Seminario "Across the Senses: Investigating Multisensory Perception in Food, Body, and Temperature"
Abstract:
This presentation will explore the role of multisensory information in the perception and evaluation of food, body, and temperature. In many everyday situations, different cues are available simultaneously to different sensory systems. The rules and the brain mechanisms that provide us with the capacity to create a unified percept of the world will be introduced. Then, the presentation will focus on food perception, showing that, not only the chemical senses are essential for shaping our gustatory experience, but also visual and auditory information could play a crucial role. Moreover, the presentation will shift on body perception, describing how different sensory cues contribute to our body representations. Finally, I will conclude describing the complex nature of thermal perception, elucidating the possible role of our senses in affecting the way we respond to thermal stimuli. By unraveling the mechanisms of multisensory perception, this presentation aims to demonstrate that any experience you can think involves a combination of different sensory information.
Massimiliano Zampini is Full Professor at CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Science University of Trento. He is also deputy coordinator of the Doctoral program in Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Massimiliano got his PhD at University of Verona (Italy) in 2002. Then, he has been Post-Doc Fellow at University of Oxford (UK; 2002-2004). In 2005, he won a 4-year ‘Rientro dei cervelli’ grant by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research for working at Trento University. Massimiliano is the head of the Multisensory Research Group at CIMeC (http://www.cimec.unitn.it/577/multisensory-research-group)
which specializes in the research on how multisensory interactions modulate our perception of sensory event. Particularly, one the research line purports to investigate the mechanisms of audiotactile perception. Massimiliano has published over 70 articles in international scientific journals.
The seminar is organized by Louena Shtrepi - louena.shtrepi@polito.it
Registration is recommended.