RESEARCH, CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • Nov 2021-Present Junior Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Italy

  • Nov 2020-2021 Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Italy

  • Aug 2018-Aug 2020 Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Italy

  • Oct 2016-Sep 2017 Visiting Research Scholar, Phelps Lab, Department of Psychology, New York University, USA

  • Nov 2013-Sep 2014 Responsible for ICT & Innovation, Psychology Emotion & Research Laboratory (PER Lab), Italy

  • Sep 2012-Aug 2013 Visiting Research Scholar, PMS & Perinatal Psychiatric Research Program, Yale University, USA

  • Aug-Sep 2011 Undergraduate Fellow, Neuroscience and Society Lab (iNSuLa), International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA), Italy

  • Jun-Aug 2010 Honorary Observer, Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, University College London, UK

EDUCATION

  • 2020 ReActor - School of entrepreneurship and innovation for researchers, Fondazione Golinelli, Italy

  • 2014-2018 PhD International Programme in Cognitive Neuroscience, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Italy

  • 2011-2013 MSc Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology, University College London, UK

  • 2008-2011 BSc Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

For the full list click here

  1. Degni, L.A.E., Dalbagno, D., Starita, F., (...), di Pellegrino, G., Garofalo, S., (2022) General Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in humans: Evidence from Bayesian inference. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16,945503.

  2. Garofalo, S., Giovagnoli, S., Orsoni, M., Starita, F., Benassi, M., (2022) Interaction effect: Are you doing the right thing? PLoS ONE, 17(7 July),e0271668.

  3. Sellitto, M., Terenzi, D., Starita, F., Di Pellegrino, G., Battaglia, S. (2022) The Cost of Imagined Actions in a Reward-Valuation Task. Brain Sciences, 12(5),582.

  4. Ellena G., Starita F., Haggard P., Romei V., Làdavas E., (2021), Fearful faces modulate spatial processing in peripersonal space: an ERP study. Neuropsychologia. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107827.

  5. Garofalo S., Battaglia S., Starita F., di Pellegrino G., (2021), Modulation of cue-guided choices by transcranial direct current stimulation. Cortex, 137, 124-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2021.01.004.

  6. Battaglia S., Garofalo S., di Pellegrino G., Starita F., (2020), Revaluing the role of vmPFC in the acquisition of Pavlovian threat conditioning in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 40 (44), 8491-8500. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0304-20.2020.

  7. Garofalo, S., Sagliano, L., Starita, F., Trojano, L., di Pellegrino, G., (2020), Subliminal determinants of cue-guided choice. Scientific Reports, 10, 11926. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68926-y.

  8. Ellena, G., Starita, F., Haggard, P., Ladavas, E., (2020), The spatial logic of fear. Cognition, 203, 104336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104336.

  9. Bertini, C., Starita, F., Passamonti, C., (...), Michelucci, R., Scarpazza, C., (2020), Fear-specific enhancement of tactile perception is disrupted after amygdala lesion, Journal of Neuropsychology, 14(1), 165–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnp.12178.

  10. Starita, F., Pietrelli, M., Bertini, C., di Pellegrino G., (2019), Aberrant reward prediction error during Pavlovian appetitive learning in alexithymia. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14(10), 1119–1129. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsz089.

  11. Zucchelli, M. M.*, Starita, F.*, Bertini, C., Giusberti, F., Ciaramelli, E., (2019), Intentionality attribution and emotion: The Knobe Effect in alexithymia, Cognition, 191, 103978. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.015. (*co-corresponding)

  12. Starita, F., Kroes, M.C.W., Davachi, L., Phelps, E.A., Dunsmoor, J.E., (2019), Threat Learning Promotes Generalization of Episodic Memory, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(8), 1426–1434 . https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000551.

  13. Starita, F.*, di Pellegrino G., (2018), Alexithymia and the reduced ability to represent the value of aversively motivated actions, Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2587. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02587. (*corresponding)

  14. Starita, F., Borhani, K., Bertini, C., Scarpazza, C., (2018), Alexithymia is related to the need for more emotional intensity to identify static fearful facial expressions, Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 929. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00929 .

  15. Starita F., Làdavas E., di Pellegrino G., (2016), Reduced anticipation of negative emotional events in alexithymia, Scientific Reports, 6, 27664. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep27664.

  16. Maier M.E., Scarpazza C., Starita F., Filogamo R., Làdavas E., (2016), Error monitoring is related to processing internal affective states. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 1–13. http://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0452-1.

CONFERENCE ACTIVITY

Oral presentations

  1. Starita F., Battaglia S., Garofalo S., di Pellegrino,G., (2019), A lesion to vmPFC compromises the acquisition of fear learning, Congresso Annuale Società Italiana di Neuropsicologia 2019, Bologna, Italy (6 December 2019). [Contributed talk]

  2. Starita F., Kroes M.C.W., Davachi L., Phelps E.A., Dunsmoor J.E., Threat Learning Promotes Generalization of Episodic Memory, XXV Congresso AIP Sezione Sperimentale, Milan, Italy (18-20 September 2019). [Contributed talk]

  3. Starita F., Làdavas E., (2019), Alexithymia as impairment in constructing the internal representation of emotional stimuli, Festschrift in honor of Elisabetta Làdavas, Bologna, Italy (11-12 April 2019). [Invited talk]

  4. Starita F., Làdavas E., (2018), Alexithymia as impairment in constructing the internal representation of emotional stimuli, Una Giornata con AIP Sperimentale, Rome, Italy (21 September 2018). [Invited talk]

  5. Starita F., Bertini C., Pietrelli M., di Pellegrino G., (2017), Alexithymia as an impairment of emotional prediction, First Bologna workshop on Social, cognitive and affective neuroscience, Bologna, Italy (19 July 2017). [Invited talk]

  6. Starita F., Bertini C., Pietrelli M., di Pellegrino G., (2017), Alexithymia as an impairment of emotional prediction, 18th Annual Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, London, England (13-15 July 2017). [Contributed talk]

  7. Starita F., Artusio L. Caruso D. Làdavas E., (2016), Alexithymia and Emotional Intelligence, Florentine Symposium on Emotional Intelligence - 2nd Edition, Florence, Italy (10-11 June 2016). [Invited talk]

  8. Starita F., Làdavas E., di Pellegrino G., (2016), Reduced anticipation of negative emotional events in alexithymia, XXXIV European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Brixen, Italy (24-29 January 2016). [Contributed talk]

Poster presentations

  1. Starita F., Garofalo S., Battaglia S., di Pellegrino G., (2020), Emotional learning in peripersonal space, European Meeting of Human Fear Conditioning 2020, Bochum, Germany [Poster accepted but meeting postponed due to COVID-19]

  2. Starita F., Garofalo S., Battaglia S., di Pellegrino G., (2019), The space of fear: emotional learning in peripersonal space, BMI Symposium: Fear learning, Lausanne, Switzerland (25-26 Nov 2019).

  3. Starita F., Bertini C., Pietrelli M., di Pellegrino G., (2017), Alexithymia as an impairment of emotional prediction, 18th Annual Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, London, England (13-15 July 2017).

  4. Starita F., Làdavas E., di Pellegrino G., (2016), The anticipation of emotional events in alexithymia, 3rd International Conference of the European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ESCAN), Porto, Portugal (23-26 June 2016).

  5. Starita F., Làdavas E., di Pellegrino G., (2016), Alexithymia and reduced anticipation of negative emotional events, 9th Annual Meeting of the Social & Affective Neuroscience Society, New York, USA (28-30 April 2016).

  6. Bliss C.M., Wanless S., Pieri J.W., Starita F., Artusio L., (2016), Cross-Cultural Studies, Social and Emotional Learning, American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C., USA (8-12 April 2016).

  7. Starita F., Làdavas E., di Pellegrino G., (2016), Reduced anticipation of negative emotional events in alexithymia, XXXIV European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Brixen, Italy (24-29 January 2016).

Conferences and symposia organization

  1. Co-organizer of the European Meeting of Human Fear Conditioning (EMHFC@home), online conference (17-19 May 2021).

  2. Co-organizer of the symposium “Under the tip of the iceberg: motivational and sensory processes underling behavior” presented at XXV Congresso AIP Sezione Sperimentale, Milan, Italy (18-20 September 2019).

  3. Member of the organizing committee of Florentine Symposium on Emotional Intelligence - 2nd Edition, Florence, Italy (10-11 June 2016)

GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

  • 2021-2024 BIAL Foundation Grant, Fear in action: how Pavlovian fear learning shapes goal-directed motor responses [Principal Investigator] ~50k €

  • 2020-2023 Human Brain Project FLAG-ERA JTC - Basic and Applied Research, MoDeM - The "Motor-way" to Decision-Making: how the motor system drives cue-triggered decisions [Co-Investigator] ~600k €

  • 2019 Travel grant from Società Italiana di Neuropsicologia to present at BMI Symposium: Fear learning 500€

  • 2019 Travel grant from Associazione Italiana di Psicologia (AIP) to attend XXV Congresso AIP Sezione Sperimentale 250€

  • 2019 Award from Associazione Italiana di Psicologia (AIP) for the best PhD thesis 500€

  • 2017 Marco Polo Scholarship from Università di Bologna to fund the visiting period at New York University ~3k €

  • 2014-2017 PhD scholarship from Università di Bologna to fund the PhD program ~45k €

  • 2012-2013 Merit Scholarship from Provincia di Lucca to fund the MSc program 5000€

  • 2011 Undergraduate fellowship from International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) ~1k €

  • 2011 Neuropsychology Prize from King’s College London for the thesis with the highest grade in the course 300£

GUEST LECTURES

  1. Il ruolo dell'amigdala nell'elaborazione di stimoli emotivi, Department of Psychology, Università di Bologna, Italy, (11 April 2018).

  2. Emotional development: structural and functional development of the amygdala and its connections with the prefrontal cortex, Lorenzo de’ Medici, The Italian International Institute, Florence, Italy (4 April 2018).

  3. Processi emotivi in età evolutiva, Department of Psychology, Università di Bologna, Italy (28 March 2018).

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

  • 2020: Co-organizer of the workshop “Neuroscientists for a day” as part of Dana Foundation’s Brain Awareness Week (BAW), Cesena, Italy

  • 2019: Scientific Birthdays with “Ruote Quadrate” no-profit organization for science communication, Cesena, Italy

  • 2019-2018, 2015: Researcher at European Researcher’s Night, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy

  • 2014: Speaker on Radio Toscana as part of ‘Progetto Ancora GEnitori NOnostante le REsistenze (AGENORE)’, Firenze, Italy