I studied cognitive and affective psychology at the University of Geneva, where I obtained a Ph.D. in psychology under the supervision of Prof. David Sander and Prof. Gilles Pourtois. I then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in Prof. Elizabeth Phelps' lab. I am now a senior researcher and lecturer at the Swiss Center of Affective Sciences and the Department of Psychology at the University of Geneva. I am also collaborating with Prof. Maël Lebreton's laboratory at the Paris School of Economics. 

My research focuses on examining how emotion and affective processes modulate learning, information-seeking, and decision-making. Specifically, I aim at better understanding how and why humans learn to attribute or update affective value to information through the study of the psychological, computational, and neural mechanisms underlying these learning processes and their influence on behavior. To that end, I use theoretical approaches derived from affective science in combination with experimental learning paradigms, such as Pavlovian conditioning, and behavioral, psychophysiological, brain imaging, and reinforcement-learning methods.

Research interests: emotion, learning biases, affective value, reinforcement learning, reward, Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, information-seeking behaviors, psychophysiology.

PUBLICATIONS

Scientific Articles

2025, in press, and preprints

• Stussi, Y. (2025). Affective and computational determinants of threat extinction biases. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 192, Article 104804. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2025.104804

• Wuensch, L., Stussi, Y., Vernede, T., Murray, R. J., Sander, D., Péron, J., & Pool, E. R. (2025). Differential influence of habit components on compulsive and problematic reward-seeking behavior. PLOS Mental Health, 2(5), Article 0000323. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmen.0000323

2024

• Castillo, J.*, Fan, H.*, Karaman, O. T., Shu, J., Stussi, Y., Kredlow, M. A., Vranos, S., Oyarzún, J. P., Dorfman, H. M., Sambrano, D. C., Meskin, R., Hirst, W., & Phelps, E. A. (2024). Overestimating the intensity of negative feelings in autobiographical memory: Evidence from the 9/11 attack and COVID-19 pandemic. Cognition and Emotion, 38(7), 1048-1063. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2346757

• Starita, F.*, Stussi, Y.*, Garofalo, S., & Terenzi, D.* (2024). Editorial: The neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of appetitive and aversive motivation. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 18, Article 1383393. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1383393

• Stussi, Y., & Coppin, G. (2024). Letter to the Editor: Stimulus intensities and sensory modalities constitute two major challenges for online threat conditioning research. Biological Psychology, 109, Article 108805. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108805

• Stussi, Y., Dukes, D., & Sander, D. (2024). The added value of affective processes for models of human cognition and learning [Commentary]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 47, Article e165. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X24000207

• Stussi, Y., & Sander, D. (2024). Computational analysis, appraised concern-relevance, and the amygdala: The algorithmic value of appraisal processes in emotion [Commentary]. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 161, Article 105676. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105676

2023

• Roel Lesur, M., Stussi, Y., Bertrand, P., Delplanque, S., & Lenggenhager, B. (2023). Different armpits under my new nose: Olfactory sex but not gender affects implicit measures of embodiment. Biological Psychology, 176, Article 108477. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108477

• Starita, F., Stussi, Y., Garofalo, S., & di Pellegrino, G. (2023). Threat learning in space: How stimulus-outcome spatial compatibility modulates conditioned skin conductance response. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 190, 30-41. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.06.003

2022

• Oyarzún, J. P., Kuntz, T. M., Stussi, Y., Karaman, O. T., Vranos, S., Callaghan, B. L., Huttenhower, C., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2022). Human threat learning is associated with gut microbiota composition. PNAS Nexus, 1(5), Article pgac271. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac271

• Pool, E. R.*, 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 affective processing of reward. The Journal of Neuroscience, 42(13), 2716-2728. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1124-21.2022

• Stussi, Y., & Pool, E. R. (2022). Multicomponential affective processes modulating food-seeking behaviors. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 48, Article 101226. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101226

2021

• Stussi, Y., Pourtois, G., Olsson, A., & Sander, D. (2021). Learning biases to angry and happy faces during Pavlovian aversive conditioning. Emotion, 21(4), 742-756. doi: 10.1037/emo0000733

• Stussi, Y.*, Sennwald, V.*, Pool, E. R., Delplanque, S., Brosch, T., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., & Sander, D. (2021). Individual concerns modulate reward-related learning and behaviors involving sexual outcomes. Motivation Science, 7(4), 424-438. doi: 10.1037/mot0000249

2019

• Stussi, Y., Ferrero, A., Pourtois, G., & Sander, D. (2019). Achievement motivation modulates Pavlovian aversive conditioning to goal-relevant stimuli. npj Science of Learning, 4, Article 4. doi: 10.1038/s41539-019-0043-3

2018

• Brosch, T., Stussi, Y., Desrichard, O., & Sander, D. (2018). Not my future? Core values and the neural representation of future events. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 18, 476-484. doi: 10.3758/s13415-018-0581-9

• Stussi, Y., Delplanque, S., Coraj, S., Pourtois, G., & Sander, D. (2018). Measuring Pavlovian appetitive conditioning in humans with the postauricular reflex. Psychophysiology, 55, Article e13073. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13073

• Stussi, Y., Pourtois, G., & Sander, D. (2018). Enhanced Pavlovian aversive conditioning to positive emotional stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147, 905-923. doi: 10.1037/xge0000424

2015

• Stussi, Y., Brosch, T., & Sander, D. (2015). Learning to fear depends on emotion and gaze interaction: The role of self-relevance in fear learning. Biological Psychology, 109, 232-238. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.06.008

Book Chapters

2023

• Stussi, Y., Delplanque, S., & Sander, D. (2023). Measuring the postauricular reflex as an indicator of appetitive processing. In M. Bensafi (Ed.), Basic Protocols on Emotions, Senses, and Foods. Methods and Protocols in Food Science (pp. 203-222). Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2934-5_16

2017

• Stussi, Y., & Sander, D. (2017). Fear learning / L’apprentissage de la peur. In D. Sander & N. Herschdorfer (Eds.), Emotions (pp. 70-71). BENTELI Publishers.