Dr Laura Crucianelli

Research

Interoception, Body perception, Affective touch, Temperature, Multisensory integration, Mental health

Interests

How do we integrate signals coming from inside our body (i.e., interoception) with signals coming from outside the body (i.e., exteroception) to create a coherent sense of self? And how do we combine signals from different senses to perceive the world around us, that is constantly changing? My research combines behavioural, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging methods to shed new light on the relationship between mind, brain, and body. I am particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying the perception of skin-mediated signals (i.e., touch, temperature, pain) and how these contribute to the perception of our body as our own, and by implication to our sense of self.

To address these research questions, I take advantage of a variety of methods, such as bodily illusions, multisensory integration, somatosensory tasks, interoceptive accuracy tasks, virtual reality, and self-reported questionnaires in both healthy and clinical populations. I also conduct studies with sub-clinical psychiatric populations to identify behavioural biomarkers of people at risk of developing mental health conditions. I am interested in investigating somatosensory and body perception across the lifespan, with a particular focus on infants, children, and adults.

My priority is to conduct fundamental experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience research with a strong translational potential to tackle mental health and societal challenges (e.g., climate change). Working in both clinical and research environments has provided me with a unique appreciation of the importance of bridging cognitive research and clinical practice, and how they can inform each other giving rise to a fruitful dialogue across disciplines.

Publications

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2013