Currently, I am Senior Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Science (with tenure track) at the University of Messina, Department of Ancient and Modern Civilizations (DICAM) and I am the Director of the Experimental Philosophy Lab. I received a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Language and of Mind from the University of Palermo. I have done postdoctoral research at the University of Parma (Dept. of Neuroscience and Dept. of Humanities), Johns Hopinks University (Dept. of Cognitive Science), the University of Amsterdam, Humboldt University (Berlin School of Mind and Brain), as well as at the University of Palermo (Dept. of Humanities). I have been teaching Philosophy of Language, Language and Cognition and Social Psychology at the University of Parma, at the University of Palermo and at Humboldt University and Philosophy of Science, Psychobiology of Language, Social Neurosciences, Applied Neurosciences, Psycometrics for the Cognitive Neuroscience, Foundations of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience of Language at the University of Messina. I am interested in the Philosophy of Cognitive Neuroscience and in the embodiment of language. In the last years I have published on language and embodied cognition (also with Vittorio Gallese) and I am currently working on the embodiment of metaphor (with Gerard Steen) and on the embodiment of abstract concepts and negation (with Vittorio Gallese).

Funded projects:
- "Metaphor and Epistemic Injustice in mental illness: the case of Schizophrenia", in collaboration with Francesca Ervas (UNICA) and Francesca Ferri (UNICH).
- "The neuroscience of translation. Novel and conventional metaphor processing in native and second language speakers", in collaboration with Martina Ardizzi (UNIPR).

Selected publications:

CUCCIO, V. (2022), “The figurative brain”. In A. Garcia e A. Ibanez, Routledge Handbook of Neurosemiotics, Routledge.

CUCCIO, V. (2022), Pragmatica ed Embodiment, in Valentina Bambini and Filippo Domaneschi (Eds.), Pragmatica sperimentale, Il Mulino.

CUCCIO, V. CARUANA, F. (2022) Motor simulation of facial expressions, but not emotional mirroring, depends on automatic sensorimotor abduction, in Lorenzo Magnani (Ed.), Handbook of Abductive Cognition, Springer.

G DI CESARE, V CUCCIO, M MARCHI, A SCIUTTI, G RIZZOLATTI, “Communicative And Affective Components in Processing Auditory Vitality Forms: An fMRI Study”, Cerebral Cortex, 2021, bhab255, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab255

MONTALTI, M., CALBI, M., CUCCIO, V. UMILTA’, M.A., GALLESE, V. (2021), Is motor inhibition involved in the processing of sentential negation? An assessment via the Stop Signal Task, Psychological Research. 10.1007/s00426-021-01512-7

CUCCIO, V., GRAZIANO, M. (2022). A two-level model of embodied mathematical thinking. Body schema, body image and language. In Shyam Wuppuluri, A. C. Grayling, Metaphors and Analogies in Sciences and Humanities: Words and Worlds, Synthese library series, Springer.
 
CASTANO, E. PALADINO. M.P. CADWELL, O., CUCCIO, V. PERCONTI, P. (2021). “Exposure to Literary Fiction is Associated with Lower Psychological Essentialism”. Frontiers in Psychology.

CUCCIO V., PERCONTI P., STEEN G., SHTYROV Y., HUANG Y. (Eds.), “Experimental approaches to Pragmatics”, Special Issue, Frontiers in Psychology.

CUCCIO V., CARUANA F. (2019), “Rethinking the abstract/concrete concepts dychotomy. Comment on “Words as social tools: Language, sociality and inner grounding in abstract concepts” by Anna M. Borghi et al.”, Physics of Life Reviews, Vol. 29, P. 157-160. Elsevier, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2019.04.007

CUCCIO V., STEEN G. (2019). Deliberate Metaphors and Embodied Simulation, in Ignasi Navarro (ed.), Current approaches to Metaphor Analysis in Discourse, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

CUCCIO V. (2018). Attention to Metaphor. From neurons to representations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027202116.

CUCCIO V., GALLESE V. (2018), “A Peircean account of concepts. Grounding abstraction in phylogeny through a comparative neuroscientific perspective”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, vol. 373: 20170128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0128  

GALLESE V., CUCCIO V. (2018), “The neural exploitation hypothesis and its implications for an embodied approach to language and cognition: Insights from the study of action verbs processing and motor disorders in Parkinson’s Disease”, Cortex – Elsevier, volume 100, p. 215-225.

CARAPEZZA M., CUCCIO V. (2018), “Abductive inferences in pragmatic processes”, in Capone A., Carapezza M., Lo Piparo (eds.), Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy, Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 18, Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-72172-9, 457594_1_En, (11).

DI CEASARE G., ERRANTE A., MARCHI M., CUCCIO V. (2017), “Language for action: Motor resonance during the processing of human and robotic voices”, Brain and Cognition- Elsevier, n.118, pagg. 118-127. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2017.08.001.

CUCCIO V., FONTANA S. (2017), Embodied Simulation and Metaphorical Gestures, in F. Ervas, E. Gola, M.G. Rossi (eds.), Metaphor in Communication, Science, and Education, pagg. 77-91, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-054748-1.

CARUANA F., CUCCIO V. (2017). “Overcoming the acting/reasoning dualism in intelligent behaviour”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Springer, Volume 16, Issue 4, pp 709–713.. doi:10.1007/s11097-016-9471-1.

CARUANA, F.,  CUCCIO, V. (2017). Types of abduction in tool behaviour. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Springer, Volume 16, Issue 2, pp 255–273. DOI 10.1007/s11097-015-9450-y.

CUCCIO V. (2017), Body-schema and body-image in metaphor processing, in B. Hampe (a cura di), Metaphor: From Embodied Cognition to Discourse, Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107198333

GALLESE V., CUCCIO V. (2016), “The paradigmatic body. Embodied simulation, intersubjectivity and the bodily self”. T. Metzinger & J. Windt (eds.), Open MIND, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachussets.  ISBN:9780262034609.

CUCCIO V., CARAPEZZA, M. (2015), “Is Displacement Possible without Language? Evidence from Preverbal Infants”, Philosophical Psychology, vol. 28, issue 3, pp.369-386. ISSN 0951-5089 (Print), 1465-394X (Online). Taylor & Francis.

CUCCIO V., FERRI F., AMBROSECCHIA M., CARAPEZZA M., LO PIPARO F., FOGASSI L., GALLESE V. (2014), “How the context matters. Literal and figurative meaning in the embodied language paradigm”. PlosOne, 9(12) e115381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115381. eCollection 2014.