Luiz Pessoa

B.Sc., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1989
M.Sc., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1990 Ph.D., Boston University, 1996

Research Interests

I employ behavioral and fMRI methods to study cognition and emotion, with an emphasis on the interactions between cognitive and emotional brain systems. Current research questions include probing the role of visual attention, awareness, and perceptual decision making during emotional perception (i.e., the perception of emotion-laden visual stimuli, such as a fearful face). An additional focus of my research centers on the development of novel statistical and computational tools for the analysis of fMRI data, including the use of machine learning techniques to perform “mind reading”.

(See also: Pessoa Lab Website - Laboratory of Cognition and Emotion) www.indiana.edu/~lceiub/

Representative Publications

Pereira, M.G., Volchan, E., de Souza, G.G., Oliveira, L., Campagnoli, R., Pinheiro, W.W., & Pessoa, L. (In Press). Sustained and transient modulation of performance induced by emotional picture viewing. Emotion.

Pessoa, L. & Padmala, S. (In Press/online). Decoding near-threshold perception of fear from distributed single-trial brain activation . Cerebral Cortex.

Pessoa, L., Japee, S., Sturman, D., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2006). Target visibility and visual awareness modulate amygdala responses to fearful faces. Cerebral Cortex, 16: 366-375.

Erthal, F.S., Oliveira, L., Mocaiber, I., Pereira, M.G., Machado-Pinheiro, W., Volchan, E., & Pessoa, L. (2005). Load-dependent modulation of affective picture processing. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 5: 388–395.

Pessoa, L., Padmala, S., & Morland, T. (2005). Fate of unattended fearful faces in the amygdala is determined by both attentional resources and cognitive modulation. NeuroImage, 28: 249-255.

Pessoa, L. & Padmala, S. (2005). Quantitative prediction of perceptual decisions during near-threshold fear detection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 102: 5612-5617.

Pessoa, L., Japee, S., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2005). Visual awareness and the detection of fearful faces. Emotion, 5: 243-247.

Ishai, A., Pessoa, L., Bikle, C., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2004). Repetition suppression of faces is modulated by emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 101: 9827-9832.

Pessoa, L., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2004). Neural correlates of change detection and change blindness in visual working memory. Cerebral Cortex, 14: 511-520.

Pessoa, L. & Ungerleider, L.G.(2004). Top-down mechanisms for working memory and attentional processes. In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The new cognitive neurosciences, 3rd Edition: pp. 919-930, MIT Press.

Pessoa, L. & De Weerd, P.(2003). (Eds.) Filling-in: From perceptual completion to cortical reorganization. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mourão-Miranda, J., Volchan, E., Moll, J., de Oliveira-Souza, R., Oliveira, L., Bramati, I., Gattass, R., & Pessoa, L.. (2003). Contributions of stimulus valence and arousal to visual system activation during emotional perception fMRI. NeuroImage, 20: 1955-1963.

De Weerd, P., & Pessoa, L. (2003). Filling-in: More than meets the eye. In Pessoa, L. & De Weerd, P. (Eds.), Filling-in: From perceptual completion to cortical reorganization. New York: Oxford University Press.

Fiorani, M., Oliveira, L., Volchan, E., Pessoa, L., Gattass, R., & Rocha-Miranda, C.E. (2003). Completion through a permanent scotoma: Fast interpolation across the blind spot and the processing of occlusion. In Pessoa, L. & De Weerd, P. (Eds.), Filling-in: From perceptual completion to cortical reorganization. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pessoa, L., Gutierrez, E., Bandettini, P.B., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2002). Neural correlates of visual working memory: fMRI amplitude predicts task performance. Neuron, 35: 975-987.

Pessoa, L., McKenna, M., Gutierrez, E., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2002). Neural processing of emotional faces requires attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 99: 11458-11463.

Moll, J., Oliveira-Souza, R., Eslinger, P., Bramati I., Mourao-Miranda, J., Andreiuolo P., & Pessoa, L. (2002). The neural correlates of moral sensitivity: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of basic and moral emotions. Journal of Neuroscience, 22: 2730-2736.

Oliveira, L., Volchan, E., Pessoa, L., Marques, R.F., Pantoja, J.H.; Joffily, M., Souza-Neto, D., & Rocha-Miranda, C.E. (2002). Contour integration in the primary visual cortex of the opossum. NeuroReport, 13: 2001-2004.

Rodman, H., Pessoa, L., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2002). Visual perception of objects. In Squire, L.R., Bloom, F.E., McConnel, S.K., Roberts, J.L., Spitzer, N.C., Zigmond, M.J. (Eds.), Fundamental neuroscience (2nd Edition). Academic Press.