Cinzia Cecchetto

Cinzia Cecchetto is an Assistant Professor at the University of Padova, Italy. Her research focuses on the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and sensory perception, particularly exploring how olfactory cues influence mental health and social behavior. She investigates the role of body odors, emotional processing, and chemosensory integration in conditions like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and eating disorders. Her work employs advanced techniques such as EEG, fMRI, and meta-analysis to uncover neural correlates of olfactory dysfunction and therapeutic interventions.

Key research areas include: olfactory dysfunction in psychiatric disorders, the impact of social odors on facial perception, and the development of tools like the Social Odor Scale for cross-cultural assessment. Her studies also address pandemic-related chemosensory impairments in COVID-19 recovery and the role of olfactory cues in mindfulness therapy for social anxiety. She advocates for interdisciplinary approaches to understand how sensory perception modulates psychological states and clinical outcomes.

Her research trends emphasize multimodal integration (e.g., visual-odor interactions), neural mechanisms of emotion regulation, and translational applications of sensory science to mental health. She has contributed to over 40 peer-reviewed articles, with recent focus on odor-related therapeutic catalysts and pandemic-induced olfactory deficits.