Individual and strategic decision making in laboratory experiments
My current main research project is the advancement of a multidisciplinary approach—combining modern experimental economics, psychophysiology and statistical physics—to the problem of identifying psychophysiological profiles that can be useful as predictors of human behavior in two types of economic decision making contexts: individual decision making under uncertainty, and strategic behavior in non-cooperative environments. This research is conducted in the Laboratory of Experimental Economics under the supervision of Nikos Georgantzis and is funded by a "Juan de la Cierva" Spanish grant.
Fractal analysis of HRV (Heart Rate Variability)
The research for my PhD thesis on fractal analysis of HRV revealed that the alpha-1 scaling exponent of short-term HRV is strongly biased by respiration. Specifically, I was able to mathematically explain and empirically show that slow breathing leads to high scaling exponents and vice versa. This finding questions the validity of previous results on the scaling properties of short-term HRV reported in studies where respiratory parameters were not taken into account.
Related publications:
1. Perakakis P., Taylor M., Martinez-Nieto E., Revithi I., Vila J. (2009). Breathing frequency bias in fractal analysis of heart rate variability. Biological Psychology 82, 82–88. pdf
2. Perakakis P. (2009). Fractal analysis of cardiac dynamics: the application of detrended fluctuation analysis on short-term heart rate variability. Doctoral dissertation. University of Granada Publishing, Granada. ISBN: 978-84-692-8392-9. pdf
Emotional modulation of postural control
Together with Sofia Idrissi, Jaime Vila from the University of Granada and Plamen Ch. Ivanov from Harvard Medical School and Boston University, we discovered a robust effect of affective picture-viewing on postural equilibrium. Specifically, emotional pictures—both pleasant and unpleasant—cause a posterior displacement from postural equilibrium (backward movement) that persists during the entire picture presentation period. This finding questions the interpretation of postural displacements in response to emotional activation as approach-avoidance behavior. The novel methodology applied in our studies
uncovers previously unrecognized dynamical patterns of postural responses to emotional stimuli and opens a promising line of research with potential implications for affective neuroscience and the neurophysiology of visuo-motor integration.
Related publication:
1. Perakakis P., Idrissi S., Vila J., Ivanov Ch.P. (2011). Dynamical patterns of human postural responses to emotional stimuli. Revise-resubmit
Alternative models of academic publishing—NSAP
Together with Michael Taylor, Varvara Trachana and Marco G. Mazza, we have proposed an alternative academic publishing model we call NSAP (Natural Selection of Academic Papers). Our model advocates an "author-guided open peer review" process, according to which, academic authors can invite an unlimited number of peers to review the pre-print versions of their articles. Reviews are subsequently tagged to the original article and the identity of the reviewer is disclosed. We believe and argue in our publications that the implementation of a fully trasparent review process will eventually address the inefficiencies of the current system for disseminating scientific knowledge.
Related publications:
1. Perakakis P., Taylor M., Mazza G.M., Trachana V. (2010). Natural selection of academic papers. Scientometrics 85 (2), 553–559. pdf
2. Perakakis P., Taylor M., Mazza G.M., Trachana V. (2011). Understanding the role of open peer review and dynamic academic articles. Scientometrics. 88 (2), pp. 669–673. pdf
3. Perakakis P., Taylor M., Trachana, V. (2010). The roads to open access. 2010 World Social Science Report. UNESCO Publishing, Paris. ISBN: 978-92-3-104131-0. pdf
4. Taylor M., Perakakis P., Trachana V. (2007). The siege of science. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics 8(1), 17–40. pdf
In the media:
The Times Higher Education. Too complex for the jury? By Paul Jump.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Pandelis Perakakis, PhD
Laboratory of Experimental Economics
University Jaume I,
Avda. Sos Baynat s/n,
Castellón 12071,
Spain
Tel: +34964387627
Fax: +34964728591
e-mail: peraka@ugr.es
url: http://www.ugr.es/~peraka/