Vittorio Gallese
Biography
Vittorio Gallese is a Full Professor of Physiology at the University of Parma and a leading figure in the discovery of mirror neurons, which he first observed in macaque monkeys in 1991 alongside Giacomo Rizzolatti. His research on mirror neurons and embodied simulation theory has profoundly influenced understanding of social cognition, empathy, and action understanding. He received the 2007 Grawemeyer Award for Psychology and holds positions at the University of London and Columbia University.
Sample Works
- Action recognition in the premotor cortex (1996) Paper
- The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2019) Book
- Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language (2002) Book
- Embodied simulation: from mirror neuron systems to interpersonal relations (2007) Paper
- Mirror neurons and the social nature of language: the neural exploitation hypothesis (2008) Paper
- Mirror Neurons, Embodied Simulation, and the Neural Basis of Social Identification (2009) Paper
Roundtable Appearances
February 11, 2023 · ▶ Video
The Body and Psychosis
The roundtable explored how "4E Cognition" frames thought and behavior as "embodied, embedded, enactive & extended," drawing on philosophers like Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger. It...
Elias Dakwar, George Denfield, MD, Vittorio Gallese, Siri Hustvedt, Gail Weiss
October 12, 9:00 AM - 4:15 PM, 2013 · ▶ Video
Aby Warburg: Art, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis: Day 1
The symposium explores Warburg's intellectual preoccupations including "memory, both in relation to different forms of artistic creation and in anticipation of concepts related to...
Anjan Chatterjee, Georges Didi-Huberman, David Freedberg, Vittorio Gallese, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Ludovica Lumer, Edward Nersessian, Andrea Pinotti, Francois Quiviger, Dorothea Rockburne, Christopher Wood