Enrica Laura Santarcangelo, MD, PhD, clinical psychologist, is an Associate Professor of Physiology at the Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, Pisa University. She obtained her medical degree at the University of Pisa (1980), where she was a student at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento S. Anna (degree in 1981). Then she obtained her specialization degree in Clinical Psychology (1985) and her PhD degree in Antropology and Physiology (1989) at the University of Siena. After some years of private practice as a clinical psychologist during which she participated in studies of signal analysis (Institute of Clinical Physiology of Pisa CNR) she began her experimental research on the mind-body axis at  the University of Pisa where she serves as an Associate Professor of Physiology. Her research interests are the physiological correlates of hypnotizability and their behavioural relevance. In particular, her studies concern the hypnotizability-related differences in  autonomic control, sensory-motor integration and the functional equivalence between  imagery and perception.