Undergraduate Courses

• PSYC 2000/50 Issues in Contemporary Psychology: Neuroesthetics
• BUSN 2750/51 Introduction to Statistics
• ANSO 2720/51 Introduction to Measurement and Statistics
• PSYC 2750/51 Introduction to Measurement and Statistics
• PSYC 3850/50 Sensation and Perception
• PSYC 3000/0 Topics in Psychology

Luca Ticini received a Laura magistrale (MSc) in Biological Sciences from the University of Trieste (Italy), a Dr.rer.nat. (PhD) from the International Max Planck Research School, University of Tübingen (Germany), and an executive MBA from the MIB School of Management in Trieste (Italy).

He was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Hertie Institute for Clinical and Brain Research, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. Subsequently, he was a research associate at the École normale supérieure and Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris and at the University College of London, with Prof. Semir Zeki. He then moved to The University of Manchester for his initial appointment as Assistant Professor. Ticini was appointed Full Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Webster Vienna in September 2021.

Personal website.

Research Interests

Ticini's research addresses scientific questions using a widely multidisciplinary approach, for instance by merging art and human brain sciences he contributed to develop the field of Neuroaesthetics and co-organized several international initiatives in this research field.

His background includes cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, neurophysiology and palaeontology. Earlier in his career, he investigated neuropsychological deficits in brain damaged patients (e.g., hemispatial neglect, “pusher syndrome”). Currently, he studies action learning, social interaction and the concept of the self at a sensorimotor level. He also has a keen interest in the synergistic cooperation between sensorimotor structures and reward centres. Specifically, its role in shaping behavior (why we do what we do), in supporting social interaction (representing others’ actions) and in guiding desire (why we like an object more than another; subjective preference of art, Neuroaesthetics).

Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Finisguerra A*, Ticini LF*, Kirsch L, Cross ES, Kotz SA, Urgesi C (2021) Dissociating embodied aesthetics and emotional reactivity in motor responses to artworks. *Shared first-authorship. Cognition 212:104663
• Ticini LF, Dolk T, Waszak F, Schuetz-Bosbach S (2018) IPL-M1 interaction shapes pre-reflective social differentiation in the human action system: new insights from TBS and TMS combined. Scientific Reports 8:12001
• Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S, Waszak F (2018) From goals to muscles: motor familiarity shapes the representation of action-related sounds in the human motor system. Cognitive Neuroscience 16:1-10.
• Ticini LF, Urgesi C, Kotz SA (2017) Modulating mimetic preference with non-invasive brain stimulation. Frontiers in Psychology 8:2101.
• Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S, Waszak F (2017) Mirror and (absence of) counter-mirror responses to action sounds measured with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 12 (11):1748-57.
• Ticini LF (2017) The role of the orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices in aesthetic preference for art. Behavioral Sciences 7(2):31. Special Issue "Neuroscience of Art”.
• Mattiassi A, Mele S, Ticini LF, Urgesi C (2014) Conscious and unconscious representations of observed actions in the human motor system. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 26(9):2028-41.
• Ticini LF, Rachman L, Pelletier J, Dubal S (2014) Enhancing aesthetic appreciation by priming canvases with actions that match the artist’s painting style. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8:391. This work was among the top most viewed Neuroscience research articles in Frontiers in June 2014, it was featured on the Frontiers Homepage, in BBC and in the Italian newspaper L’Espresso.
• Novembre G, Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S, Keller PE (2014) Motor simulation and the coordination of self and other in real-time joint action. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 9(8):1062-8.
• Ticini LF and Omigie D (2013) Why do we like what we like? When information flow matters. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7:731.
  Ticini LF (2013) Does the motor cortex differentiate between linguistic symbols and scribbles? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7:715.
• Mengotti P, Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S, Waszak F, Rumiati R (2013) Imitating others’ actions: transcranial magnetic stimulation of the parietal opercula reveals the processes underlying automatic imitation. European Journal of Neuroscience 37 (2): 316-22.
• Grossmann T, Cross ES, Ticini LF, Daum MM (2013) Action observation in the infant brain: the role of body form and motion. Social Neuroscience 8 (1): 22-30.
• Ticini LF (2013) On the debated role of temporo-parietal dysfunction in patients with basal ganglia neglect. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 7:168.
• Novembre G, Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S, Keller PE (2012) Distinguishing self and other in joint action. Evidence from a musical paradigm. Cerebral Cortex 22(12): 2894-903. This article was featured in Corriere della Sera.
• Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S, Weiss C, Casile A, Waszak F (2012) When sounds become actions: higher-order representation of newly learnt action sounds in the human motor system. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 24 (2): 464-74.
• Vicario CM and Ticini LF (2012) Measuring your dependence: deranged corticobulbar excitability may uncover addiction disorders. Frontiers in Psychiatry 3:107.
• Cross ES and Ticini LF (2012) Neuroaesthetics and beyond: new horizons in applying the science of the brain to the art of dance. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 11 (1): 5-16. This article was featured in Corriere della Sera.
• Ticini LF*, Papageorgiou E*, Schiefer U (2012) Peripheral homonymous hemianopia: correlation between lesion location and visual field defects by means of cytoarchitectonic probabilistic maps. Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology 32 (1): 5-12. *Shared first-authorship.
• Cross ES, Kirsch L, Ticini LF, Schuetz-Bosbach S (2011) The impact of aesthetic evaluation and physical ability on dance perception. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 5:102. This article was featured in Corriere della Sera.
  Caria A, Weber C, Brötz D, Ramos A, Ticini LF, Gharabaghi A, Braun C,
• Birbaumer N (2011) Chronic stroke recovery after combined BCI training and physiotherapy. A case report. Psychophysiology 48 (4): 578-82.
• Ticini LF, de Haan B, Klose U, Naegele T, Karnath HO (2010) The role of the temporo-parietal cortex in subcortical visual extinction. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22 (9):2141-50.
• Ticini LF, Klose U, Naegele T, Karnath HO (2009) Perfusion imaging in pusher syndrome to investigate the neural substrates involved in controlling upright body position. PLoS One 4 (5):e5737.
• Karnath HO, Rorden C, Ticini LF (2009) Damage to white matter fiber tracts in acute spatial neglect. Cerebral Cortex 19 (10):2331-7.
• Papageorgiou E, Ticini LF, Hardiess G, Schaeffel F, Wiethoelter H, Mallot H, Bahlo S, Wilhelm B, Vonthein R, Schiefer U, Karnath HO (2008) The pupillary light reflex pathway. Cytoarchitectonic probabilistic maps in hemianopic patients. Neurology 70 (12): 956-63.
• Staudt M, Ticini LF, Grodd W, Krägeloh-Mann I, Karnath HO (2008) Functional topography of early periventricular brain lesions in relation to cytoarchitectonic probabilistic maps. Brain and Language 106 (3):177-83.

Book Chapters

• Ticini LF (2019). Sine Tempore In: Giampaolo Talani. Anima Sola. Catalogue of the exhibition, Firenze, Italy.
• Ticini LF (2016). The physics of light and the perception of colour in Giacomo Balla’s oeuvre. In: Futur Balla. Life, light, Speed. Catalogue of the exhibition, Alba, Italy. SKIRA ed. ISBN: 88-5723386.
• Ticini LF, Urgesi C, Calvo-Merino B (2015). Embodied aesthetics: insight from cognitive neuroscience of the performing arts. In A. Scarinzi (Ed): Aesthetics and the embodied Mind: beyond art theory and the Cartesian mind-body dichotomy. Contributions to Phenomenology, Vol. 73, Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht (ISBN 978-94-017-9378-0)
• Casile A and Ticini LF (2014). The role of sensory and motor systems in art appreciation and implications for exhibit design. In N. Levent, A. Pascual-Leone (Eds): The multisensory museum: cross-disciplinary perspectives on touch, sound, smell, memory, and space. Ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (ISBN-10: 0759123543; ISBN-13: 978-0759123540)
• Ticini LF (2013) Neuroestetica: le basi neurobiologiche della bellezza e del well-being (The neurobiological bases of beauty and well-being). In E. Grossi, A. Ravagnan (Ed.): Cultura e Salute - La partecipazione culturale come strumento per un nuovo welfare (Culture and Health for a new welfare). Ed. Springer-Verlag Italia (ISBN: 978-8847027800)
• Ticini LF (2009). Neuroesthetics: a step towards understanding human creativity? In I. Licata (Ed.), Unexpected connections - the science-art crossing, (pp. 165-173), Giancarlo Politi Editore, Milan, Italy. (ISBN: 978-8878161504)
• Ticini LF (2006). Missoni and the seduction of the creative process. In: Caleidoscopio Missoni, (pp. 31-44) Catalogue of the exhibition, Gorizia, Italy. (ISBN: 88-88606084)
• Ticini LF (2005). Talani e le percezioni senza tempo. In: Giampaolo Talani – SINE TEMPORE. Catalogue of the exhibition, Fiesole, Firenze, Italy. 15-20. (ISBN: 88-8304858X)
• Battaglini P.P et al. (2001 and 2011). Neuroscienze per iniziare. Divulgative book sponsored by Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia distributed in occasion of the Brain Awareness Week
• Calligaris R. and Ticini L (1997). La paleontologia: la grotta Pocala, un caso di studio. In Calligaris, Mizzan, Montagnari Kokelj (Ed.), Uomini e orsi, frammenti di vita e ambiente nel Quaternario, (pp. 15-36) Catalogue of the exhibition, Trieste, Italy

Undergraduate Courses

• PSYC 1100 Introduction to Psychology
• PSYC 1500 Psychology of Adjustment
• PSYC 2825 Introduction to Research Methods
• PSYC 3000 Topics in Psychology: Motivation and Emotion
• PSYC 3000 Topics in Psychology: Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences
• PSYC 3000 Topics in Psychology: Non-verbal Behavior
• PSYC 3550 History, Philosophy, and Systems of Psychology
• PSYC 3600 Social Psychology
• PSYC 4400 Human Sexuality

Graduate Courses

• PSYC 5400 Research Design
• PSYC 5900 Applied Statistics and Research Methods

Marc Méhu studied Psychology at the University of Liège (Belgium) with specializations in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Ethology. After two ethnological field studies on non-human primate behavior in South India and West Africa (Republic of Guinea), he completed a PhD in Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Ecology at the University of Liverpool in 2007. Méhu's doctoral thesis investigated the function of smiling and laughter in social interactions.

In the final years of his PhD, he spent several months as a visiting researcher at the (former) Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Urban Ethology, hosted by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Vienna. He then moved to the University of Geneva for a postdoctoral position at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences. Méhu was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychology at Webster Vienna in October 2013 and was promoted to Associate Professor of Psychology in January 2019.

Research interests

Méhu's main interests lie in the study of affective phenomena and social behavior from an evolutionary perspective. In particular, he is interested in the role of emotion and nonverbal behavior in competitive and cooperative social interactions. In 2004, he became a certified coder of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and has used it extensively in his research.

As a member of the Social Signal Processing Network (SSPNet), he also has a great interest in the automatic analysis of communicative behavior and in Affective Computing. More recently, he has moved towards applying his research to the fields of negotiation, political communication, and clinical psychology.

Méhu is currently involved in several research projects in relation to nonverbal communication, emotion, and social interaction:

• Negotiation and Emotion (NEMO): An interdisciplinary project on individual differences in socio-emotional skills in relation to dyadic negotiation.
• Analysis of facial, vocal, and bodily cues in naturally occurring social interactions (political debates) with a focus on the expression of agreement, disagreement, and dominance.
• The role of cognitive appraisal bias in the generation and maintenance of emotional disorders.

Publications:
Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Korb, S., Mikus, N., Massaccesi, C., Grey, J., Xanthate, D.S., Kotz, S.A., & Mehu, M. (2022). EmoSex: Emotion prevails over sex in implicit judgments of faces and voices. to appear in Emotion.
• Aranguren, M., Madrisotti, F., Durmaz-Martins, E., Gerger, G., Wittmann, L., Mehu, M. (2021). Responses to the Islamic headscarf in everyday interactions depend on sex and locale: A field experiment in the metros of Brussels, Paris, and Vienna on helping and involvement behaviors. PLoS ONE 16(7): e0254927.
• Schlegel, K., Mehu, M., M. van Peer, J., Scherer, K. R. (2018). Sense and Sensibility: The role of cognitive and emotional intelligence in negotiation. Journal of Research in Personality, 74, 6-15.
• Allen, J.A., Fisher, C., Chetouani, M., Chiu, M.M., Gunes, H., Mehu, M., & Hung, H. (2017). Comparing social science and computer science workflow processes for studying group interactions. Small-Group Research, 48(5), 568-590.
• Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2015). Emotion categories and dimensions in the facial communication of affect: An integrated approach. Emotion, 15(6), 798-811.
• Stewart, P. A., Bucy, E. P., Mehu, M. (2015). Strengthening bonds and connecting with followers. Politics and the Life Sciences, 34(1), 1-20.
• Mehu, M. (2015). The integration of emotional and symbolic components in multimodal communication. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 961.
• Scherer, K. R., & Mehu, M. (2015). Normal and abnormal emotions - the quandary of diagnosing affective disorder: Introduction and overview. Emotion Review, 7(3), 201-203.
• Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2015). The Appraisal bias model of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Emotion Review 7(3), 272-279.
• Stewart, P. A., Mehu, M., & Salter, F. K. (2015). Sex and leadership: Interpreting competitive and affiliative facial displays based on workplace status. International Public Management Journal, 18(2), 190-208.
• Mehu, M., & van der Maaten, L. J. P. (2014). Multimodal integration of dynamic audio-visual cues in the communication of agreement and disagreement. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 38, 569-597.
• Bousmalis, K., Mehu, M., & Pantic, M. (2013). Towards the automatic detection of spontaneous agreement and disagreement based on nonverbal behavior: A survey of related cues, databases, and tools. Image and Vision Computing, 31(2), 203-221.
• Scherer, K. R., Mortillaro, M., & Mehu, M. (2013). Understanding the facial expression and perception of emotion: A Componential Perspective. Emotion Review, 5(1), 47-53.
• Mehu, M., D’Errico F., & Heylen, D. (2012). Conceptual analysis of social signals: the importance of clarifying terminology. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 6(3-4), 179-189.
• Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2012).  A psycho-ethological approach to Social Signal Processing. Cognitive Processing,13(2), 397-414.>
• Mehu, M., Mortillaro, M., Bänziger, T., & Scherer, K. R. (2012). Reliable facial muscle activation enhances the recognisability and credibility of emotional expression. Emotion, 12(4), 701-715.
• Valstar, M., Mehu, M., Jiang, B., Pantic, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of the first facial expression recognition and analysis challenge. Systems, Man, & Cybernetics-Part B: Cybernetics, 42(4), 966-979.
• Mehu, M. (2011).  Smiling and laughter in naturally occurring dyadic interactions: relationship to the conversation, body contacts, and displacement activities. Human Ethology Bulletin, 26(1), 10-28.
• Mortillaro, M., Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2011). Subtly different positive emotions can be distinguished by their facial expressions. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2(3), 262-271.
• Mehu, M., & N'Diaye, K. (2010). The proximate mechanisms and ultimate functions of smiles [Commentary]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(6), 454-455.
• Stewart, P. A., Salter, F. K., & Mehu, M. (2009). Taking leaders at face value: Ethology and the analysis of televised leader displays. Politics and the Life Sciences, 28(1), 48-74.
• Mehu, M., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2008). Naturalistic observations of smiling and laughter in human group interactions. Behaviour, 145(12), 1747-1780.
• Mehu, M., Little, A. C., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2008). Sex differences in the effect of smiling on social judgments: an evolutionary approach. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2(3), 103-121.
• Mehu, M., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2008). Relationship between smiling and laughter in humans (Homo sapiens): testing the Power Asymmetry Hypothesis. Folia Primatologica, 79(5), 269-280.
• Mehu, M., Little, A. C., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2007). Duchenne smiles and the perception of generosity and sociability in faces. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 5(1-4), 133-146.
• Mehu, M, Grammer, K., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2007). Smiles when sharing. Evolution & Human Behavior, 28, 415-422.
• Mehu, M., Huynen M-C., & Agoramoorthy G. (2006). Social relationships in a free-ranging group of bonnet macaques (M. radiata) in Tamil Nadu, India. Primate Report, 73, 49-55.

Book chapters

• Scherer, K. R., Mortillaro, M., & Mehu, M. (2017). Facial expression is driven by appraisal and generates appraisal inference. In J.-M. Fernández-Dols; & J. A. Russell (Eds.), The science of facial expression, (pp. 353-373). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Mehu, M. (2017). Sex differences in emotional communication. In T. K. Shackelford; & V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1462-1.
• Mortillaro, M., & Mehu, M. (2015). Emotions: Methods of assessment. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed), (pp. 519-525). London: Elsevier Ltd.
• Mehu, M. (2014). An evolutionary perspective on facial behavior. In C. Müller; A. Cienki; E. Fricke; S. H. Ladewig; D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication: Multimodal perspectives on language in communication, vol. 2, (pp. 1962-1968). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110302028
• Mortillaro, M., Mehu, M., and Scherer, K. R. (2013). The evolutionary origin of multimodal synchronization and emotional expression. In E. Altenmüller; S. Schmidt; & E. Zimmermann (Eds.), Evolution of Emotional Communication: From Sounds in Nonhuman Mammals to Speech and Music in Man, (pp.3-25). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Pantic, M., Cowie, R., D'Errico, F., Heylen, D., Mehu, M., Pelachaud, C., Poggi, I., Schröder, M., and Vinciarelli, A. (2011). Social signal processing: The research agenda. In T.B. Moeslund; A. Hilton; V. Krüger; L. Sigal (Eds.), Visual analysis of humans: Looking at people (pp. 511-538). London: Springer.
• Stewart, P. A., Salter, F. K., & Mehu, M. (2011). The face as a focus of political communication: Evolutionary perspectives and the ethological methods. In E. P. Bucy; R. L. Holbert (Eds.), Sourcebook for political communication research (pp. 165-193). New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415964951
• Mehu, M. (2009). The social context of smiling. In E. Bänninger-Huber & D. Peham (Eds.), Current and Future Perspectives in Facial Expression Research: Topics and Methodological Questions, (pp. 47-53). Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press. ISBN 9783902719225

Conference proceedings (peer-reviewed)

• Ringeval, F., Marchi, E., Mehu, M., Scherer, K. R., Schuller, B. (2015). Face reading from speech – Predicting facial Action Units from audio cues, Proc. INTERSPEECH 2015, 16th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), Dresden, Germany. sewaproject.eu/files/6ba55a1a-61be-4887-8163-3995843f8454.pdf
• Valstar, M. F., Girard, J., Almaev, T., McKeown, G., Mehu, M., Yin, L., Pantic, M. and Cohn, J. (2015). FERA 2015 - Second facial expression recognition challenge, Proc. IEEE Int’l Conf. Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Ljubljana, Slovenia. sewaproject.eu/files/c6443331-933f-4ae7-cb53-f15659374dda.pdf
• Valstar, M. F., Jiang, B., Mehu, M., Pantic, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2011). The first facial expression recognition and analysis challenge. Proc. IEEE Int’l Conf. Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Santa Barbara, USA.
• Bousmalis, K., Mehu, M., & Pantic, M. (2009). Spotting agreement and disagreement: A survey of audiovisual cues and tools. Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. Affective Computing and Intelligent Interfaces, Amsterdam, NL.

Miscellaneous

• Mehu, M. and Mehu-Blantar, I. (2015). Emotionen von Vorgesetzten lesen sich leichter: Wie Geschlecht und berufliche Position die emotionale Wahrnehmung am Arbeitsplatz beeinflussen. Personal Manager, 5, 40-42.
• Dunbar, R. I. M. and Mehu, M. (2003). Patterns of grooming and self-touching in naturalistic situations. Commissioned Report for Unilever Research Laboratories, Port Sunlight; 73pp.

Karim Elatraby first joined Webster Vienna in 2017 as an undergraduate majoring in Business Administration, with a minor in German Language. In 2019, he was granted a scholarship to pursue his post-graduate studies at Webster Vienna Private University in Finance. He graduated with the highest academic honors in May 2021 and was the valedictorian for 2020 and 2021. His master’s thesis studied the influence of COVID-19 on global financial and energy markets, which led to him being awarded the prestigious Schön Nobel award for Excellence in Research 2021.

Elatraby has over two years of experience in academic research. Through his affiliation with Webster Vienna Private University, he also gained valuable experience throughout his time working as a Trading Associate at the WU Trading and Investment Society. His work focused on the implementation, backtesting and optimization of algorithmic trading strategies.

Education

• Msc – Finance (Webster Vienna Private University)
• BSc – Business Administration (Webster Vienna Private University)
• BSc – Computer Science (German University in Cairo)

Full course list forthcoming.

Full biographical information forthcoming.

Didem.Savoly@webster.ac.at 

Full course list forthcoming.

Full biographical information forthcoming.

Beatrix.Peichl@webster.ac.at