Perception

Nicola Bruno studied philosophy at the University of Trieste (Italy) and experimental psychology at Cornell University (USA). He is currently Full Professor of General Psychology at the University of Parma (Italy) and coordinator of the Master Programme on Psychobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Bruno has published extensively on human perception, perception and action, and multisensory processing.

Francesco Pavani studied psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Bologna (Italy) and continued his training in cognitive neuroscience at the University College London (UK). He is currently Associate Professor of General Psychology at the University of Trento (Italy), director of the PhD Program in Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) and coordinator of the research group on Cognition Across the Senses (CAtS). Pavani published extensively on multisensory processing, body perception and auditory deficits.

The world of perception is multisensory. Even a simple task such as judging the position of a light in a dark room depends not only on vision but also on sensory signals about the position of our body in space. Likewise, how we experience food depends on sensory signals originating from the mouth, but also from nose signals, and even vision and hearing. However, traditional books on perception still discuss each of the "senses" separately. This book takes a different stance: it defines perception as intrinsically multisensory from the start and examines multisensory interactions as key process behind how we perceive our own body, control its movements, perceive and recognise objects, respond to edible objects, perceive space, and perceive time. In addition, the book discusses multisensory processing in synaesthesia, multisensory attention, and the role of multisensory processing in learning.

As an introduction to multisensory perception, this book is essential reading for students in psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience at the advanced undergraduate to postgraduate levels. As the chapters address topics that are often left out of standard textbooks, this book will also serve as a useful reference for specialist perception scientists and clinicians. Finally, as a monograph understandable to the educated non-specialist this book will also be of interest to professionals who need to take into account multisensory processing in domains such as, for instance, physiotherapy, neurological rehabilitation, human-computer interfaces, marketing, or the design of products and services.

This book adopts a multisensory approach to understanding perception. Within it, the authors define perception as intrinsically multisensory from the start and examine multisensory interactions as the key process behind how we perceive our own body, control its movements, and perceive and recognise objects, space, and time.