Stefano Lasaponara

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT STEFANO LASAPONARA

My most significant scientific contribution lies in my research concerning the interplay between spatial attention and predictive coding. This body of work comprises a comprehensive series of studies involving both healthy volunteers and brain-damaged populations. In several fMRI, EEG, and Pupil Dilation studies, I have developed a full knowledge of the anatomical, functional, and electrophysiological modifications that take place when individuals are requested to orient spatial attention under conditions of uncertainty, i.e, when there are no statistical regularities between cues and targets. In these studies, I have highlighted that moving from statistical predictive to non-predictive cueing leads to a profound modification in the neural dynamics underlying the endogenous orienting of attention, which includes deactivation of the right temporo-parietal junction, modulation of cue- and target-related ERP components such as LDAP, ADAN, and the P1/N1 complex, as well as alterations in the pupillary response to directional cues and invalid targets. These modifications bear significant adaptive value, resulting in speeded reorienting of attention and selective drop of attentional costs. Notably, this comprehensive understanding of the neurophysiological and electrophysiological correlates characterizing spatial attention under different statistical regularities was complemented by a series of investigations aimed at shedding light on the neurological deficits experienced by right-brain damaged patients with spatial neglect. Specifically, I have reported that damage to parietal-frontal white matter results in the alteration of tonic alpha oscillatory activity and the uncoupling of frontal attentional mechanisms (ADAN, CNV) and early cued orienting responses (EDAN and LDAP), eliciting, in turn, an exaggerated novelty reaction to right-sided targets and impaired contextual updating.