Giorgio Vallortigara | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 August 1959 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Alma mater | University of Padua |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience Animal Behaviour Physiology Ethology |
Giorgio Vallortigara is an Italian neuroscientist.
In 1983 he graduated in experimental psychology from the University of Padua, where he also obtained his research doctorate in 1990. In 1991 he moved to the University of Sussex, with a post-doctoral scholarship. found cerebral lateralization in lower vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians. Many of his articles have been published in Nature, Science, Current Biology, PNAS. [1]
He was scientific director of the Interdepartmental Center for Mind and Brain (CIMEC) in Trento, until the first half of 2015.
In 2013 he was awarded the Ferrari Soave Award with the following citation: "The main scientific interests of Prof. Giorgio Vallortigara concern the analysis of spatial cognition in birds and the mechanisms underlying their geometric representation. He is particularly interested in the numerical cognition and the biological predisposition to the recognition of animated agents in various animal models. In these fields he has made original and innovative contributions of great international relevance." [2]
In 2016 he received the award for ethology Prix Geoffroy Saint Hilaire of the French Society for the Study of Animal Behavior and an honorary degree from the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. [3] [4]
Messina, A., Potrich, D., Schiona, I., Sovrano, V.A., Fraser, S.E., Brennan, C.H., Vallortigara, G. (2021). Neurons in the dorso-central division of zebrafish pallium respond to change in visual numerosity. Cerebral Cortex, bhab218, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab218
Lorenzi, E., Perrino, M., Vallortigara, G. (2021). Numerosities and other magnitudes in the brains: A comparative view. Frontiers in Psychology - Cognition, 12:641994. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641994
Vallortigara, G. (2021). The rose and the fly. A conjecture on the origin of consciousness. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 564: 170-174. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.11.005.
Bortot, M., Stancher, G., Vallortigara, G. (2020). Transfer from number to size reveals abstract coding of magnitude in honeybees. iScience, 23: 101122 https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.isci.2020.101122
Vallortigara, G., Rogers, L.J. (2020). A function for the bicameral mind. Cortex, 124: 274-285. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.11.018
Hebert, M., Versace, E., Vallortigara, G. (2019). Inexperienced preys know when to flee or to freeze in front of a threat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA,116: 22918-22920.
Vallortigara, G. (2019). Q & A Giorgio Vallortigara. Current Biology, R606-R608, July 8 2019.
Buiatti, M., Di Giorgio, E., Piazza, M., Polloni, C., Menna, G., Taddei, F., Baldo, E., Vallortigara, G. (2019). A cortical route for face-like pattern processing in human newborns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 116: 4625-4630.
Schnell, A.K., Bellanger, C., Vallortigara, G., Jozet-Alves, C. (2018). Visual asymmetries in cuttlefish during brightness matching for camouflage. Current Biology, 28: 925-926.
Versace, E., Martinho-Truswel, A., Kacelnik, A., Vallortigara, G. (2018). Priors in animal and artificial intelligence: Where does learning begin? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22: 963-965.
Vallortigara, G. (2018). Comparative cognition of number and space: The case of geometry and of the mental number line. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0615.
Rosa-Salva, O., Hernik, M., Broseghini, A., Vallortigara, G. (2018). Visually-naïve chicks prefer agents that move as if constrained by a bilateral body-plan. Cognition, 173: 106-114.
Rugani, R., Vallortigara, G., Priftis, K., Regolin, L. (2015). Number-space mapping in the newborn chick resembles humans’ mental number line. Science, 347: 534-536.
Fontanari, L., Gonzalez, M., Vallortigara, G., Girotto, V. (2014). Probabilistic cognition in two Maya indigenous groups. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 111: 17075-17080.
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Mike Nicholls is an Australian researcher in experimental psychology.
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