People

The project is headed by Paola Sessa. She is Professor at the University of Padova (Department of Developmental and Social Psychology and Padova Neuroscience Center) and has great expertise in electrophysiology and face processing. She will also be the main supervisor of the post-docs to be hired specifically for this project.

Her documented expertise in the field of face/facial expression processing and electrophysiological recordings and analyses is critical to the realization of this project.

In addition to the PI Dr. Sessa, the team comprises expert scholars from different fields, a physiotherapist expert in maxillofacial rehabilitation, and a psychologist expert in neurocognitive assessment.

Here is the most important information about the team members:

Pier Francesco Ferrari is Professor at the University of Parma and Director of the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod (Unit 5229), CNRS/Université Claude Bernard (Lyon). He is a renewed expert in sensorimotor simulation and mirror neuron system. He has in-depth knowledge of Moebius Syndrome and is the author of a new neurorehabilitative intervention on these patients. His expertise is critical for the definition of experimental protocols in subjects with congenital and acquired facial paralysis and for the interpretation of the results (macro-area (A)).

Stefano Masiero and Francesco Piccione: Stefano Masiero is Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Padova. He is also the Director of the Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine School at the University of Padua and Chair of Rehabilitation Unit at the Padua University-General Hospital. His role and that of his team, especially Dr. Piccione, will be fundamental to the macro-area (A). Specifically, for the assessment of historical diagnoses of MBS and Bell’s palsy and new diagnoses and for the patient recruitment phase. Furthermore, the Rehabilitation Unit at the Padua University-General Hospital will be the main recipient for transferring the knowledge acquired with this project for the refinement of rehabilitation protocols.

Roy Luria is Professor at the Tel Aviv University and Director of the Visual Working memory Lab. He is a well-known expert in neural measures of visual working-memory representations. The PI Dr. Sessa and Prof. Luria already have an active collaboration on this theme, and in particular about facial expressions’ representations. Luria’s participation is particularly relevant for the realization of the second experimental delayed estimation task (DET), to investigate the precision of visual-working memory representations.

Naotsugu Tsuchiya is Professor at the Monash University (Australia). His work focuses on the study of the neural correlates of consciousness. The PI Dr. Sessa and Prof. Tsuchiya already have an active collaboration on the theme of the relationship between sensorimotor simulation and awareness. Tsuchiya’s participation is particularly relevant for the realization of the experimental designs of macro-area (B) since his expertise is crucial to the state-of-the-art implementation of psychophysical methods for the threshold masking procedure and the use of PAS to monitor subjective visibility.

Moreover, the team relies on the expertise of two collaborators:

Marta Nichele (Physiotherapist) and Alice Riccardi (Psychologist). They will play a central role for the macro-area (A). Marta Nichele (freelance physiotherapist) will take care of the functional evaluation of the facial muscles in participants with congenital and acquired facial paralysis, and Alice Riccardi (psychologist expert in neuropsychology) will provide the neurocognitive assessment of MBS participants.

Contact Info and Socials

Paola Sessa, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (DPSS)

and Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC)

University of Padova

Via Venezia 8

35131 Padova (Italy)

Phone: (+39) 0498277455

Fax: (+39) 0498276511

E-mail: paola.sessa@unipd.it

Cognition and Language Research Laboratory (CoLab)