The discovery of individuals with exceptional memory can be traced back a long way (see Frances Yates' 1966 work, "The art of memory"). Only recently, however, have we begun to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this condition, which, while revealing the secrets of this form of enhanced memory, also give us hope of discovering new ways to counteract memory deficits.

Most relevant publications:

• Santangelo, V., Cavallina, C., Colucci, P., Santori, A., Macrì, S., McGaugh, J. L., & Campolongo, P. (2018). Enhanced brain activity associated with memory access in highly superior autobiographical memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115, 7795-7780. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802730115

• Santangelo, V., Pedale, T., Macrì, S., & Campolongo (2020). Enhanced cortical specialization to distinguish older and newer memories in highly superior autobiographical memory. Cortex, 129, 476-483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.029 

• Santangelo, V., Macrì, S., & Campolongo, P. (2022). Superior memory as a new perspective to tackle memory loss. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 141:104828. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104828

While attention and memory are two processes that are highly investigated in adulthood, much remains to be understood about how these processes evolve and with what trajectories from birth to later stages of development.

Most relevant publications:

• Cavallina, C., Puccio, G., Capurso, M., Bremner, A. J., & Santangelo, V. (2018). Cognitive development attenuates audiovisual distraction and promotes the selection of task-relevant perceptual saliency during visual search on complex scenes. Cognition, 180, 91-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.07.003

• Pedale, T., Mastroberardino, S., Capurso, M., Bremner, A. J., Spence, C., & Santangelo, V.  (2021). Crossmodal spatial distraction across the lifespan. Cognition, 210:104617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104617  

• Pedale, T., Mastroberardino, S., Capurso, M., Macrì, S., & Santangelo, V. (2022). Developmental differences in the impact of perceptual salience on short-term memory performance and meta-memory skills. Scientific Reports, 12:8185. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11624-8

• Pedale, T., Mastroberardino, S., Del Gatto, C., Capurso, M., Bellagamba, F., Addessi, E., Macrì, S., & Santangelo, V. (2023). Searching for a relationship between early breastfeeding and cognitive development of attention and working memory capacity. Brain Sciences, 13, 53. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13010053 

Most of the research on human cognition is based on a reductionist approach that favors the use of simplified and artificial stimuli, emphasizing the need for experimental control over possible confounding variables. However, the human brain has evolved to make sense of a complex world and guide behavior based on multidimensional information. Consequently, there is a growing consensus on the need to use more ecological and naturalistic stimuli to better capture the complexity of how such processes work in real life.

Most relevant publications:

• Nardo, D., Santangelo, V., & Macaluso, E. (2011). Stimulus-driven orienting of visuo-spatial attention in complex dynamic environments. Neuron, 69, 1015-1028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.02.020 

• Santangelo, V., & Macaluso, E. (2013). Visual salience improves spatial working memory via enhanced parieto-temporal functional connectivity. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 4110-4117. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4138-12.2013

• Santangelo, V. (2015). Forced to remember: When memory is biased by salient information. Behavioural Brain Research, 283, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2015.01.013

• Santangelo, V., Di Francesco, S. A., Mastroberardino, S., & Macaluso, E. (2015). Parietal cortex integrates contextual and saliency signals during the encoding of natural scenes in working memory. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 5003-5017. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22984

• Santangelo, V., & Bordier, C. (2019). Large-scale brain networks underlying successful and unsuccessful encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of everyday scenes in visuospatial working memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 233.

• Almadori, E., Mastroberardino, S., Botta, F., Brunetti, R., Lupianez, J., Spence, C., & Santangelo, V. (2021). Crossmodal semantic congruence interacts with object contextual consistency in complex visual scenes to enhance short-term memory performance. Brain Sciences, 11, 1206. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091206 

Despite intense research in the last decades, it is still a challenge to fully understand the specific mechanisms underlying the deployment of spatial attention and integration of stimuli originating from different sensory modalities.

Most relevant publications:

• Santangelo, V., Olivetti Belardinelli, M., & Spence, C. (2007). The suppression of reflexive visual and auditory orienting when attention is otherwise engaged. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33, 137-148. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.33.1.137

• Santangelo, V., & Spence, C. (2007). Multisensory cues capture spatial attention regardless of perceptual load. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33, 1311-1321. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.33.6.1311

• Santangelo, V., Van der Lubbe, R. H. J., Olivetti Belardinelli, M., & Postma, A. (2008). Multisensory integration affects ERP components elicited by exogenous cues. Experimental Brain Research, 185, 269-277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-007-1151-5

• Santangelo, V., Olivetti Belardinelli, M., Spence, C. & Macaluso, E. (2009). Interactions between voluntary and stimulus-driven spatial attention mechanisms across sensory modalities. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 2384-2397. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.21178

• Santangelo, V., Fagioli, S. & Macaluso, E. (2010). The costs of monitoring simultaneously two sensory modalities decrease when dividing attention in space. NeuroImage, 49, 2717-2727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.061

• Mastroberardino, S., Santangelo, V., & Macaluso, E. (2015). Crossmodal semantic congruence can affect visuo-spatial processing and activity of the fronto-parietal attention networks. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 9, 45. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2015.00045 

• Brunetti, R., Indraccolo, A., Del Gatto, C., Spence, C., & Santangelo, V. (2018). Are crossmodal correspondences relative or absolute? Sequential effects on speeded classification. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 80, 527-534. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1445-z