Eva Pool
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Professor
University of Geneva — Faculty of Psychology
Psychology and Neuroscience
General Information
My research focuses on the development of a deeper understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying reward-seeking behavior. More particularly, I am interested in gaining insights into how and why the human brain is vulnerable to situations where choice behavior is hijacked in service of outcomes that are no longer valued by the individual. To address these questions, I use a large variety of experimental procedures as well as meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews.
In my research, I try to develop methods that combine theoretical frameworks and experimental paradigms developed through the study of animal behavior with psychophysiological techniques and fMRI protocols in healthy human volunteers.
Research field
Reward Seeking Behaviors; Conditioning and Associative Learning; Taste and Olfaction; Neuroimaging; Affective science
Thesis
The role of affective relevance in the processing of positive rewarding stimuli.
Supervisor/PI: -
List of publications
2026
Scientific articles
- Dalbagno, D., Stussi, Y., Pool, E., Betti, S., Garofalo, S., Sander, D., di Pellegrino, G., & Starita, F. (2026). The role of outcome affective value in driving human Pavlovian learning [Article scientifique]. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000433
2025
Scientific articles
- Vollberg, M., Stussi, Y., Pool, E., & Sander, D. (2025). Emotion and prediction errors: which ingredients matter? [Article scientifique]. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Trends in cognitive sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.006
- Wuensch, L., Stussi, Y., Vernede, T. J., Murray, R. J., Sander, D., Peron, J. A., & Pool, E. (2025). Differential influence of habit components on compulsive and problematic reward-seeking behavior [Scientific Article]. PLOS Mental Health, 2(5), e0000323. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000323
2023
Scientific articles
- Pool, E., Pauli, W. M., Cross, L., & O’Doherty, J. P. (2023). Neural substrates of parallel devaluation-sensitive and devaluation-insensitive Pavlovian learning in humans [Article scientifique]. Nature Communications, 14(1). Nature communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43747-5
- Coppin, G., Munoz Tord, D., Pool, E., Locatelli, L., Achaibou, A., Erdemli, A., Leon Perez, L., Wuensch, L., Cereghetti, D., Golay, A., Sander, D., & Pataky, Z. (2023). A randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of liraglutide on self-reported liking and neural responses to food stimuli in participants with obesity [Article scientifique]. International Journal of Obesity, 47(12), 1224–1231. International journal of obesity. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-023-01370-w
- Ceravolo, L., Debracque, C., Pool, E., Gruber, T., & Grandjean, D. M. (2023). Frontal mechanisms underlying primate calls recognition by humans [Article scientifique]. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 4(4), tgad019. Cerebral cortex communications. https://doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgad019
2022
Scientific articles
- Stussi, Y., & Pool, E. (2022). Multicomponential affective processes modulating food-seeking behaviors [Article scientifique]. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 48, 101226. Current opinion in behavioral sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101226
- Pool, E., Munoz Tord, D., Delplanque, S., Stussi, Y., Cereghetti, D., Vuilleumier, P., & Sander, D. (2022). Differential contributions of ventral striatum subregions to the motivational and hedonic components of the affective processing of reward [Article scientifique]. The Journal of Neuroscience, JN–RM. The Journal of neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1124-21.2022
2021
Scientific articles
- Wuensch, L., Pool, E., & Sander, D. (2021). Individual differences in learning positive affective value [Scientific Article]. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 39, 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.11.001
- Stussi, Y., Sennwald, V., Pool, E., Delplanque, S., Brosch, T., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., & Sander, D. (2021). Individual concerns modulate reward-related learning and behaviors involving sexual outcomes [Scientific Article]. Motivation Science, 7(4), 424–438. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000249
- Munoz Tord, D., Coppin, G., Pool, E., Mermoud, C., Pataky, Z., Sander, D., & Delplanque, S. (2021). 3D-printed pacifier-shaped mouthpiece for fMRI-compatible gustometers [Scientific Article]. ENeuro, 8(5), ENEURO. https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0208-21.2021
- Charpentier, C. J., Faulkner, P., Pool, E., Ly, V., Tollenaar, M. S., Kluen, L. M., Fransen, A., Yamamori, Y., Lally, N., Mkrtchian, A., Valton, V., Huys, Q. J. M., Sarigiannidis, I., Morrow, K. A., Krenz, V., Kalbe, F., Cremer, A., Zerbes, G., Kausche, F. M., et al. (2021). How representative are neuroimaging samples? Large-scale evidence for trait anxiety differences between fMRI and behaviour-only research participants [Scientific Article]. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsab057
- Coppin, G., & Pool, E. (2021). Affect, “wanting” and relevance: Commentary on Lutz et al. (2020) [Scientific Article]. Addictive Behaviors, 115, 106792. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106792
2020
Scientific articles
- Sennwald, V., Pool, E., Delplanque, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., & Sander, D. (2020). Outcome-specific and general Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfers involving sexual rewards [Scientific Article]. Motivation Science, 6(1), 79. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000129
2018
Scientific articles
- Pauli, W. M., Cockburn, J., Pool, E., Pérez, O. D., & O’Doherty, J. P. (2018). Computational approaches to habits in a model-free world [Scientific Article]. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 20, 104–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.12.001
2017
Scientific articles
- Sennwald, V., Pool, E., & Sander, D. (2017). Considering the influence of the Pavlovian system on behavior: Appraisal and value representation [Scientific Article]. Psychological Inquiry, 28(1), 52–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2017.1259951
2016
Scientific articles
- Pool, E., Brosch, T., Delplanque, S., & Sander, D. (2016). Attentional Bias for Positive Emotional Stimuli: A Meta-Analytic Investigation [Scientific Article]. Psychological Bulletin, 142(1), 79–106. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000026
- Pool, E., Sennwald, V., Delplanque, S., Brosch, T., & Sander, D. (2016). Measuring wanting and liking from animals to humans: A systematic review [Scientific Article]. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 63, 124–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.01.006
- Sennwald, V., Pool, E., Brosch, T., Delplanque, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., & Sander, D. (2016). Emotional attention for erotic stimuli: Cognitive and brain mechanisms [Scientific Article]. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 524(8), 1668–1675. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.23859
- Coppin, G., Pool, E., Delplanque, S., Oud, B., Margot, C., Sander, D., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2016). Swiss identity smells like chocolate: Social identity shapes olfactory judgments [Scientific Article]. Scientific Reports, 6, 34979. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34979
2015
Scientific articles
- Ferdenzi, C., Delplanque, S., Vorontsova-Wenger, O., Pool, E., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., & Sander, D. (2015). Perception of Men’s Beauty and Attractiveness by Women with Low Sexual Desire [Scientific Article]. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12(4), 946–955. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsm.12795
- Pool, E., Brosch, T., Delplanque, S., & Sander, D. (2015). Stress Increases Cue-Triggered “Wanting” for Sweet Reward in Humans [Scientific Article]. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes, 41(2), 128–136. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000052
- Pool, E., Delplanque, S., Coppin, G., & Sander, D. (2015). Is comfort food really comforting? Mechanisms underlying stress-induced eating [Scientific Article]. Food Research International, 76, 207–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2014.12.034
Doctoral thesis
- Pool, E. (2015). The role of affective relevance in the processing of positive rewarding stimuli [Doctoral Thesis]. https://doi.org/10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:78829
2014
Scientific articles
- Pool, E., Delplanque, S., Porcherot, C., Jenkins, T., Cayeux, I., & Sander, D. (2014). Sweet reward increases implicit discrimination of similar odors [Scientific Article]. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00158
- Pool, E., Brosch, T., Delplanque, S., & Sander, D. (2014). Where is the chocolate? Rapid spatial orienting toward stimuli associated with primary rewards [Article scientifique]. Cognition, 130, 348–359. Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.002