Dr Antonio Cataldo
Lecturer
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
Research
Somatosensory Perception, Haptics, Sensorimotor Integration, Touch
Interests
My research aims to understand how the bodily senses shape our perception of the world, while simultaneously creating a representation of our body as a unique object in the world. I currently have two active research lines in the field of human somatosensory perception and action.
Interactions within and between somatosensory submodalities. My goal is to understand how multiple stimuli across tactile, thermal, and pain modalities are integrated into coherent percepts. To this aim, I use a variety of psychophysical techniques and innovative experimental paradigms based on mechanical, vibrotactile, electrotactile, thermal, nociceptive, and even chemical and ultrasound stimulation methods.
Sensorimotor foundations of spatial perception. I have developed a robotic setup to study the complex interplay between motor and somatosensory signals taking place during self-touch. I am currently investigating how the brain acquires an internal model of space through self-touch, both in healthy and clinical populations.
Publications
Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Brain and Behaviour
2025
Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Sensory Perception and Emotional Evaluation of Mid-Air Touch on the ForearmVasudevan MK Pittera D Cataldo A Obrist M
IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) vol. 16 (4), 3139-3153.
01-07-2025Investigating the Effect of Mechanical Adaptation on Mid-Air Ultrasound Vibrotactile StimuliCataldo A Huang T Frier W Haggard P
IEEE Transactions on Haptics,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) vol. 18 (4), 992-1002.
01-01-2025 2024
Active self-touch restores bodily proprioceptive spatial awareness following disruption by ‘rubber hand illusion'Cataldo A Crivelli D Bottini G Gomi H Haggard P
Proceedings of The Royal Society B,
The Royal Society vol. 291 (2015)
17-01-2024 2023
Quantifying spatial acuity of frequency resolved midair ultrasound vibrotactile stimuliCataldo A Frier W Haggard P
Scientific Reports,
Springer Nature vol. 13 (1)
30-11-2023 Touching with the eyes: Oculomotor self-touch induces illusory body ownershipCataldo A Di Luca M Deroy O Hayward V
Iscience,
Elsevier vol. 26 (5)
26-04-2023 TOUCHLESS: Demonstrations of Contactless Haptics for Affective Touch.Chew S Dalsgaard T-S Maunsbach M Seifi H Bergström J Hornbæk K Irisarri J Ezcurdia I et al.
Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 1-5.
19-04-2023 Touching with the eyes: Oculomotor self-touch induces illusory body ownershipCataldo A Di Luca M Deroy O Hayward V
Iscience,
Elsevier vol. 26 (3)
10-02-2023 2022
Interhemispheric communication during haptic self-perceptionKong G Cataldo A Nitu M Dupin L Gomi H Haggard P
Proceedings of The Royal Society B,
The Royal Society vol. 289 (1988)
07-12-2022 Interplay of tactile and motor information in constructing spatial self-perceptionCataldo A Dupin L Dempsey-Jones H Gomi H Haggard P
Current Biology,
Elsevier vol. 32 (6), 1301-1309.e3.
14-02-2022 2021
Touch inhibits touch: sanshool-induced paradoxical tingling reveals perceptual interaction between somatosensory submodalitiesCataldo A Hagura N Hyder Y Haggard P
Proceedings of The Royal Society B,
The Royal Society vol. 288 (1943)
27-01-2021 2020
Sensorimotor signals underlying space perception: An investigation based on self-touchCataldo A Dupin L Gomi H Haggard P
Neuropsychologia,
Elsevier vol. 151
17-12-2020 The Detached Self: Investigating the Effect of Depersonalisation on Self-Bias in the Visual Remapping of TouchFarmer H Cataldo A Adel N Wignall E Gallese V Deroy O Hamilton A Ciaunica A
Multisensory Research,
De Gruyter vol. 34 (4), 365-386.
14-10-2020 2019
Why the whole is more than the sum of its parts: Salience-driven overestimation in aggregated tactile sensationsCataldo A Ferrè ER di Pellegrino G Haggard P
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,
Sage Publications vol. 72 (10), 2509-2526.
10-05-2019 Thermonociceptive interaction: interchannel pain modulation occurs before intrachannel convergence of warmthCataldo A Ferrè ER Haggard P
Journal of Neurophysiology,
American Physiological Society vol. 121 (5), 1798-1808.
13-03-2019 2016
Thermal referral: evidence for a thermoceptive uniformity illusion without touchCataldo A Ferrè ER di Pellegrino G Haggard P
Scientific Reports,
Springer Nature vol. 6 (1)
24-10-2016 Salience-driven overestimation of total somatosensory stimulationWalsh L Critchlow J Beck B Cataldo A de Boer L Haggard P
Cognition,
Elsevier vol. 154, 118-129.
04-06-2016 Active self-touch restores bodily self-awareness following disruption by “rubber hand illusion”Crivelli D Cataldo A Bottini G Gomi H Haggard P
In
Biorxiv The Limits of Touch: Spatial acuity for frequency-resolved air-borne ultrasound vibrotactile stimuliCataldo A Frier W Haggard P
In
Biorxiv Constructing spatial perception through self-touchCataldo A Dupin L Dempsey-Jones H Gomi H Haggard P
In
Biorxiv Touch inhibits touch: sanshool-induced paradoxical tingling reveals perceptual interference between somatosensory submodalitiesCataldo A Hagura N Hyder Y Haggard P
In
Biorxiv Sensorimotor signals underlying space perception: an investigation based on self-touchCataldo A Dupin L Gomi H Haggard P
In
Psyarxiv The Detached Self: Investigating the Effect of Depersonalisation on Self-Bias in the Visual Remapping of TouchFarmer H Cataldo A Adel N Wignall E Gallese V Deroy O Hamilton A Ciaunica A
In
Psyarxiv The man who lost his sense of touchCataldo A
Investigating the effect of mechanical adaptation on mid-air ultrasound vibrotactile stimuliCataldo A Huang T Frier W Haggard P
In
Biorxiv
Research Group
