Francesco Pavani – författare

The way that we interact with the environment on a daily basis is inherently multisensory. Even a simple task such as judging the location of a light in a dark room depends not only on vision but also on proprioceptive cues about the position of our body in space. The way that we experience food can be influenced not just by taste and smell, but by visual and auditory cues. Perception: A multisensory perspective adopts a multisensory approach to understanding perception. Rather than discussing each sense separately, this book defines perception as intrinsically multisensory from the start and examines multisensory interactions as the key process behind how we perceive our own body, control its movements, and perceive and recognise objects, space, and time. But the book delves even deeper. It discusses multisensory processing in conditions such as synaesthesia. It addresses attention and the role of multisensory processing in learning. By focussing on these domains, the authors highlight and identify general principles in the field of perception study and introduce models, experimental methods and pathologies that will be of interest to all those studying within the field of perception. The authors also illustrate applications that will be of interest to professionals whose work takes multisensory processing into account. As an introduction to the topic of multisensory perception, Perception: A multisensory perspective will be essential reading for students, from advanced undergraduate level through to postgraduate level in psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. Those studying physiotherapy and neurological rehabilitation, human-computer interface development, or the design of products or services will also find this book of interest.

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.