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Giorgio Coricelli

Associate Professor

Giorgio Coricelli

Research Topics

  • Neuroeconomics
  • Emotion and decision-making
  • Social Neuroscience

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Research Overview

We study human behaviors emerging from the interplay of cognitive and emotional systems. Our objective is to apply robust methods and findings from behavioral decision theory to study the brain structures that contribute to forming judgments and decisions, both in an individual and a social context.

We study (1) the role of counterfactual emotions, such as regret and envy, in decision making (fMRI and Orbitofrontal patients studies); (2) the neural basis of bounded rational behavior: limit in depth of strategic reasoning; (3) the neural correlates of individual and social uncertainty: disposition effect, aspiration level, ambiguity, strategic uncertainty; (4) how the brain encodes learning signals: regret/fictive learning, reputation building, transfer learning; (5) impaired decision making in schizophrenia and autism.

We conduct our research using a fundamentally multidisciplinary approach (Neuroeconomics), drawing from behavioral and experimental economics, game theory, neuroimaging (fMRI), neuropsychology (patients studies), and cognitive neurosciences.

Teaching: Neuroeconomics ECON405, Advanced Neuroeconomics ECON608

Contact Information

Email giorgio.coricelli@usc.edu
Mailing Address 3620 S. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0253
Office Location KAP 306-D
Office Phone (213) 740-3517
Lab Location
Lab Phone
Fax
Office Location KAP 306-D

Websites

Selected Publications

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  • Camille, N., Coricelli, G., Sallet, J., Pradat, P., Duhamel, JR, and Sirigu, A. (2004). The involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex in the experience of regret. Science, 304:1167-1170 Link
  • Coricelli, G., Critchley, H.D., Joffily, M., O Doherty, J.D., Sirigu, A., and Dolan, R.J. (2005). Regret and its Avoidance: A Neuroimaging Study of Choice Behavior. Nature Neuroscience, 8:1255-1262. Link
  • Coricelli, G., Dolan, R.J., Sirigu, A. (2007). Brain, emotion and decision making: the paradigmatic example of regret. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 11:258-265. Link
  • Coricelli, G., and Nagel, R. (2009). Neural correlates of depth of strategic reasoning in medial prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, PNAS, 106:9163-8. Link
  • Bault, N., Joffily, M., Rustichini, A., and Coricelli, G. (2011). Medial prefrontal cortex and striatum mediate the influence of social comparison on the decision process. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, PNAS, 108:16044-9. Link
  • Larquet, M., Coricelli, G., Opolczynski, G., Thibaut, F. (2010). Impaired decision-making in schizophrenia and orbitofrontal cortex patients. Schizophrenia Research, 116:266-73. Link
  • Fouragnan, E., Chierchia, G., Greiner, S., Neveu,R., Avesani, P., and Coricelli, G. (2013). Reputational priors magnify striatal responses to violations of trust. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33:3602–3611 Link
  • Joffily, M. and Coricelli G. (2013). Emotional valence and the free-energy principle. PLoS Computational Biology,  9(6): e1003094. Link

  • Palminteri, S., Khamassi, M., Joffily, M., and Coricelli, G. (2015). Contextual modulation of value signals in reward and punishment learning. Nature Communications, 6:8096.

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