My main research interest is in the link between perception and emotions.
The link between perception and emotions is rooted in the set of changes which, in the course of evolution, led to the genesis of sensory organs and of motivational systems. More specifically, the link between sensory and motivational systems allowed our ancestors, and eventually us, to detect dangers and appetitive affordances and to regulate behavior adaptively.
Some research questions I am interested in are:
- To what extent, and why, are emotional stimuli "special", meaning that they can modulate perceptual processes, attentional capture, and physiological responses?
- What can the manipulation of perceptual properties of emotional stimuli reveal about the link between perception and emotions, and its origin?
I am interested in examining these topics using a broad range of physiological, evaluative and behavioral measures which make it possible to assess affective processing in separate systems, as well as psychophysical procedures which allow for careful control of experimental manipulations.
Outside the laboratory, I am interested in music, judo and photography.
Publications:
Codispoti, M., De Cesarei, A., Ferrari, V. (in press). The Influence of Color on Emotional Perception of Natural Scenes. Psychophysiology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01284.x
De Cesarei, A., Codispoti, M. (2011). Scene identification and emotional
response: which spatial frequencies are critical? Journal of Neuroscience, 31:17052-17057.
De Cesarei, A. &. Loftus, G.R. (2011). Global and local vision in natural scene identification. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18: 840-847.
De Cesarei A., & Codispoti M. (2011). Affective modulation of the LPP and alpha-ERD during picture viewing. Psychophysiology, 48, 1397–1404.
Peyk, P., De Cesarei, A., & Junghöfer, M. (2011).
ElectroMagnetoEncephaloGraphy Software (EMEGS): overview and integration with other EEG/MEG toolboxes. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2011:861705.
De Cesarei A., & Codispoti M. (2010). Effects of Picture Size Reduction and Blurring on Emotional Engagement. PLoS ONE 5(10): e13399.
De Cesarei, A., Codispoti, M., & Schupp, H. T. (2009). Peripheral Vision and Preferential Emotion Processing. Neuroreport. Neuroreport, 20, 1439-1443.
De Cesarei, A., & Codispoti, M. (2008). Fuzzy picture processing: Effects of size reduction and blurring on emotional processing. Emotion 8, 352–363.
Codispoti, M., & De Cesarei, A. (2007). Arousal and Attention: Picture Size and Emotional Reactions. Psychophysiology, 44, 680-686.
Codispoti, M., Ferrari, V., De Cesarei, A., & Cardinale, R. (2006).
Implicit and explicit categorization of natural scenes. Progress in Brain Research 156, 53-65.
De Cesarei, A., & Codispoti, M. (2006). When does size not matter? Effects of stimulus size on affective modulation. Psychophysiology, 43(2), 207-15.
De Cesarei, A., Codispoti, M., Schupp, H. T., & Stegagno, L. (2006).
Selectively attending to natural scenes after alcohol consumption: An ERP analysis . Biological Psychology, 72(1), 35-45.
