I study how the brain computes and represents visuo-spatial information — how we perceive size and distance, why optical illusions fool us, and how perception and action can come apart.
Using a multimodal approach that integrates psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), pupillometry and behavioural analyses, the SAP (Sperandio Active Perception) Group investigates the neural mechanisms that allow the brain to build a stable representation of the visual world and to use that information to guide behaviour.
A central goal is to understand how the visual system integrates multiple sensory cues to support object perception, the control of action, and visual awareness. In particular, the group studies the mechanisms of perceptual constancy, visual illusions, visuomotor control, and the processes underlying conscious and unconscious perception — combining behavioural experiments, neuroimaging and electrophysiology to reveal how perception, action and consciousness emerge from the dynamic interplay between brain networks.
This work sheds light both on the fundamental mechanisms of human cognition and on the perceptual and cognitive alterations observed in clinical populations and in patients with brain lesions. Before joining the University of Trento, group leader Irene Sperandio spent eight years in the UK as a tenured Lecturer at the University of East Anglia, and completed her postdoctoral training in Canada in Melvyn Goodale's laboratory at Western University.
Six interlocking research lines on how the brain builds our visual experience of the world — and how that experience guides what we do.
Behavioural and neural correlates of how the brain scales perceived size with distance, from primary visual cortex upward.
Why illusions such as Ponzo, Ebbinghaus and Emmert's law deceive us — and what they reveal about perceptual mechanisms.
The dissociation between vision-for-perception and vision-for-action, including studies with neurological patients.
The mechanisms responsible for the formation and perceived size of afterimages, including the Taylor illusion.
How visual processing varies across people, including autistic traits and psychotic-like experiences.
Which information can be processed without visual awareness and which requires conscious access — using visual suppression, EEG and physiological measures such as pupillometry.
The people who make up the SAP (Sperandio Active Perception) Group.
Two decades of research and teaching across Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Dept. of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento
Dept. of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento
Department of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK)
Western University, London, Ontario (Canada) — Melvyn A. Goodale lab
Neurological and Vision Sciences, University of Verona
University of East Anglia (UK)
University of Verona — Physiology Section. Thesis on reaction-time approaches to visual illusions and size constancy
University of Padova (Italy)
Psychobiology, University of Padova
I combine methods to triangulate the same question — from behaviour, to brain, to the clinic.
EEG & event-related potentials
Functional MRI (fMRI)
Behaviour, reaction times, pupillometry
Studies with neurological patients
2025 · Euregio Mobility Fund (EGTC, Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino) — €6,000 · Co-investigator (PI: Dr Ronen Hershman)
2023 · PRIN, Italian Ministry of Education and Research — €200,000 · Principal Investigator (Co-I: Dr Chiara Mazzi)
2023 · La Trobe SPPH internal grant scheme — AUD 20,000 · Co-investigator (PI: Dr Katy Unwin)
2020 · BIAL Foundation — €46,000 · Principal Investigator (Co-I: Dr Louis Renoult)
2018 · La Trobe RFA — Understanding disease — AUD 45,000 · Co-investigator (PI: Dr Philippe Chouinard)
2016 · BIAL Foundation — €45,000 · Co-investigator (PI: Dr Philippe Chouinard)
2016 · British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grants — £10,000 · Co-applicant (PI: Dr Martin Doherty)
2015 · La Trobe RFA — Understanding disease (Leadership grant) — AUD 77,000 · Co-investigator (PI: Dr Philippe Chouinard)
2014 · La Trobe RFA — Understanding disease — AUD 30,000 · Co-applicant (PI: Dr Philippe Chouinard)
Ongoing collaborations across labs and institutions worldwide.
Neural mechanisms of perceptual constancy, multisensory integration, and the interactions between perception and action.
Size perception, visual illusions, autism, and the mechanisms of conscious perception.
Neural mechanisms of visual perception, perceptual constancy, and perception–action interactions.
Cognitive and neural mechanisms of visual awareness, attention, and pupillary responses to visual stimuli.
Spatial cognition and research projects in experimental and clinical neuropsychology.
PRIN 2022 project on the role of multisensory integration and proprioceptive cues in perception and the control of action.
Neural mechanisms of social perception, conscious and unconscious visual processing, and physiological responses to social and emotional stimuli.
Joint research on visual perception, psychophysics, and the neural substrates of body–object interactions.