Elisa Zamboni
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Profile
Biography
- 2020 – Present: Postdoctoral Research Associate (ESRC funded), University of York
- 2017 – 2020: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Adaptive Brain Lab, University of Cambridge, UK
- 2013 – 2017: PhD in Psychology and Visual Neuroscience, ‘Biases in Perception of Visual Motion’, University of Nottingham, UK
- 2011 – 2013: MSc (Hons) in Cognitive Science and Neuroscience, University of Trento, Italy
- 2009 – 2010: LLP Erasmus Grant, University of Osnabrück, Germany
- 2008 – 2011: BSc (Hons) in Psychological Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Italy
Research
Overview
fMRI and high-field imaging, visual symmetry, visual neuroscience
Projects
I am currently working on a project investigating processing of visual symmetry in the human brain as part of the ESRC funded project “When does perceptual organisation happen?”. Symmetry is a pervasive aspect of the environment we live in and can be observed at different scales in nature and artificial settings. The abundance and relevance of this feature is reflected in a selectivity for processing visual symmetry in the brain. This work draws on previous imaging studies suggesting the involvement of a distributed network of brain areas in extrastriate and higher visual cortex in symmetry processing. The aim is multifaceted: on the one hand looking at how pattern representation of visual symmetry is organised along the visual pathway, how this neural representation is modulated by selectively attending to relevant or irrelevant symmetry features, and how different types of symmetry (e.g., reflection vs. rotation) are represented in the brain.
I am also broadly interested in high-field imaging and multimodal imaging techniques as tools to combine multiple measurement types describing complex systems such as the brain, with the aim of bridging across modalities and spatial scales.
Collaborators
Professor Antony B. Morland, Dr Alexis Makin (University of Liverpool), Dr Marco Bertamini (University of Liverpool)
Publications
Selected publications
Zamboni, E., Kemper, V., Goncalves, N.R., Jia, K., Karlaftis, V.M., Bell, S.J., Giorgio, J., Rideaux, R., Goebel, R., & Kourtzi, Z. (preprint; under review). Fine-scale computations for adaptive processing in the human brain. DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.14.947895
Zamboni, E., Ledgeway, T., McGraw, P.V., & Schluppeck, D. (2016). Do perceptual biases emerge early or late in visual processing? Decision-biases in motion perception. Proc. R. Soc. B, 283. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0263
Van Paasschen, J., Zamboni, E., Bacci, F., & Melcher, D.P. (2014). Consistent emotions elicited by low-level visual features in abstract art. Art & Perception, 2, 99-118. DOI: 10.1163/22134913-00002012
Yanulevska, V., Uijlings, J., Bruni, E., Sartori, A., Zamboni, E., Bacci, F., et al. (2012). In the eye of the beholder: employing statistical analysis and eye tracking for analysing abstract paintings. Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Multimedia. DOI: 10.1145/2393347.2393399
