Percezione, Azione, Attenzione e Comunicazione (Prof. Fantoni)

Linea:

Processi cognitivi, psicologia cognitiva applicata (Psicologia)

Prof. Carlo Fantoni

Tel: +390405588871
Fax: +390405582134
Email:cfantoni@units.it

I am associate professor in General Psychology at the DSV of Units, where since 2012 I have established a new Active Perception Laboratory. More recently I have established the Virtual Reality Lab and the Eye Movement Lab, the first supported by a Por-Fesr 2014-2020 project and the second by Fondazione Beneficientia Stiftung, Vaduz. Currently I am: (1) co-organizer of the Kanizsa Lecture & Trieste Symposium on Perception and Cognition; (2) Member of the executive committee of the PhD School of Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems (Units); (3) Member of the Joint Commettee of the DSV.

Born in Pisa on July 18, 1975, I took my B.S.degree in Perception at Units on March 12, 2000, and my PhD in 2003. Among my research experiences, I have been (1) postdoc at Uniss, (2) postdoc fellow at the Units, (3) visiting researcher at Brown University, (4) senior postdoc, and (5) Team Leader at the CNCS@unitn, establishing, with prof. Fulvio Domini, the Hig-Res augmented reality system of the CNCS@unitn's Active Vision Laboratory. I have been honoured with three fellowships: (1) 2001 young researcher fellowship of the University of Trieste; (2) ARVO 2002 Travel Grant; (3) 2004 Fulbright Research Scholar Fellowship (UCLA).

The core of my research regards the examination of how sensory cues, active movements of the body, internal states (i.e., emotions) as well as social factors (i.e., presence of others) are integrated to support the perception of 3D objects and action control. Particularly, with both an approach centered on computational modeling and human psychophysics my work has contributed to elucidate some complex mechanisms of the perception-action cycle. Among my main contribution to the field:

(1) The development and testing of a new generative model of visual interpolation together with Walter Gerbino (JOV 2003, VisRes 2005, 2006, 2008; Perception2019) and the generalization of geometric principles of spatial unification to the case of 3D surface completion (JOV 2008, VisRes 2008), and multisensory perception (ActaPsyc2018);

(2) The discovery of new form of similarity between illusory and physical surfaces based on the SNARC like effect (PsychRes2020)

(3) The discovery of new phenomena and the development of new cue integration models for visually guided reaching (Acta 2011), 3D active vision (JOV 2011, PlosOne 2012, PlosOne 2013), and structure-from-disparity (VisRes 2008);

(4) The discovery of new forms of brain plasticity induced by visuo-motor recalibration (JN 2013), and the development of a new mood induction procedure based on motor actions affecting the perception of emotions (PlosOne 2014, PeerJ 2016, BBS 2016);

(5) The evaluation of how new “intelligent” multisensory systems or displays based on immersive virtual shared environments might support the processes of information selection and decisions making that are fundamentals in the design review (ACM 2018, SIDRAN project, Peerj2018);

(6) The discovery of new form of attentional capture by the simultaneous presentation of emotional stimuli (Cognition2019, PsychRes2020);

I have co-authored more than 30 articles on leading peer-reviewed journals, participated to more than 60 conferences and I have been a referee for several journals.

Info

Ricerca

Acting within the environment involves a complex interaction between visual and nonvisual information resulting from bodily and internal states. Since actions, multisensory processing and internal states are tightly linked I studied them in a closed action/perception loop, focusing on the understanding of how sensing the body internal/external states allows humans to aid the interpretation of visual stimulation to achieve a stable and coherent representation of the world which in turn influence motor and perceptual judgments. To improve measures of perception-action I develop and test computational models and integrate new technology. This is all possible at my Laboratories (the Active vision, Eye Movement and VR Lab) where a variety of methods are used including kinematic-analysis, VR, reaction time, psychophysics, with the aid of a sophisticated rendering and Eye and motion tracking system. Our activities are organized in 3 main lines of research:

Active vision: Insights on the perception of a stable world in VR

One of the real mystery of visual perception resides in the sensation of visual stability that 3D objects convey when viewed during body movements. When an observer moves, the retinal projections of 3D objects in the world change accordingly but we tend to perceive the outside world as almost stable. This investigation is aimed at understanding how the sensing of body movements allows human observers to aid the interpretation of visual stimulation in order to achieve visual stability, to reduce motion sikness and to improve the detection of environmental features.

Part of this program utilize our Active Vision Apparatus, which by means of an OPTOTRAK Certus allows for the precise localization of infrared markers that are rigidly attached to the observers’ head. This allows to precisely track the 3D position of the observers’ head. This information is transmitted in real time to PC that generates the images of 3D objects on a Hi-Res computer display. Immersive VR in single and shared modalities are instead tested by a stereo projector driven by a standard PC equipped with a Core i7 6800K CPU, 16 GB RAM and an nVidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card that, for multi-user purpose, can be networked with other PCs. Each PC, through our custom-made modules can be interfaced with different hardware devices to enable deep immersive experience, joined-presence and interactivity, such as the Oculus Rift head-mounted display, the Oculus Touch controllers, the Leap Motion sensor, and 3Dconnexion devices.

Visual completion & non-visual information

Biological systems recover the structure of the world by (1) picking-up projective invariants that specify 3D properties of distal objects which are partially specified in the image (Fantoni 2008), and (2) using interpolation/approximation processes to overcome spatial and temporal fragmentation due to occlusion, both at the level of contours and at the level of surfaces (Fantoni, Gerbino et al., 2003; Fantoni, Gerbino et al., 2008). Although the perception of wholes from visual fragments has traditionally been considered only as the results of the processing of sensory data, growing evidences suggest it could be a component of the action–perception cycle and that it might depends on expressive qualities and multisensory integration from the body signals or from non visual senses like acoustic. In this project we measured how visual completion depends on these form of sensory integration

Action for perception: Insights on how goal directed actions impact perception and vice-versa

Classic research on prehensile movements focused on the role of vision for the control of fundamental motor action that humans perform with great dexterity, such as reaching and grasping (Goodale, Milner, Jakobson, & Carey, 1991). On the other hand, 3D vision has traditionally been considered as an optimal cue integration process of sensory data leading into an almost metric 3D representation of the environment.

Some recent works from my Lab are challenging these views as showing that hand proprioception induced by congruent/incongruent visuomotor adaptation might alter basic perceived features of objects, such as shape, position, and size as well as tactile sensitivity (Volcic et al., 2013). Furthermore we have recently discovered that the perceived quality of our global experience of the environment can be modulated by the valence of the action. This result provide a first evidence that expressive qualities of the social environment can be altered by subjective feelings associated to motor actions (Fantoni & Gerbino, 2014). Vice-versa we have recently shown that contextual factors linked to social norms systematically affects the way hand are directed towards objects (Fantoni et al., 2016).

This program thus seeks to broaden both leading views on vision and motor control by providing and testing evidences showing that: (1) goal directed actions are not only visually driven but also emotionally and socially driven; (2) visual perception is not only stimulus dependent but also action as well as emotion dependent. The way in which different kinds of perceptual alterations (both visual and emotional) are induced by comfort/discomfort will be further tested through a paradigm inspired to our novel Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure - MAMIP - (Fantoni & Gerbino, in press). This is necessary for the ultimate understanding of how the different sources of mood alterations like sound, light, and vibrations might penetrate perception (Lorenzino, Rigutti, Bovenzi, Fantoni, Bregant, in press).

Persone

Collaboratori Post-doc

Pierpaolo Busan

Marta Stragà

Valentina Piccoli

Dottorandi

Rosandra Calodonato (co-tutor)

Tirocinanti-Tesisti

Jessica Piazza

Collaboratori interni strutturati DSV

Walter Gerbino

Andrea Carnaghi

Tiziano Agostini

Mauro Murgia

Collaboratori Esterni Strutturati

Fulvio Domini, professor Brown University, Senior Researcher IIT@UNITN

Robert Volcic, senior post-doc IIT@UNITN

Corrado Caudek, associate professor University of Florence

David Pearson, Lecturer Aberdeen University

Valter Prpic, Institue for Psychological Science, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, The Newarke, Leicester

Alessandro Soranzo, Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield

Drazen Domjian, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka

Collaboratori esterni non strutturati

Giulio Baldassi

Sara Rigutti

Piero Miceu (Arsenal S.R.L)

Marco Jez (Arsenal S.R.L)

Collaboratori Interni Strutturati non DSV

Paolo Gallina

Massimo Bovenzi

Alumni

Elena Milani - Research Assistant, Master degree - Postgraduate Master School in Science Communication (Padova);

Matteo Manzini - Research Assistant, Bachelor degree - Master Student at the University of Padova, Department of Psychology

Eddie Valvason - Bachelor degree - Project Engineer at VI-Grade

Busan Pierpaolo (Gruppo di ricerca - Componente)
pbusan@units.it

Prof. Fantoni Carlo (Gruppo di ricerca - Componente)
cfantoni@units.it

Jarmolowska Joanna (Gruppo di ricerca - Componente)

Pubblicazioni

Fantoni C, Gerbino W. (2003). Contour interpolation by vector-field combination. Journal of Vision, 3(4): 4, 281-303, http://journalofvision.org/3/4/4/, doi:10.1167/3.4.4. ISSN: 1534-7362 (data di pubblicazione: Maggio 2003).

Fantoni C, Bertamini M, Gerbino W. (2005). Contour curvature polarity and surface interpolation. Vision Research, 45(8), 1047-1062, doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.10.023 ISSN: 0042-6989 (data di pubblicazione: Aprile 2005).

Gerbino W, Fantoni C. (2006). Visual interpolation is not scale invariant. Vision Research, 46(19), 3142-3159, doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2006.03.030. ISSN: 0042-6989 (data di pubblicazione: Ottobre 2006).

Fantoni C, Gerbino W, Kellman PJ. (2008). Approximation, torsion, and amodally-completed surfaces. Vision Research, 48(10), 1196-216, doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.01.026. ISSN: 0042-6989 (data di pubblicazione: Maggio 2008).

Fantoni C., Pinna B. (2008). Apparent motion by edge discontinuities. Perception, 37(7), 973-992, doi:10.1068/p5782. ISSN: 0301-0066 (data di pubblicazione: 1 Gennaio 2008).

Fantoni C, Hilger JD, Gerbino W, Kellman PJ. (2008). Surface interpolation and 3D relatability. Journal of Vision, 8(7): 29, 1–19, http://journalofvision.org/8/7/29/, doi:10.1167/8.7.29. ISSN: 1534-7362 (data di pubblicazione: Novembre 2008).

Fantoni C. (2008). 3D surface orientation based on a novel representation of the orientation disparity field. Vision Research, 48(25), 2509-2522, doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.08.015. ISSN: 0042-6989 (data di pubblicazione: Novembre 2008).

Fantoni C, Caudek C, Domini F. (2010). Systematic distortions of perceived planar surface motion in active vision. Journal of Vision, 10(5): 12, 1–20, http://journalofvision.org/content/10/5/12, doi:10.1167/10.5.12. ISSN: 1534-7362 (data di pubblicazione: Maggio 2010).

Foster R, Fantoni C, Caudek C, Domini F. (2011). Integration of disparity and velocity information for haptic and perceptual judgments of object depth. Acta Psychologica, 136(3):300-310, doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.12.003. ISSN: 0001-6918 (data di pubblicazione: Marzo 2011).

Caudek C, Fantoni C, Domini F. (2011).Bayesian Modeling of Perceived Surface Slant from Actively-Generated and Passively-Observed Optic Flow. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18731. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018731. ISSN: 1932-6203 (data di pubblicazione: 14 Aprile 2011).

Fantoni C, Caudek C, Domini F. (2012). Perceived Surface Slant Is Systematically Biased in the Actively-Generated Optic Flow. PLoS ONE 7(3): e33911. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033911. ISSN: 1932-6203. (data di pubblicazione: 30 Marzo 2012).

Fantoni C, Gerbino W. (2013). “Connectability” matters too: Completion theories need to be complete. Cognitive Neuroscience, 4, 47-48, doi: 10.1080/17588928.2012.748022. ISSN: 1758-8928 (data di pubblicazione: 1 Marzo 2013).

Volcic R, Fantoni C, Caudek C, Assad J, Domini F. (2013). Visuomotor adaptation changes the processing of binocular disparities and tactile discrimination. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 17081-17088, doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2936-13.2013. ISSN: 0270-6474 (data di pubblicazione: 23 ottobre 2014).

Fantoni C, Caudek C, Domini F. (2014). Misperception of rigidity from the actively generated Optic Flow. Journal of Vision,14(3): 10, 1–22, http://www.journalofvision.org/content/14/3/10, doi:10.1167/14.3.10. ISSN: 15347362 (data di pubblicazione: marzo 2014).

Gerbino W, Fantoni C, Nicolini C, Volcic R, Domini F. (2014) Active Multisensory Perception tool: BUS experience and action comfort. In De Waard D, Brookhuis K, Wiczorek R, Di Nocera F, Barham P, Weikert C, Kluge A, Gerbino W, and Toffetti A, (Eds.), Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Europe Chapter 2013 Annual Conference. ISSN 2333-4959.

Nicolini C, Fantoni C, Mancuso G, Volcic R, Domini F. (2014). A framework for the study of vision in active observers. In: Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XIX, Rogowitz BE, Pappas TN, Ridder H. (Eds.), Proceedings of SPIE, 9014, (pp 1-11). doi: 10.1117/12.2045459. ISSN: 0277-786X (data: 3-6 febbraio 2014).

Fantoni C, Gerbino W. (2014) Body Actions Change the Appearance of Facial Expressions. PLoS ONE 9(9): e108211, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108211. ISSN: 1932-6203 (data di pubblicazione: 24 settembre 2014).

Rigutti S, Fantoni C, Gerbino W. (2015). Web party effect: A cocktail party effect in the web environment. PeerJ, 3, e828, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.828. ISSN: 2167-8359 (data di pubblicazione: 10 marzo 2015).

Fantoni C, Rigutti S, Gerbino W. (2016) Bodily action penetrates affective perception. PeerJ 4:e1677, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1677. ISSN: 2167-8359 (data di pubblicazione: 15 febbraio 2016).

Fantoni C, Rigutti S, Piccoli V, Sommacal E, Carnaghi A. (2016). Faster but less careful prehension in presence of high, rather than low, social status attendees. PLoS ONE 11(6): e0158095. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158095. ISSN: 19326203, (data di pubblicazione: giugno 2016).

Gerbino, W. and Fantoni, C. (2016). Action valence and affective perception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X15002605. ISSN: 0140-525X (data di pubblicazione: gennaio 2016).

Piccoli, V., Fantoni, C., Foroni, F., Bianchi, M., Carnaghi, A. (2017). Automatic female dehumanization across the menstrual cycle. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56, 270–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12178 (data di pubblicazione: Giugno 2017; data di pubblicazione online: 30 November 2016).

Rigutti S, Fantoni C, Gerbino W. (2016). Websites Ecousability [Ecousabilità dei siti web]. Sistemi Intelligenti, 28, 2-3, 343-362. doi: 10.1422/85487. ISSN: 11209550 (data di pubblicazione: dicembre 2016/gennaio 2017).

Kwok SW, Fantoni C, Tamburini L, Wang L, Gerbino W. (2018). A biphasic effect of cross-modal priming on visual shape recognition. Acta Psychologica, 183, 43-50. https:doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.12.013. (data di pubblicazione: Febbraio 2018).

Cogoni C, Carnaghi A, Mitrovic A, Leder H, Fantoni C, & Silani G. (2018). Understanding the mechanisms behind the sexualized-body inversion hypothesis: The role of asymmetry and attention biases. PloS one, 13(4), e0193944 (data di pubblicazione: Aprile 2018).

Morsan V, Fantoni C, Tallandini MA. (2018). Age correction for infants born preterm in cognitive, linguistic, and motor domains: an analysis of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) developmental patterns. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 60(8), 820-825. (data di pubblicazione: Marzo 2018).

Shamloo SE, Carnaghi A, & Fantoni C. (2018). Investigating the relationship between intergroup physical contact and attitudes towards foreigners: the mediating role of quality of intergroup contact. PeerJ, 6, e5680. (data di pubblicazione: Settembre 2018).

Prpic V, Soranzo A, Santoro I, Fantoni C, Galmonte A, Agostini T, & Murgia M. (2018). SNARC-like compatibility effects for physical and phenomenal magnitudes: A study on visual illusions. Psychological research, 1-16. (data di pubblicazione online: Dicembre 2018).

Jez M, Fantoni C, Keber M, Rigutti S, Stragà M, Miceu P, Ambrosio L, Carnaghi A, Gerbino W. 2018. A shared immersive virtual environment for improving ship design review. In: Marinò A, Bucci V, eds. Technology and Science for the Ships of the Future. Amsterdam: IOS Press. 770-777.

Rigutti S, Stragà M, Jez M, Baldassi G, Carnaghi A, Miceu P, & Fantoni C. (2018). Don’t worry, be active: how to facilitate the detection of errors in immersive virtual environments. PeerJ, 6, e5844. (data di pubblicazione online: Ottobre 2018).

Peta A, Fantoni C, Gerbino W. (2019). Mid-level Priming by Completion vs. Mosaic Solutions. i-Perception, 10(2):2041669518820347. doi: 10.1177/2041669518820347

Fantoni, C., Baldassi, G., Rigutti, S., Prpic, V., Murgia, M., & Agostini, T. (2019). Emotional Semantic Congruency based on stimulus driven comparative judgements. Cognition, 190, 20-41.

Ultimo aggiornamento: 18-01-2021 - 21:30

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