Matteo Toscani

Dr Matteo Toscani

  • Senior Lecturer in Psychology
  • Poole House P331, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
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Biography

Since 2021 I'm a Lecturer at Bournemouth University. I did my undergraduate work in Florence (Italy), followed by an MSc thesis on the electroencephalographic correlates of visual sensitivity and memory for facial emotions.

After my graduation I moved to Giessen (Germany) to work on perception of color, material properties, and peripheral vision with Karl Gegenfurtner and Matteo Valsecchi. There I also had the chance to collaborate with with Roland Fleming, Katja Dörschner and Knut Drewing, investigating visual and haptic perception of material properties, and haptic exploration.

Outside Giessen, I worked with Pascal Mamassian on metacognition in peripheral vision, and on appearance of complex materials with Claudio and Dar’ya Guarnera.

By working with Arash Akbarinia I was introduced to the vast potential of DNNs.

My approach combines eye movement recordings with computer graphics and machine learning. I'm currently pursuing my interests in colour vision and peripheral vision, including peripheral perception of facial expressions...

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Research

I work on Visual and Haptic perception

Perception is an active process: I'm interested in how things appear, depending on their physical properties and they way we sample them with our senses.

I'm interested in colour perception and perception of material properties, eye movements and peripheral vision, haptic perception and haptic exploration, face perception (just starting).

Journal Articles

  • Metzger, A., Ennis, R.J., Doerschner, K. and Toscani, M., 2024. Perceptual task drives later fixations and long latency saccades, while early fixations and short latency saccades are more automatic. Perception, 53 (8), 501-511.
  • Rodríguez, R.G., Hedjar, L., Toscani, M., Guarnera, D., Guarnera, G.C. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2024. Color constancy mechanisms in virtual reality environments. Journal of Vision, 24 (5), 1-28.
  • Toscani, M., Wolf, P., Gegenfurtner, K.R. and Braun, D.I., 2023. Context effects on the perception of saturation of fruit colors in still-life paintings. Journal of vision, 23 (13), 8.
  • Zoghlami, F. and Toscani, M., 2023. Foveal to peripheral extrapolation of facial emotion. Perception, 52 (7), 514-523.
  • Hedjar, L., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2023. Perception of saturation in natural objects. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision, 40 (3), A190-A198.
  • Metzger, A., Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Drewing, K., 2022. Effects of Stimulus Exploration Length and Time on the Integration of Information in Haptic Softness Discrimination. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 12 (4), 451-460.
  • Metzger, A. and Toscani, M., 2022. Unsupervised learning of haptic material properties. eLife, 11.
  • Metzger, A., Toscani, M., Akbarinia, A., Valsecchi, M. and Drewing, K., 2021. Deep neural network model of haptic saliency. Scientific Reports, 11 (1).
  • Gil Rodriguez, R., Bayer, F., Toscani, M., Guarnera, D., Guarnera, G.C. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2021. Colour Calibration of a Head Mounted Display for Colour Vision Research Using Virtual Reality. SN Computer Science.
  • Toscani, M., Mamassian, P. and Valsecchi, M., 2021. Underconfidence in Peripheral Vision. Journal of Vision, 21 (6), 1-14.
  • Metzger, A., Toscani, M., Akbarinia, A., Valsecchi, M. and Drewing, K., 2021. Deep neural network model of haptic saliency. Scientific Reports, 11.
  • Isherwood, Z.J., Huynh-Thu, Q., Arnison, M., Monaghan, D., Toscani, M., Perry, S., Honson, V. and Kim, J., 2021. Surface properties and the perception of color. Journal of Vision, 21 (2), 1-22.
  • Metzger, A., Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Drewing, K., 2021. Target Search and Inspection Strategies in Haptic Search. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 14 (4), 804-815.
  • Guarnera, D., Guarnera, G.C., Toscani, M., Glencross, M., Li, B., Hardeberg, J.Y. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2020. Perceptually Validated Cross-Renderer Analytical BRDF Parameter Remapping. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 26 (6), 2258-2272.
  • Toscani, M., Guarnera, D., Guarnera, G.C., Hardeberg, J.Y. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2020. Three Perceptual Dimensions for Specular and Diffuse Reflection. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, 17 (2).
  • Toscani, M., Milojevic, Z., Fleming, R.W. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2020. Color consistency in the appearance of bleached fabrics. Journal of Vision, 20 (4).
  • Witzel, C. and Toscani, M., 2020. How to make a #theDress. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision, 37 (4), A202-A211.
  • Toscani, M., Yücel, E.I. and Doerschner, K., 2019. Gloss and Speed Judgments Yield Different Fine Tuning of Saccadic Sampling in Dynamic Scenes. i-Perception, 10 (6).
  • Toscani, M. and Valsecchi, M., 2019. Lightness Discrimination Depends More on Bright Rather Than Shaded Regions of Three-Dimensional Objects. i-Perception, 10 (6).
  • Milojevic, Z., Ennis, R., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2018. Categorizing natural color distributions. Vision Research, 151, 18-30.
  • Ennis, R., Schiller, F., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2018. Hyperspectral database of fruits and vegetables. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision, 35 (4), B256-B266.
  • Ennis, R., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2017. Seeing lightness in the dark. Current Biology, 27 (12), R586-R588.
  • Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2017. Lightness perception for matte and glossy complex shapes. Vision Research, 131, 82-95.
  • Toscani, M., Gegenfurtner, K.R. and Valsecchi, M., 2017. Foveal to peripheral extrapolation of brightness within objects. Journal of Vision, 17 (9).
  • Toscani, M., Gegenfurtner, K.R. and Doerschner, K., 2017. Differences in illumination estimation in #thedress. Journal of Vision, 17 (1), 1-14.
  • Toscani, M., Zdravković, S. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2016. Lightness perception for surfaces moving through different illumination levels. Journal of Vision, 16 (15).
  • Wiebel, C.B., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2015. Statistical correlates of perceived gloss in natural images. Vision Research, 115, 175-187.
  • Gegenfurtner, K.R., Bloj, M. and Toscani, M., 2015. The many colours of 'the dress'. Current Biology, 25 (13), R543-R544.
  • Valsecchi, M., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2013. Perceived numerosity is reduced in peripheral vision. Journal of Vision, 13 (13).
  • Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2013. Selection of visual information for lightness judgements by eye movements. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 368 (1628).
  • Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2013. Optimal sampling of visual information for lightness judgments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110 (27), 11163-11168.
  • Granzier, J.J.M., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2012. Role of eye movements in chromatic induction. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision, 29 (2).
  • Righi, S., Marzi, T., Toscani, M., Baldassi, S., Ottonello, S. and Viggiano, M.P., 2012. Fearful expressions enhance recognition memory: Electrophysiological evidence. Acta Psychologica, 139 (1), 7-18.
  • Toscani, M., Marzi, T., Righi, S., Viggiano, M.P. and Baldassi, S., 2010. Alpha waves: A neural signature of visual suppression. Experimental Brain Research, 207 (3-4), 213-219.

Conferences

  • Toscani, M. and Metzger, A., 2022. A Database of Vibratory Signals from Free Haptic Exploration of Natural Material Textures and Perceptual Judgments (ViPer): Analysis of Spectral Statistics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 13235 LNCS, 319-327.
  • Rodriguez, R.G., Hedjar, L., Toscani, M., Guarnera, D., Guarnera, G.C. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2022. Context-dependent computations for color constancy. PERCEPTION, 51, 110.
  • Braun, D., Toscani, M., Latka, M., Bom, A.A.D.L.A.M. and Doerschner, K., 2022. Looking for balance: The sampling of visual information when judging the composition of abstract art. PERCEPTION, 51, 137-138.
  • Guan, S.-C., Toscani, M. and Gegenfurtner, K., 2022. How bright is your light? PERCEPTION, 51, 165.
  • Toscani, M., Gil, R., Guarnera, D., Guarnera, G., Kalouaz, A. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2019. Assessment of OLED head mounted display for vision research with virtual reality. Proceedings - 15th International Conference on Signal Image Technology and Internet Based Systems, SISITS 2019, 738-745.
  • Metzger, A., Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Drewing, K., 2019. Dynamics of exploration in haptic search. 2019 IEEE World Haptics Conference, WHC 2019, 277-282.
  • Metzger, A., Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Drewing, K., 2018. Haptic saliency model for rigid textured surfaces. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 10893 LNCS, 389-400.
  • Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Gegenfurtner, K.R., 2015. Effect of fixation positions on perception of lightness. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 9394.

Invited Lectures

  • Color vision and tuning in the nervous system, University of Washington, 26 Apr 2022 more

Grants

  • Modelling peripheral vision in natural scenes. (British Academy, 01 May 2024). In Progress
  • From Spectra to Colour: a big-data computational approach (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, 01 Feb 2023). In Progress

Journal Reviewing/Refereeing

  • Behavioral Sciences, 01 Jan 2021
  • Behavior Research Methods, 01 Jan 2021
  • Color Research and Application, 01 Jan 2021
  • Nature Communications, 01 Jan 2021
  • Frontiers in Neuroscience, 01 Jan 2021
  • vision, 01 Jan 2020
  • Brain Sciences, 01 Jan 2020
  • Perception, 01 Jan 2020
  • Optical review, 01 Jan 2020
  • Journal of the Society for Information Display, 01 Jan 2019
  • Vision Research, 01 Jan 2019
  • IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 01 Jan 2019
  • Frontiers in Psychology, 01 Jan 2019
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 01 Jan 2018
  • Optik, 01 Jan 2018
  • i-Perception, 01 Jan 2017
  • Psihologija, 01 Jan 2016
  • PLoS One, 01 Jan 2016
  • Journal of Vision, 01 Jan 2015
  • Art and Perception, 01 Jan 2015