Personnel

Click on the person’s name to access their publication profile in the Tampere University Research Portal

Jari Hietanen
PhD, Professor
Office: Pinni B 3140
tel. +358 40 190 1384
e-mail: jari.hietanen [at] tuni.fi

I received my PhD from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1993. Since 1995, I have been working at the University of Tampere. My main interest is in social cognition and emotions. I am especially interested in cognitive and neural processes involved in perception of human faces. Much of my research has focused on questions related to how facial information (e.g., facial expressions and gaze direction) influences observers’ attention, emotion, and motivation and, on the other hand, how attention, emotions, and motivation modulate perception of faces. In recent years, I have been interested in investigating these issues by using experimental settings in which the participants are interacting with another (“live”) person present in the laboratory.

• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar
• Interacting with robots -project

Mikko Peltola
PhD, University Lecturer
Office: Pinni B 3141
tel. +358 50 318 6120
e-mail: mikko.peltola [at] tuni.fi

After receiving my PhD from the University of Tampere in 2011, I have worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University in 2012-2013 and at the University of Tampere since 2014. My main interest is emotion research with a particular focus on emotional development in early childhood. I have studied how infants process facial emotions during the first year and how individual differences in infants’ attention to faces and emotions predict their later social and emotional development. Another major focus of my research concerns the influence of parenthood on social information processing and particularly the changes in processing infant signals during the transition to parenthood. In my research, I incorporate behavioral, psychophysiological (EEG, EMG, ECG), hormonal, and observational (e.g., attachment and temperament assessment) methods.

• Google Scholar
• Twitter
• TransParent project
• Early Childhood Empathy study

Anneli Kylliäinen
PhD, Academy Research Fellow
Office: Pinni B 3143
tel. +358 50 318 6021
e-mail: anneli.kylliainen [at] tuni.fi

I finished my PhD at the University of Tampere in 2007 and after that I have worked as a postdoctoral researcher and a university lecturer at the University of Tampere. I am also a clinical neuropsychologist which supports my research interest on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) well. My current interest is social development in ASD, especially the role of eye contact difficulties in early detection and intervention. I am also participating in the CHILD-SLEEP project, which investigates the long-term significance of early sleep for cognitive, social and emotional development.

• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar

Terhi Helminen
PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, University Lecturer
Office: Linna 4061
e-mail: terhi.helminen [at] tuni.fi

In my PhD, which I finished at the University of Tampere in 2017, I investigated psychophysiological responses to eye contact in typical adults and in children with and without autism. Since then, my main research interests have been in autism spectrum disorders, although I have broadened my research interests to other developmental disorders (reading disability and ADHD) as well. I am also a clinical psychologist working with children with neuropsychiatric disorders and learning disabilities, which supports my research work. Currently I have a University Lecturer position in the Psychology clinic PSYKE at the University of Tampere, but I am conducting my research in close collaboration with the HIP Lab.

• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar

Heini Saarimäki
PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Office: Pinni B3139
e-mail: heini.saarimaki [at] tuni.fi

I received my PhD from Aalto University in 2018 and joined Tampere University as a postdoctoral researcher in 2019. In 2019-2020, I am working as a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. My research interests are in the field of social and affective neuroscience, and my research has focused on the neural underpinnings of human emotions. I have studied the neural basis of different emotions and their relationship to subjective experiences of emotion, as well as the flow of emotions during natural interaction. In my research, I combine naturalistic stimuli (such as movies and narratives), brain imaging (mostly fMRI) and pattern classification methods with self-reports and other measures of subjective experiences.

• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar

Santeri Yrttiaho
PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
e-mail: santeri.yrttiaho [at] tuni.fi

I received my PhD from Aalto University in 2012 and subsequently joined Tampere University to study the development of social and cognitive abilities from infancy to childhood. My specific focus has been the processing of faces and emotional expressions as cues of early interaction, and the use of objective physiological responses to study these phenomena. As theoretical frameworks, I am interested in maturational and interactionist views of infant and child development, and in the contextual factors of development. My research methodologies include electroencephalography, event-related potentials, eye tracking measures, and studying their correlations to implicated context variables.

• Publications
• GitHub

Fiia Takio
PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Office: Linna 4050
tel. +358 50 318 2327
e-mail: fiia.takio [at] tuni.fi

I received my PhD from the University of Turku in 2012. In my PhD I focused on multimodal perceptual bias modified by age and praxis. I am currently working as a postdoc researcher at Tampere University in different research projects. My current personal research interest relates to the development and support of self-regulation skills in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism and ADHD. I am also a clinical neuropsychologist and my field of expertise focuses on the complex developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders in child and youth psychiatry.

• Gaze at Toddler
• Cognirem
• ResearchGate

Jenni Lauttia

Helena Kiilavuori
M.A., PhD Student
Office: Pinni B 3130
e-mail: helena.kiilavuori [at] tuni.fi

I received my Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Tampere in February 2018. After graduation, I worked in clinical neuropsychology for a short period before starting my PhD studies in the Human Information Processing Laboratory in November 2018. My research focus is on psychophysiological responses during social interaction. Along with working on PhD studies, my aim is to proceed with my career in clinical neuropsychology as well.

Hanneli Sinisalo
M.A., PhD Student
Office: Pinni B 3139
tel. +358 50 437 7521
e-mail: hanneli.sinisalo [at] tuni.fi

I am working on my dissertation in the TransParent-project. I received my Master’s degree from the Tampere University in 2019. In my master’s thesis I studied hormonal differences in mothers and non-mothers in interaction with an infant simulator. I am especially interested in the hormonal and brain basis of parenthood and attachment, parent-infant interactions and the consequences these matters might have on the development of the infant.

• TransParent-project

Elina Husu
M.A., PhD Student
Office: Pinni B 3139
tel.  +358 50 318 2534
e-mail: elina.husu [at] tuni.fi

I received my Master’s degree in psychology from the Tampere University in 2018. After graduation, I have been working as clinical psychologist. Currently, I am working as a PhD student in the Gaze at Toddler –project in which the development of eye contact behaviour in young children with autism spectrum disorder is investigated. I am especially interested in the early parent-mediated interventions for toddlers with increased likelihood of ASD.

Sonja Veistola
M.A., PhD Student
Office: Pinni B 3139
tel. +358 50 572 4891
e-mail: sonja.veistola [at] tuni.fi

I studied Social and Economic Psychology at Leiden University and Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Groningen, completing both Master’s degrees in 2020. I am now working on my dissertation as a part of the TransParent project. Within the project, I am focusing on the effect of parenthood on social information processing, particularly in fathers.

Kseniia Konopkina
M.Sc., PhD Student
Office: Pinni B 3142
e-mail: kseniia.konopkina [at] tuni.fi

I received my Master’s degree in cognitive sciences and technologies from the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in 2019. Since November 2020, I’ve been working in the Human Information Processing Laboratory as a visiting researcher. Later in August 2021, I became a PhD student at Tampere University. My research focuses on understanding neurocognitive mechanisms of emotional development using behavioral and neuroimaging methods. I am particularly interested in the relationship between subjective experiences of emotion and the neural basis of different emotions.

Manman Zhai
M.Ed., PhD student
Office: Pinni B 3140
e-mail: manman.zhai [at] tuni.fi

I received my Master’s degree in Educational and Developmental Psychology from South China Normal University in June 2021. Currently I am conducting my PhD in the Human Information Processing Laboratory. I am interested in social cognition, especially emotion processing. Now my research focus is on investigating the influence of emotional modulation on gaze processing.

Samuli Linnunsalo
M.A., PhD student
Office: Pinni B 3129
e-mail: samuli.linnunsalo [at] tuni.fi

I am working on my dissertation in the RoboAffect project, in which I started in August 2021. I am currently investigating the psychophysiological responses during human-robot interaction. Along with working on my dissertation, I am studying to obtain my Master’s degree in Psychology, which will hopefully happen in June 2022.

Micol Gemignani (she/her)
Visiting researcher
Office: Pinni B 3139
e-mail: micol.gemignani [at] tuni.fi

I received my Master’s degree in Neuroscience and neuropsychological rehabilitation (Psychology) from the University of Padova in 2019. After graduation, I worked as a research assistant at the University of Padova, before starting my PhD studies in the ODFlab at the University of Trento in November 2020. My research is focused on the role of experience of care on cognitive and neural bases of caregiving. In my research, I have included both different- and same-sex couples of parents. I have combined cognitive (e.g., reaction Times), psychophysiological (e.g., EEG, ECG), and observational (e.g., parent-child interaction scales) methods.

• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar