My current research activity aims at investigating:
- Neural correlates of moral decision-making;
- The effects of brain lesions on the perception of internal bodily signals (interoception);
- The impact of prosocial vs. egoistic choice on behavioral and neurophysiological markers of implicit sense of agency;
- The role of prediction-based neural activity in processing (un)expected social interaction outcomes;
- Motivation and reward-related behavioral biases.
Recently, we found that dopamine augmentation shapes moral behavior by modulating predictive processes subserving the Sense of Agency (SoA) in participants with Parkinson's Disease. In particular, higher SoA predicted reduced self-serving dishonesty - but only when participants were ON (and not OFF) dopaminergic medication (Ponsi, Villa, et al., 2026 PNAS).
Previously, we reviewed alterations in deceptive behavior in Parkinson's Disease, showing that dysfunction of the dopaminergic reward system may lead to reduced or enhanced motivation to cheat for monetary reward (Ponsi et al., 2021 npj Parkinson's Disease).
Using eye-tracking technology, we found that hierarchical rank influences the amount of attention individuals allocate to processing social signals, such as gaze (Ponsi, Schepisi et al., 2024 iScience).
In 2018 I was awarded a Bial Foundation Grant titled “Embodied morality: autonomic signatures of spontaneous deception in mindfulness trained practitioners”, aimed at understandig whether mindfulness practice impacts the willingess to deceive others (Feruglio et al., 2023 Mindfulness; Feruglio et al., 2022. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience) and the associated autonomic facial markers (face temperature; Ponsi et al., in preparation).
During my Ph.D. I employed functional infrared thermal imaging to investigate the autonomic facial markers of emotional processing and regulation applied to the domains of intergroup social categorization (Ponsi et al., 2017. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences), social exclusion/inclusion (Ponsi et al., 2019. Journal of Neurophysiology) and cognitive workload (Panasiti, Ponsi et al., 2019. Experimental Brain Research).
In early research experiences I investigated intertemporal choice (De Petrillo et al., 2015a. Animal Cognition) and gambling (De Petrillo et al., 2015b. Animal Cogniton) in non-human primates (Capuchin monkeys, Sapajus spp.)
