze our emotional engagements with fictional characters using embodied cognitive theory. The theory of embodied simulation holds that when reading fictional texts, readers reuse the brain-body mechanisms employed in daily life. There are, however, also key differences between the ways we relate to humans, animals, and other...

The effects of mindfulness on body awareness and interoception have been proposed as potential mechanisms for its salutary effects. However, research investigating the relationship between mindfulness and body awareness using psychophysical measures is limited. In this study, we compared 31 expert meditators with 33 matched controls on somatosensor...

Sense of agency (SoA) indicates a person's ability to perceive her/his own motor acts as actually being her/his and, through them, to exert control over the course of external events. Disruptions in SoA may profoundly affect the individual's functioning, as observed in several neuropsychiatric disorders. This is the first article to systematically...

The effects of mindfulness on body awareness and interoception have been proposed as potential mechanisms for its salutary effects. However, research investigating the relationship between mindfulness and body awareness using psychophysical measures is limited. In this study, we compared 31 expert meditators with 33 matched controls on somatosensor...

Although many studies have investigated spectators' cinematic experience, only a few of them explored the neurophysiological correlates of the sense of presence evoked by the spatial characteristics of audio delivery devices. Nevertheless, nowadays both the industrial and the consumer markets have been saturated by some forms of spatial audio forma...

In the last 25 years, a new foundational perspective has emerged in the cognitive sciences under the title of embodied cognition. The core of embodied cognition can be expressed by the general hypothesis that cognitive processes are fundamentally rooted in the morphological traits and sensorimotor and affective systems of the human body. Thinking i...

In the last 25 years, a new foundational perspective has emerged in the cognitive sciences under the title of embodied cognition. The core of embodied cognition can be expressed by the general hypothesis that cognitive processes are fundamentally rooted in the morphological traits and sensorimotor and affective systems of the human body. Thinking i...

The perception of social exclusion among patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) could be affected by long-term opioid use. This study explores the emotional and cardiac autonomic responses to an experience of ostracism in a sample of participants with OUD on opioid agonist treatment (OAT). Twenty patients with OUD and twenty healthy controls (HC)...

Introduction In schizophrenia, there is evidence for anomalies in the extension and plasticity of the peripersonal space (PPS), the portion of space surrounding our body, plastically shaped through motor experiences. An impaired multisensory integration at the PPS level would underpin the disembodiment, a core feature of the disorder linked to subj...

It is widely known that among others, a pervasive symptom characterizing anorexia nervosa (AN) concerns body image overestimation, which largely contributes to the onset and maintenance of eating disorders. In the present study, we investigated the nature of the body image distortion by recording accuracy and reaction times in both a group of healt...

This article aims to show that there is an alternative way to explain human action with respect to the bottlenecks of the psychology of decision making. The empirical study of human behaviour from mid-20th century to date has mainly developed by looking at a normative model of decision making. In particular Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) decisio...

The self has been conceived as a theoretical construct (Baars, 1997; Metzinger, 2000) underlying our ability to coherently act in the world. Despite its intuitive nature, the problem of defining the self has captivated philosophers and psychologists for centuries. As a result, several models have been proposed to describe the multi- layered nature...

We thank Beatrice de Gelder [1] for the opportunity to clarify some important points about our recent article in TiCs on the trends in mirror neuron research 30 years after their first description [2]. The mainstream view of the mirror mechanism classically focused on agent-shared representations as a ground for social perception. Based on evidence...

A classical theoretical frame to interpret motor reactions to emotional stimuli is that such stimuli, particularly those threat-related, are processed preferentially, i.e., they are capable of capturing and grabbing attention automatically. Research has recently challenged this view, showing that the task relevance of emotional stimuli is crucial t...

Expertise in several areas appears to modulate neurocognitive processes. These processes have been observed to differ in visual arts experts compared to the general population. Here, we aimed to investigate whether visual artists' neural responses to tasks within and outside their field of expertise are contrasting to the responses of non-experts....

Introduction A primary disruption of the bodily self is considered a core feature of schizophrenia patients (SCZ). The “disembodied” self would be underpinned by an inefficient body-related multisensory integration mechanism occurring in the Peripersonal Space (PPS). PPS is a plastic sector of space surrounding our body, whose extent is altered in...

One of the most surprising features of our brain is the fact that it is extremely plastic. Among the various plastic processes supported by our brain, there is the neural representation of the space surrounding our body, the peripersonal space (PPS). The effects of real-world tool use on the PPS are well known in cognitive neuroscience, but little...

The topic of the human face is addressed from a biocultural perspective, focusing on the empirical investigation of how the face is represented, perceived, and evaluated in artistic portraits and self-portraits from the XVth to the XVIIth century. To do so, the crucial role played by the human face in social cognition is introduced, starting from d...

Mirror neurons (MNs) were first described in a seminal paper in 1992 as a class of monkey premotor cells discharging during both action execution and observation. Despite their debated origin and function, recent studies in several species, from birds to humans, revealed that beyond MNs properly so called, a variety of cell types distributed among...

Background and Hypothesis A primary disruption of the bodily self is considered a core feature of schizophrenia (SCZ). The “disembodied” self might be underpinned by inefficient body-related multisensory integration processes, normally occurring in the peripersonal space (PPS), a plastic sector of space surrounding the body whose extent is altered...

In the last decades, the contribution of cognitive neuroscience to fi lm studies has been invested in at least three diff erent lines of research. The fi rst one has to do with fi lm theory and history: the new attention, inspired by cognitive neuroscience, to the viewer's brain-body, the senso-rimotor basis of fi lm cognition, and the forms of emb...

Trait empathy is an essential personality feature in the intricacy of typical social inclinations of individuals. Empathy is likely supported by multilevel neuronal network functioning, whereas local topological properties determine network integrity. In the present functional MRI study (N=116), we aimed to trace empathic traits to the intrinsic br...

Citation: Ebisch, S.J.H.; Scalabrini, A.; Northoff, G.; Mucci, C.; Sergi, M.R.; Saggino, A.; Aquino, A.; Alparone, F.R.; Perrucci, M.G.; Gallese, V.; Di Plinio, S.

Depersonalisation is a common dissociative experience characterised by distressing feelings of being detached or 'estranged' from one's self and body and/or the world. The COVID-19 pandemic forcing millions of people to socially distance themselves from others and to change their lifestyle habits. We have conducted an online study of 622 participan...

Purpose Anorexia nervosa-restrictive subtype (AN-R) is a life-threatening disorder relying on behavioural abnormalities, such as excessive food restriction or exercise. Such abnormalities may be secondary to an “objectified” attitude toward body image and self. This is the first study exploring the impact of anomalous self-experience (ASEs) on abno...

Abstract We will describe in two articles (“Sense of self and psychosis”, 1 and 2) the theoretical basis and the methodology of a new therapeutic group approach called amniotic therapy, which aims to improve the sense of self of psychotic patients. In this first article we explore the role of the surface of the body and its early sensorimotor inter...

Some people diagnosed with schizophrenia show an alteration of the sense of self. From a psychodynamic perspective, it has been hypothesized they have disorders of the integration of self/other identification/differentiation processes. From a neuroscientific view some with this diagnosis present dysfunctions in neural correlates of representation o...

In this chapter, the authors comment on their original review published in 2009 in Current Opinion in Neurobiology where, as they build a general theoretical framework that encompasses major empirical work in the field of neuroaesthetics since then, they also emphasize the role of the motor system and emotions in building an aesthetic experience. I...

In this review, we discuss the topic of intersubjectivity and its disruption in Autism Spectrum Disorder, both from a developmental and neuroscientific perspective. We present evidence of the impact of an early neurodevelopmental disorder on the blooming of intersubjective abilities. We propose the existence of a basic, pre-reflective social cognit...

In the present essay, we summarize our research in the experimental aesthetics of visual art and cinema, motivated by the following assumptions: 1) Vision is more complex than the mere activation of the ‘visual brain’; 2) Our visual experience of the world is the outcome of multimodal integration processes, with the motor system as key player; 3) A...

Background Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) feel rejected even when socially included. The pathophysiological mechanisms of this rejection bias are still unknown. Using the Cyberball paradigm, we investigated whether patients with BPD, display altered physiological responses to social inclusion and ostracism, as assessed by ch...

Several studies demonstrated that the processing of explicit forms of negation recruits motor inhibitory mechanisms. However, whether this is also true for implicit negation, in which the negative meaning is implicated but not explicitly lexicalized in the sentence (e.g., “I ignore”), has never been studied before. This study aims to address this i...

Background and aims: Gambling Disorder (GD) entails maladaptive patterns of decision-making. Neurophysiological research points out the effect of parasympathetic arousal, including phasic changes in heart rate variability (HRV), and interoceptive accuracy (IA, i.e., the ability to track changes in bodily signals), on decision-making. Nevertheless,...

Depersonalisation is a common dissociative experience characterised by distressing feelings of being detached or ‘estranged’ from one’s self and body and/or the world. The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people to socially distance from others and to change life habits. We have conducted an online study on 622 participants worldwide to investi...

Depersonalisation is a common dissociative experience characterised by distressing feelings of being detached or 'estranged' from one's self and body and/or the world. The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people to socially distance from others and to change life habits. We have conducted an online study on 622 participants worldwide to investi...

Abstract Bodily postures are essential to correctly comprehend others' emotions and intentions. Nonetheless, very few studies focused on the pattern of eye movements implicated in the recognition of emotional body language (EBL), demonstrating significant differences in relation to different emotions. A yet unanswered question regards the presence...

The meaning of music may rely upon perceived motion (Zuckerkandl, 1971). Recently, the framework of embodied music cognition, which draws on the discovery of mirror neurons and the theory of embodied simulation (Gallese, 2007), makes the claim that our understanding of human-made sounds draws upon our experience of making the same or similar moveme...

According to embodied simulation theory, humans tacitly ‘simulate’ the actions of the other by mapping them in the sensorimotor cortex of the brain. According to the framework of embodied cinema, the meaning-making process in film is considered to be inextricably linked to the interrelation between the brain, body and environment of the viewer. Ath...

Empathy for pain involves sensory and visceromotor brain regions relevant also in the first-person pain experience. Focusing on brain activations associated to vicarious experiences of pain triggered by artistic or non-artistic images, the present study aims to investigate common and distinct brain activation patterns associated to these two vicari...

Empathy for pain involves sensory and visceromotor brain regions relevant also in the first-person pain experience. Focusing on brain activations associated to vicarious experiences of pain triggered by artistic or non-artistic images, the present study aims to investigate common and distinct brain activation patterns associated to these two vicari...

In the last decades, the embodied approach to cognition and language gained momentum in the scientific debate, leading to evidence in different aspects of language processing. However, while the bodily grounding of concrete concepts seems to be relatively not controversial, abstract aspects, like the negation logical operator, are still today one o...

In spite of the historically consolidated psychopathological perspective, neuroscientific research applied to schizophrenia has so far almost entirely neglected the first-person experiential dimension of this syndrome, mainly focusing on higher-order cognitive functions such as executive function, working memory, theory of mind, and the like. An al...

On the occasion of our 30th anniversary, the Association of Psychoanalytic Studies would like to open a scientific debate on what has been considered a deep paradigmatic transformation, "the intersubjective revolution". We will host the leading exponents of two different disciplines, Otto Kernberg and Vittorio Gallese. They will evaluate the recipr...

The series is the expression of the Center for Research on Teaching of Languages, which in Edizioni Ca’ Foscari also has a magazine, Linguistics Education - Language Education, EL.LE, and a necklace, Intercultural Communication, COMINT, dedicated to this important but overlooked aspect of language mastery. In the series, the volumes of which are ap...

Certainly one of the main messages (if not the main) of Simon’s entire scientific career was that of founding the notion of bounded rationality upon cognitive psychology (Simon, 1976). Accordingly, Simon established his notion of bounded rationality in the cognitive psychology thread named ‘cognitivism’ (Haugeland, 1978) – also called ‘information-...

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the nature of our social interactions. In order to understand how protective equipment and distancing measures influence the ability to comprehend others' emotions and, thus, to effectively interact with others, we carried out an online study across the Italian population during the first pandemic peak...

Although we spend more than ninety percent of our lives inside buildings, we understand very little about how the built environment affects our behavior, thoughts, emotions, and well-being. We are biological beings whose senses and neural systems have developed over millions of years; it stands to reason that research in the life sciences, particul...

In questo articolo proponiamo una modalità con cui la neuroscienza cognitiva può fornire nuovi insight su tre aspetti della cognizione sociale. Intersoggettività, Sé umano e linguaggio. Sottolineiamo il ruolo sociale del corpo, concepito come sor-gente costitutiva della coscienza preriflessiva del Sé e degli altri. Intendiamo fornire una visione cr...

On the occasion of our 30th anniversary, the Association of Psychoanalytic Studies would like to open a scientific debate on what has been considered a deep paradigmatic transformation, the intersubjective revolution. We will host the leading exponents of two different disciplines, Otto Kernberg and Vittorio Gallese. They will evaluate the reciproc...

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the nature of our social interactions. In order to understand how protective equipment and distancing measures influence the ability to comprehend others’ emotions and, thus, to effectively interact with others, we carried out an online survey across the Italian population during the first pandemic pea...

There is a growing consensus that our most fundamental sense of self is structured by the ongoing integration of sensory and motor information related to our own body. Depersonalisation (DP) is an intriguing form of altered subjective experience in which people report feelings of unreality and detachment from their sense of self. The current study...

The space surrounding our body, defined as peripersonal space (PPS), is dynamically shaped by our motor experiences. For instance, PPS extends after using a tool to reach far objects. Several studies have demonstrated how PPS size varies across people, depending on different individual characteristics, including schizotypy. Coherently, narrower PPS...

Cardiac synchrony is a crucial component of shared experiences, considered as an objective measure of emotional processes accompanying empathic interactions. No study has investigated whether cardiac synchrony among people engaged in collective situations links to the individual emotional evaluation of the shared experience. We investigated theatri...

Self-alienation is a common characterization of various disturbing experiences in patients with schizophrenia. A vivid example comes frompatient reports of not recognizing themselveswhen inspecting their specular image in the mirror. By applying the multisensory paradigm of the Enfacement Illusion, this study empirically addresses the specular Self...

The notion of performativity is addressed from a neuroscientific perspective, connecting it to its underlying neural mechanisms, and to the production and reception of human cultural artifacts. The connection between action, perception and cognition and its bearing on the creation of fictional worlds and their aesthetic experience is framed within...

Studies on the lateralization of facial perception and the asymmetry of facial emotional expressions date back to the 19th century. Several left-side biases have been identified: greater expressivity of the left side of the face, a left cheek bias (i.e. a preference to display one’s left cheek), a left visual field advantage (i.e. a preference and...

Experimental aesthetics has shed light on the involvement of pre-motor areas in the perception of abstract art. However, the contribution of texture perception to aesthetic experience is still understudied. We hypothesized that digital screen-based art, despite its immateriality, might suggest potential sensorimotor stimulation. Original born-digit...

As we identify with characters on screen, we simulate their emotions and thoughts. This is accompanied by physiological changes such as galvanic skin response (GSR), an indicator for emotional arousal, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), referring to vagal activity. We investigated whether the presence of a cinema audience affects these psychop...

Why do people go to the movies? What does it mean to watch a movie? To what extent does our perception of the fictional nature of movies differ from our daily perception of the real world? The authors, a neuroscientist and a film theorist, propose a new multidisciplinary approach to images and film that can provide answers to these questions. Accor...

This chapter provides the key neuroscientific data that enable the reader to follow the case studies. The subheadings are “ Cinema, brain and empathy ,” in which the reception of film is discussed, and the notion of empathy is introduced with an outline of its history; “ Body, brain and neuroscience ,” provides a critical account of neuroscience an...

This chapter discusses how cinema is able to produce the sense of body immanence, allowing audiences to identify with the characters they see on the screen. The subheadings are “Someone moved, but who?”, in which famous scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious , Robert Montgomery’s Lady in the Lake , and Delmer Daves’ Dark Passage are analyzed, wit...

This chapter presents the authors’ view of the future, discussing new digital technologies and mediations and their impact on film and its reception. The subheadings are: “New positioning,” a discussion of the future of film and cinema in the light of new and emerging technologies and the few empirical studies addressing these issues; “Digital pres...

This chapter deals with montage. The subheadings are “Calumet City,” a discussion of parallel montage in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs from the authors’ perspective; “Continuity,” in which continuity editing is addressed in relation to several film scholars and authors, including Joseph Anderson, Lev Kuleshov, and Jean Epstein; “Action,...

This chapter discusses close-ups of the face and body in relation to film and neuroscience. The subheadings are “Touching in the mirror,” which introduces and discusses the opening scenes of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona ; “The somatosensory system and multimodality,” which addresses the notion of multimodality, and explains how the brain processes touc...

This chapter addresses the role of camera movement in generating the spectator’s immersion in the narrated film plot. The subheadings are “Style,” in which the origins of the notion of style are explained, with a review of how filmic style has been addressed by film scholars; “Moving the camera,” addressing the stylistic role of camera movements in...

This study investigated whether in a stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) task affordance effects in response to picture of graspable objects emerge when these objects appear as already grasped. It also assessed whether the observed effects could be explained as due to spatial compatibility between the most salient part in the object/display and t...

23 The sense of self lies at the heart of conscious experience, anchoring our disparate 24 perceptions, emotions, thoughts and actions into a unitary whole. There is a growing 25 consensus that sensory information about the body plays a central role in structuring this 26 basic sense of self. Depersonalisation (DP) is an intriguing form of altered...

The sense of self lies at the heart of conscious experience, anchoring our disparate perceptions, emotions, thoughts and actions into a unitary whole. There is a growing consensus that sensory information about the body plays a central role in structuring this basic sense of self. Depersonalisation (DP) is an intriguing form of altered subjective e...

Embodied simulation, a basic functional mechanism of our brain, and its neural underpinnings are discussed and connected to intersubjectivity and the reception of human cultural artefacts, like visual arts and film. Embodied simulation provides a unified account of both non-verbal and verbal aspects of interpersonal relations that likely play an im...

Some people diagnosed with “schizophrenia” showed a fundamental alteration of the sense of self. From a psychodynamic perspective, it has been hypothesized that patients diagnosed as schizophrenic have disorders of the embodied self and its boundaries. Phenomenologically, it has been observed a self-disorder, at an implicit and pre-reflective level...