Staff

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FULL PROFESSORS

» Giacomo Rizzolatti
» Giuseppe Luppino
» Giuseppe Cossu
» Leonardo Fogassi
» Vittorio Gallese
» Maurizio Gentilucci

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS

» Lucia Riggio
» Roberto Tirindelli

RESEARCHERS

» Pierfrancesco Ferrari
» Stefano Rozzi
» Lucia Silvotti
» Fabrizio Strata
» M.Alessandra Umiltà

FELLOWS

» Pietro Avanzini
» Arianna Bello
» Luca Bonini
» Elena Borra
» Fausto Caruana
» Gino Coudé
» Marzio Gerbella
» Patricia Gough
» Hiroaki Ishida
» Sara Macellini
» Barbara Marino
» Giorgia Montani
» Laura Sparaci
» Silvia Stefanini
» Alena Streltsova
» Vania Veroni
» Rachel Wood

PH.D. STUDENTS

» Cristina Berchio
» Stefania Bruni
» Cristina Campione
» Riccardo Dalla Volta
» Cinzia Di Dio
» Maddalena Fabbri Destro
» Francesca Ferri
» Stefania Ferri
» Luca Fornia
» Ahamad Jezzini
» Monica Maranesi
» Francesca Rodà
» Beatrice Sbriscia Fioretti
» Mariateresa Sestito
» Luciano Simone
» Simone Tonelli
» Francesca Ugolotti S.

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

» Antonella Bianchi
» Franco Ferrari

TECHNICAL STAFF

» Fabrizio Orzi
» Paolo Rossi

COMPUTER TECHNICIANS

» Domenico Mallamo

EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS

» Vincenza Mori
» Marco Bimbi
» Sonia Boria
» Fabrizio Fasano
» Paola Pettenati

Professor Vittorio Gallese
~ Full Professor of Human Physiology ~

I was born and educated in Parma and I took my M.D. at the University of Parma in 1985.

In 1988 I worked at the Dept. of Anatomy of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland with Prof. Giorgio Innocenti.

In 1989 I took the Degree in Neurology at the University of Parma.

From 1990 to 1991 I worked at the Institute of Human Physiology of the University of Parma as researcher.

I worked for two years as JSPS Fellow at the Dept. of Physiology of Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan with Hideo Sakata and Akira Murata.

In 1994 I returned to Parma where I was appointed as Assistant Professor in Human Physiology and in 2000 I became Associate Professor of Human Physiology.

In 2002 I was George Miller Visiting Professor at the Dept. of Psychology of the University of Berkeley, USA.

In 2006 I was appointed as Full Professor of Human Physiology at the School of Medicine of the University of Parma.

In 2007 I was awarded, together with Giacomo Rizzolatti and Leonardo Fogassi, with the Grawemeyer International Psychology Award for our discovery of mirror neurons.

I am member of the European Brain and Behaviour Society, of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, of the Italian Society of Physiology, and of the Italian Society of Neuropsychology.

(+39) 0521-033887
(+39) 0521-033898

vittorio.gallese@unipr.it

My major research interest lies in the relationship between action perception and cognition, using a variety of neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques.

I am also interested in developing an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of the embodied bases of intersubjectivity and social cognition.

I have published about 100 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and edited books.

Neurophysiology

The current research projects concern:

1. The study of the neural correlates of social cognition by means of microstimulation and single neurons recording from the macaque monkey insula.
2. The investigation of the neurophysiological mechanisms at the basis of visuo-tactile mirroring and affective touch by means of single neurons recording from the macaque monkey SII and posterior Insula.

Research Team

- Fausto Caruana
- Luca Fornia
- Hiroaki Ishida
- Ahmad Jezzini
- Beatrice Sbriscia Fioretti
- Maria Alessandra Umiltà

Cognitive Neuroscience

The current research project concerns:

1. The study of the phylogeny of intentional behavior in non-human primates, and of its ontogeny in normal and autistic children.
2. The study of the mechanisms enabling the human capacity to understand the emotions and sensations of others and of how these capacities may be altered in autism and schizophrenia.
3. The study of the role of the sensory-motor system in the understanding of language.
4. The study of the neural correlates of aesthetic experience.

Research Team

- Cristina Berchio
- Giuseppe Cossu
- Cinzia Di Dio
- Francesca Ferri
- Mariateresa Sestito
- Alena Streltsova
- Maria Alessandra Umiltà
- Rachel Wood

Gallese V.
All'origine dell'interazione con gli altri. Intervista con Marina Savi.
La Società degli Individui, n. 35, anno XII, 2009/2, pp. 115-126, 2009.

Gallese V., Sinigaglia C.
The bodily self as power for action.
Neuropsychologia, 48: 746-755, 2009.

Di Dio C., Gallese V.
Neuroesthetics: A Review.
Curr. Op. Neurobiol. 19: 682-687, 2009.

Gallese V.
Mirror neurons, embodied simulation, and the neural basis of social identification.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19: 519-536, 2009.

Gallese V.
We-ness. Embodied simulation and Psychoanalysis. Reply to commentaries.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19: 580-584, 2009.

Gallese V.
Mirror neurons.
In: Baynes T., Cleeremans A., and Wilken P. (Eds.).
The Oxford Companion to Consciousness. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 445-446, 2009.

Gallese V., Sinigaglia C.
Chi è senza peccato scagli la prima pietra (mesmerica).
Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, a. XXXVI, vol. 2: 297-302, 2009.

Eagle M.E., Gallese V., Migone P.
Mirror neurons and mind; Commentary on Vivona.
J Am Psychoanal Assoc., 57(3): 559-68, 2009.

Gallese V.
Motor abstraction: A neuroscientific account of how action goals and intentions are mapped and understood.
Psychological Research, 2009, [21 April Epub ahead of print].

Gallese V.
The two sides of Mimesis: Girard’s Mimetic Theory, Embodied Simulation and Social Identification.
Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2009, 16: 21-44.

Gallese V.
Neuroscienze e Fenomenologia.
In: Enciclopedia Treccani Terzo Millennio, in press.

Gallese V., Rochat M., Cossu G., Sinigaglia C.
Motor Cognition and its role in the phylogeny and ontogeny of intentional understanding.
Developmental Psychology, 2009, 45: 103-113.

Gallese V.
Mirror neurons and the social nature of language: The neural exploitation hypothesis.
Social Neuroscience, 2008, 3: 317-333.

Gallese V.
Il corpo teatrale: Mimetismo, neuroni specchio, simulazione incarnata.
Culture Teatrali, 2008, 16:13-38.

Freedberg D. and Gallese V.
Movimento, emozione, empatia. I fenomeni che si producono a livello corporeo osservando le opere d'arte.
Prometeo, 2008, Anno 26, N° 103:52-59.

Gallese V.
Empathy, embodied simulation and the brain.
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2008, 56:769-781.

Ebisch S.J.H., Perrucci M.G., Ferretti A., Del Gratta C., Romani G.L., Gallese V.
The sense of touch: embodied simulation in a visuo-tactile mirroring mechanism for the sight of any touch.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20: 1611-1623.

Gallese V.
Interview to Die Zeit 15/05/2008 by Stefan Kleins (with Italian translation).

Umiltà M.A., Escola L., Intskirveli I., Grammont F., Rochat M., Caruana F., Jezzini A., Gallese, V., and Rizzolatti G.
How pliers become fingers in the monkey motor system.
PNAS, 2008, 105: 2209-2213.

Rochat M., Serra E., Fadiga L., and Gallese V.
The evolution of social cognition: Goal familiarity shapes monkeys’ action understanding.
Current Biology, 2008, 18: 227-232.

Gallese V.
Empathy, embodied simulation and mirroring mechanisms.
Commentary on “Towards a neuroscience of empathy” by Doug Watt.
Neuropsychoanalysis, 2007, 9, vol 2: 146-151.

Gallese V., De Monticelli R. (a cura di A. Lanni)
Dialogo sulla Felicità.
Mente e Cervello, 2007, 35: 72-75.

Gallese V.
Dai neuroni specchio alla consonanza intenzionale. Meccanismi neurofisiologici dell’intersoggettività.
Rivista di Psicoanalisi, LIII, 2007, 1: 197-208.

Gallese V., Freedberg D.
Mirror and canonical neurons are crucial elements in esthetic response.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007, 11: 411.

Gallese V., Eagle M.E., and Migone P.
Intentional attunement: Mirror neurons and the neural underpinnings of interpersonal relations.
J. of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2007, 55: 131-176.

Gallese V.
The "conscious" dorsal stream: Embodied simulation and its role in space and action conscious awareness.
PSYCHE: http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/

Sato M., Cattaneo L., Rizzolatti G., and Gallese V.
Numbers Within Our Hands: Modulation of Corticospinal Excitability of Hand Muscles During Numerical Judgment.
J. Cognitive Neurosci., 2007, 19: 684-693.

Freedberg D. and Gallese V.
Motion, emotion and empathy in esthetic experience.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007, 11: 197-203.

Gallese V.
Before and below 'theory of mind': embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci., 2007, 362: 659-669..

Gallese V.
Embodied simulation: from mirror neuron systems to interpersonal relations.
Novartis Found Symp., 2007, 278: 3-12; discussion 12-9.

Gallese V.
Corpo vivo, simulazione incarnata e intersoggettività: Una prospettiva neurofenomenologica.
in: Neurofenomenologia. A cura di M. Cappuccio.
Bruno Mondadori, 2006, pp. 293-326.

Barale F., Bertani M., Gallese V., Mistura S. e Zamperini A. (A cura di)
Psiche. Dizionario storico di psicologia, psichiatria, psicoanalisi, neuroscienze.
Einaudi, 2006, 2 Voll.

Rizzolatti G., Fogassi L. and Gallese V.
Mirrors in the mind.
Scientific American Nov, 2006, 295(5): 54-61.

Gallese V., Migone P. and Eagle M.E.
La simulazione incarnata: i neuroni specchio, le basi neurofisiologiche dell'intersoggettività e alcune implicazioni per la psicoanalisi.
Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 2006, XL: 543-580.

Gallese V.
La molteplicità condivisa. Dai neuroni mirror all'intersoggettività.
in: Autismo: L'umanità nascosta. Di A. Ballerini, F. Barale, V. Gallese, e Ucelli S. (a cura di S. Mistura).
Einaudi, 2006, pp. 302.

Gallese V.
Intentional attunement: A neurophysiological perspective on social cognition and its disruption in autism.
Brain Res. Cog. Brain Res., 2006, 1079: 15-24.

Gallese V., Umiltà M.A.
Cognitive continuity in primate social cognition.
Biological Theory 2006, 1: 25-30.

Gallese, V.
La consonanza intenzionale: Una prospettiva neurofisiologica sull'intersoggettività e sulle sue alterazioni nell'autismo infantile.
Dedalus, 2006, anno I, numero 0: pp. 18-29.

Raos V., Umiltà M.A., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
Functional properties of grasping-related neurons in the ventral premotor area F5 of the macaque monkey.
J Neurophysiol., 2006, 95:709-729.

Gallese V.
Mirror neurons and intentional attunement: A commentary on David Olds.
J. American Psychoanalytic Association, 2006, 54:46-57.

Iacoboni M., Molnar-Szakacs I., Gallese V., Buccino G., Mazziotta J. and Rizzolatti G.
Grasping the intentions of others with one’s owns mirror neuron system.
PLOS Biology, 2005, 3:e79.

Gallese V.
Embodied simulation: from neurons to phenomenal experience.
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2005, 4:23–48.

Gallese V., Lakoff G.
The Brain’s Concepts: The Role of the Sensory-Motor System in Reason and Language.
Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2005, 22:455-479.

Tettamanti M., Buccino G., Saccuman M.C., Gallese V., Danna M., Scifo P., Fazio F., Rizzolatti G., Cappa S.F. and Perani D.
Listening to action-related sentences activates fronto-parietal motor circuits.
J Cogn. Neurosci., 2005, 17: 273-281.

Buccino G., Riggio L., Melli G., Binkofski, F. , Gallese V., and Rizzolatti G.
Listening to action-related sentences modulates the activity of the motor system: a combined TMS and behavioral study.
Cog. Brain Res., 2005, 24: 355-363.

Gallese V.
Intentional Attunement: The Mirror Neuron System and its Role in Interpersonal Relations.
2004.

Gallese V., Keysers C. and Rizzolatti G.
A unifying view of the basis of social cognition.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8: 396-403, 2004.

Keysers C., Wicker B., Gazzola V., Anton J.L., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch.
Neuron, 42: 335-346, 2004.

Keysers C., Kohler E., Umiltà M.A. Fogassi L., Nanetti L., Gallese V.
Audio-visual mirror neurones and action recognition.
Exp. Brain Res., 153: 628-636, 2003.

Wicker B., Keysers C., Plailly J., Royet J-P., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G.
Both of us disgusted in my insula: The common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust.
Neuron, 40: 655-664, 2003.

Metzinger T., Gallese V.
The emergence of a shared action ontology: building blocks for a theory.
Consciousness and Cognition, 12: 549-571, 2003.

Gallese V., Metzinger T.
Motor ontology: The representational reality of goals, actions, and selves.
Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 13, No. 3, 365-388, 2003.

Gallese V.
The roots of empathy: The shared manifold hypothesis and the neural basis of intersubjectivity.
Psychopatology, Vol. 36, No. 4, 171-180, 2003.

Gallese V.
A neuroscientific grasp of concepts: From control to representation.
Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London, B., 358: 1231-1240, 2003.

Gallese V.
La molteplice natura delle relazioni interpersonali: la ricerca di un comune meccanismo neurofisiologico.
Networks, 1: 24-47, 2003.

Gallese V.
The manifold nature of interpersonal relations: The quest for a common mechanism.
Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London B, 358: 517-528, 2003.

Gallese V., Umiltà M.A.
From self-modeling to the self model: agency and the representation of the self.
Neuro-Psychoanalysis, vol. 4, No. 2: 35-40, 2002.

Ferrari P.F., Fogassi L., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G.
Mirror neurons responding to the observation of ingestive and communicative mouth actions in the monkey ventral premotor cortex.
European Journal of Neuroscience, 17 (8), 1703-1714, 2003.

Gallese V., Ferrari P.F., Umiltà M.A.
The mirror matching system: a shared manifold for intersubjectivity.
Behavioral Brain Sciences, 25: 35-36, 2002.

Rizzolatti G., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
Motor and cognitive functions of the ventral premotor cortex.
Curr. Op. Neurobiol. 12: 149-154, 2002.

Gallese V.
Una scienza cognitiva interdisciplinare: una possibile terza via?
Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 39, Vol. 2: 297-301, 2002.

Kohler E., Keysers C., Umiltà M.A., Fogassi L., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G.
Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons.
Science, 297: 846-848, 2002.

Gallese V., Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Rizzolatti G.
Action representation and the inferior parietal lobule.
In Prinz, W., and Hommel, B. (Eds.) Common Mechanisms in Perception and Action: Attention and Performance, Vol. XIX. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 247-266, 2002.

Rizzolatti G., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the understanding and imitation of action.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2: 661-670, 2001.

Gallese V., Keysers C.
Mirror neurons: a sensorimotor representation system.
Behavioral Brain Sciences, 24:5, 983-984, 2001.

Gallese V.
The “Shared Manifold” Hypothesis: from mirror neurons to empathy.
Journal of Consciousness Studies: 8, N° 5-7; 33-50, 2001.

Umiltà M.A., Kohler E., Gallese V., Fogassi L., Fadiga L., Keysers C., Rizzolatti G.
“I know what you are doing”: a neurophysiological study.
Neuron: 32; 91-101, 2001.

Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G.
Visuomotor neurons: ambiguity of the discharge or ‘motor’ perception?
Int. J. Psychophysiology, 35:165-77, 2000.

Ferrari P.F., Kohler E., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
The ability to follow eye gaze and its emergence during development in macaque monkey.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA Vol. 97, No. 25: 13997-14002, 2000.

Gallese V.
The inner sense of action: agency and motor representations.
Journal of Consciousness Studies: 7; 23-40, 2000.

Goldman A., Gallese V.
Reply to Schulkin.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences:4; 255-256, 2000.

Murata A., Gallese V., Luppino G., Kaseda M., Sakata H.
Selectivity for the shape, size and orientation of objects in the hand-manipulation-related neurons in the anterior intraparietal (AIP) area of the macaque.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 83: 2580-2601, 2000.

Gallese V., Goldman A.
Mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12:493-501, 1998.

Murata A., Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Gallese V., Raos V., Rizzolatti G.
Object representation in the ventral premotor cortex (area F5) of the monkey.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 78: 2226-2230, 1997.

Rizzolatti G., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
Parietal cortex: from sight to action.
Curr. Op. Neurobiol., 7: 562-567, 1997.

Rizzolatti G., Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Gallese V.
The space around us.
Science, 277: 190-191, 1997.

Gallese V., Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Rizzolatti G.
Action recognition in the premotor cortex.
Brain 119: 593-609, 1996.