Thèse

Nowadays, in Morocco, the lack of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, adapted to the morrocan children, makes the neuropsychologists use the French norm when doing the WISC V. The results always show a biase due to the scale, because we observe high average gap between French and Morrocan children results. It is likely that those differences don’t reflect reality.
When the scores distribution between populations of different origins have such a big gap, it is natural to ask the socio-cultural objectivity of the study. The psychometrical evaluations come from a research tradition, which reflects the specific cultural needs and expectations. Indeed, the different cultures define the cognitive abilities according their own political, ecological and social requirements. According the culture, certain abilities can be privileged, and be reinforced. Therefore, the comparison of cognitive abilities between different populations needs, for the evaluation, the sampling of representative population, adapted to the culture of the evaluated people.
Our project aim is to study the sociocultural factors, explaining the performance gap in intelligence tests, between Morrocan and French children. Particularly, we will focuse on the use of the WISW V which is the most used in psychology. The final goal is to develop a tool for intelligence evaluation, adapted to Morrocan children and useful to neuropsychologists.

Supervisors :
- Marie-Line BOSSE- Marie-line.Bosseuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (Marie-line[dot]Bosse[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
- Jean-Luc ROULIN - jean-luc.roulinuniv-savoie.fr (jean-luc[dot]roulin[at]univ-savoie[dot]fr)

Keywords  : WISC V,Intelligence,Psychometry,Measurement bias,Intercultural differences,Socio-cultural factors,

• Read more about Thesis Hayat SABRI

Résumé du projet de thèse: La maîtrise des activités numériques simples est cruciale dans notre société puisqu’elle sous-tend la compréhension de raisonnements arithmétiques de plus haut niveau. Échouer à se représenter le problème « 5+3 » et à en calculer rapidement le résultat provoque de nombreuses difficultés à rendre la monnaie, lire l’heure, manipuler des dates, etc. Pourtant, les mécanismes cognitifs qui nous permettent d’additionner très rapidement deux nombres sont encore mal connus, ce qui rend difficile la conception de programmes de remédiation. Faut-il agir sur la mémoire ? Faut-il agir sur les opérations de comptage ? Faut-il agir sur la ligne numérique mentale qui représente la succession des chiffres ?
L’addition mentale de deux petits nombres est en effet une tâche que nous effectuons si rapidement qu’il est difficile de décrire comment elle est réalisée au niveau cognitif. Deux modèles théoriques s’opposent aujourd’hui. Le modèle classique (Logan, 1988; Siegler & Shrager, 1984) considère que l’on récupère directement la réponse en mémoire. Au cours des apprentissages, les enfants réalisent d’abord une procédure de comptage explicite (6..7..8) qui produit une trace mnésique associant les opérandes et le résultat. Après de nombreuses additions avec les mêmes opérandes, la trace mnésique se renforce au point que le résultat puisse être directement récupéré en mémoire (apprentissage « par cœur ») plutôt que calculé. Un nouveau modèle plus récent (Uittenhove, Thevenot, & Barrouillet, 2016) considère que l’apprentissage conduit à automatiser la procédure de comptage. Même après une grande expérience avec les mêmes opérandes, le résultat n’est pas directement récupéré mais plutôt calculé par un processus très rapide qui suit la ligne numérique mentale (1.2.3.4.5.6…). Le résultat de l’apprentissage n’est donc pas un passage du comptage à la récupération en mémoire, mais plutôt une amélioration du comptage qui devient plus rapide, et même automatique, avec l’expérience.
L’objectif principal de cette thèse est d'aborder la problématique théorique de l’addition mentale en associant la démarche expérimentale et la modélisation computationnelle. Le modèle théorique récent AutoCoP (Automated Counting Procedures, Uittenhove et al., 2016) stipulant que le comptage n’est pas récupéré en mémoire mais calculé, sera le point de départ du projet. Les trois axes du projet sont les suivants :
1. étendre le modèle théorique pour inclure le rôle de la mémoire de travail. Ce travail de modélisation sera facilité par son implémentation informatique qui pourra s’appuyer sur des modèles computationnels modernes de la mémoire de travail (Lemaire & Portrat, 2018).
2. étudier le rôle de la ligne numérique mentale au cœur du modèle dont on sait qu’elle est représentée spatialement, de gauche à droite. On pourra notamment solidifier le modèle théorique initial, à la fois en montrant un effet néfaste d’une ligne mentale inversée et en exprimant dans un cadre computationnel le lien entre comptage et représentation spatiale.
3. tester le modèle sur une population dyscalculique. Là encore, des données expérimentales seront recueillies et le modèle computationnel pourra ensuite être altéré pour simuler des comportements dyscalculiques et aider à isoler les causes possibles du déficit.

Supervisors :
- Benoit LEMAIRE - 0476825631 - benoit.lemaireuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (benoit[dot]lemaire[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr) -
- Karine MAZENS - 0476825673 - karine.mazensuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (karine[dot]mazens[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)

Keywords: computational modeling,mental calculation,numerical cognition,

• Read more about Thesis CHOUTEAU ROUSSET

Current models of visual perception agree that vision is a proactive process. This implies that visual perception consists in constantly matching the characteristics of a visual input (e.g., two bright dots on a misty road) to expectations, built on past experiences and learnt regularities in the environment (e.g., high probability to encounter a car in the opposite direction). Such proactive processes would therefore facilitate the processing of frequently encountered stimuli. Indeed, past studies have shown that an expected stimulus (e.g., a soccer player on a soccer field) is categorized more quickly than unexpected ones (e.g., a soccer player in a kitchen). They would also be particularly useful in cases where the visual input is noisy or ambiguous and an analysis purely based on it would be inefficient (e.g., in the example above, the analysis of two bright dots would not enable to recognize the stimulus as a car, without prior expectations). Neurobiologically, this “predictive coding” of visual information has been modelled as the permanent interaction between different levels of the processing hierarchy of prediction (i.e., expected features of the input) and prediction error signals (i.e., unexpected features allowing to update expectations), which relative weights would vary according to visual constraints (e.g., prediction signals would weight more when the visual input is noisy while prediction error signals would weight more when the stimulus is unambiguous and expectations are invalid). However, how expectations modulate the processing of visual information and influence perception remains debated. For example, it has been suggested that prediction signals facilitate the processing of expected visual features by increasing the sensitivity of neurons tuned to these features, which would then be perceived as sharper. On the other hand, unexpected stimuli would result in increased prediction error signals, and thus increased activity in neuron populations tuned to unexpected features, leading to a more intense percept of these features. Recent experimental data support these assumptions but they have never been systematically tested.
The aim of the present PhD project is therefore to precise the mechanisms by which prior knowledge and expectations do influence visual perception, using perceptual judgment tasks on various stimuli characteristics (e.g., sharpness, vividness…) and according to different factors such as the availability and/or validity of expectations and the reliability of the visual inputs in behavioral studies. These studies will be performed in healthy individuals and may be followed by eye-tracking studies, in order to examine how expectations influence visual attention, as well as electroencephalography studies in order to assess the time course of these mechanisms at the cerebral level.

Encadrantes :
- Carole PEYRIN -  carole.peyrinuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (carole[dot]peyrin[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
- Louise KAUFFMANN - louise.kauffmanngmail.com (louise[dot]kauffmann[at]gmail[dot]com)

Keywords : électroencéphalographie,codage prédictif,perception visuelle

• Read more about Thesis Pauline ROSSEL

Metacognition is the introspective ability to assess one's own mental states, and to form confident judgments about what one knows or perceives. Metacognitive disorders are described in many psychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia, and are thought to play a role in the emergence of delusions, social withdrawal and mental handicap. These metacognitive disorders have been described in the clinical literature mainly through subjective tests and neuropsychological questionnaires, or experimental measures that do not take into account the other cognitive deficits of patients such as memory or executive disorders. Thus, it is not clear whether the deficits observed at the metacognitive level are specific, or simply inherited from other underlying cognitive deficits. Recently, we assessed metacognitive performance by asking individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and healthy volunteers to perform a visual discrimination task and then report their confidence in their performance (Faivre et al., 2020). Metacognitive performance was defined as the match between visual discrimination performance and confidence. Bayesian analyses revealed equivalent metacognitive performance in the two groups despite a weaker association between confidence and trajectory kinetics performed with the mouse when patients performed the task. These results were replicated using an evidence accumulation model that showed similar decision-making processes in both groups. We concluded from this study that metacognitive deficits related to sensory perception in schizophrenia remain to be demonstrated experimentally.
In the course of this thesis, we wish to explore metacognitive deficits in relation to various cognitive and perceptual domains in a more systematic way, using both behavioral and electroencephalographic markers. We will evaluate metacognition for auditory perception tasks (Dondé et al., 2017), for mnemonic processes of familiarity and recollection, as well as for social cognition tasks (so-called chasing paradigm, Roux et al., 2015). Our goal is to map metacognitive deficits in schizophrenia, and thus determine whether metacognition obeys domain-general or domain-specific mechanisms (Mazancieux et al., 2020). We expect lower metacognitive performance across tasks in schizophrenia, with less association between metaperformance and predictive behavioural variables, such as reaction times and response trajectories. Thus, the metacognitive deficit in schizophrenia would be the consequence of a lesser use of behavioural cues preceding the metacognitive decision.

Supervisors :
Nathan FAIVRE - nathan.faivreuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (nathan[dot]faivre[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
Michael PEREIRA - Michael.pereirauniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (Michael[dot]pereira[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)

Keywords  : metacognition,schizophrenia,hallucination,

• Read more about Thesis Ramla MSHEIK

A critical issue in today’s ageing society is how to better understand and mitigate for cognitive changes. The central topic of this proposed research is metamemory: the ability to reflect upon and monitor our memory. Understanding metamemory would help us understand the concept of ‘cognitive reserve’: protective factors in the maintenance of cognitive function in older adults. First we need to know which forms of metamemory are altered in ageing. We will discover the status of metacognitive accuracy in several tasks using hierarchical Bayesian modelling. We will compare the impact of age and examine the relationship between metamemory with well-being, emotion, quality of life and cognitive reserve. We will establish a national model ‘Seniors for Science’ in collaboration with the Maison de Science de l’Homme – enabling senior French citizens to contribute to research programmes and learn about their memory function. We will rise to meet the challenges of open, reproducible science.

Supervisors :
- Christopher MOULIN - christopher.moulinuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (christopher[dot]moulin[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
- Céline SOUCHAY - celine.souchayuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (celine[dot]souchay[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)

Keywords :FOK,Memory,metacognition,

• Read more about Thesis Lucile MEUNIER

The human brain continuously receives new information from external stimuli. Information received from each senses is collected, analyzed and combined with those of other senses (vision, hearing, touch etc…) in order to be interpreted. Each new information does not overwrite with previously learnt ones but comes to extend the brain knowledge.
Artificial intelligence deep learning algorithms aims to simulate this type of learning. Nevertheless, for now, computers can have many sensors that receive external information but they do not necessarily communicate with each other to share and “understand” the global information. Furthermore, when deep learning algorithm learns new knowledge, it overlaps them with old ones and most of the time, old knowledge are forgotten. We name this type of forgetfulness, catastrophic forgetting. Behind these observations, we find one of the major challenge of tomorrow’ deep learning systems: How intelligent system could adapt in a changing environment? Could robot be adaptable to everyone?
To answer those questions, researchers introduced the notion of incremental learning, personalization and multimodality that are three growing research fields in a global field of deep learning called life-long learning.
An incremental learning algorithm is currently developed in our research laboratory. Results obtained with it are already encouraging for datasets like MNIST, CIFAR10 and CIFAR100 (Solinas et al.). This type of algorithm enables to overcome catastrophic forgetting of previously learnt classes. Some researchers proposed to use the advantage of incremental learning for the learning of new instances of known classes (Lomonaco and Maltoni). This type of use of incremental learning could give the possibility to personalize its algorithm to new unknown instances. In parallel, an interesting paper explored the learning of two modalities in a spiking neural network: audio and image for MNIST dataset (Rathi and Roy 2019) and shows that multimodality as the advantage to improve accuracy and to be more robust to noisy data.
We would like to position our thesis project in the heart of these researches and propose a framework that answers the burning deep learning issue of an incremental multimodal learning which can be also adapted to personalization question.

Supervisors
- Martial MERMILLOD - martial.mermilloduniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (martial[dot]mermillod[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
- Marina REYBOZ -  marina.reybozcea.fr (marina[dot]reyboz[at]cea[dot]fr) -
- Christelle GODIN -  christelle.godincea.fr (christelle[dot]godin[at]cea[dot]fr)

Keywords : Continual Learning,Incremental learning,Emotion detection,Multimodal Fusion,Deep Learning,Personalization,

• Read more about Thesis Marion MAINSANT

Unhealthy lifestyles are major factors contributing to chronic conditions that impose a huge financial burden in EU healthcare systems. Poor diet is a significant risk factor for cancers, cardiovascular, chest, metabolic disorders and is a leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality. Unfortunately, communication of Public Health has failed to influence consumers to change their habits. This could be explained by the fact that there is a lack of awareness of the contextual features influencing eating behaviour and even where there is motivation to change, people have difficulty translating good intentions into healthy behaviours. In this project we will focus on the obesity ‘epidemic’.
Our proposal is that advances in the field of metacognition could bring to bear on complex changes in eating behaviours. Metacognition has been defined as ‘thinking about thinking’ and broadly speaking it refers to a system of conscious awareness which regulates our behaviours according to the current state of the organism and its intended goals. It has been studied using a variety of methods ranging from the social sciences to the neurosciences, and it is of use both in tackling applied issues and the exploration of conscious awareness. In eating behaviours, a metacognitive approach will reveal scientifically for the first time whether people are consciously able to access the nature and quantity of what they are eating. In short, we ask first whether a metacognitive failure might be the cause of over-eating (or eating the wrong thing). Second, we will explore what the metacognitive approach might be able to contribute to healthier eating. Our unique hypothesis is that complex decisions about what and when and how much to eat can be better understood by adopting a metacognitive viewpoint; something which has not yet been considered in human nutrition.
In a new collaboration on the Grenoble UGA site drawing on resources in the SFR Nutrition, we will use a funded PhD student to explore metacognition and eating behaviours in 3 pre- registered well-well-powered experiments and one naturalistic, on-line diary study. This project will be the launching point of larger scale multi-site and multidisciplinary projects. In the supervised PhD thesis, we will draw on multi-method approaches to measure eating behaviours and the awareness of them, from a psychological, neuroscientific and - thanks to input from the UFR nutrition - biological systems viewpoint.
In sum, if people are detached from or unaware of what they are eating, it will lead to dysfunctional eating. This would explain also why self-report measures of eating are so poor at predicting behaviour-change and real-world behaviours: people simply aren’t aware of their food choices and behaviours. Implementing a metacognitive approach allows the study of - and perhaps the elimination of - so-called ‘mindless eating'.

Supervisors :
- Christopher MOULIN - christopher.moulinuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (christopher[dot]moulin[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
- Eve DUPIERRIX - eve.dupierrixuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (eve[dot]dupierrix[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr) -
- Christophe MOINARD - christophe.moinarduniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (christophe[dot]moinard[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)

Keywords : metacognition,obesity,eating behaviours,

• Read more about Thesis Milèna LEGER

Handwriting deficits, also known as 'dysgraphia', affect 5 to 10% of school-age children. Currently, the diagnosis of dysgraphia is based on the BHK test which is relatively subjective. If they are not handled, these deificits rapidly impact the others scholar skills, eventually leading to scholar failure. It is thus crucial to diagnose and handle these deficits as early as possible.
While dysgraphia are pretty well described at the motor level in the literature(Danna et al, 2013; Smits-Engelsman & Galen, 1997; Hamstra-Bletz & Blöte, 1993), brain or oculomotor activities associated to handwriting deficits have been poorly investigated in children. Recently, a first algorithm for the automatic detection of dysgraphia has been developed (Asselborn et al, 2018), but technological improvements are required for its use in the dysgraphia diagnosis. In a previous project supported by the CEA Bottom-up program, an important database of handwriting has been collected in typical and dysgraphic children and handwriting parameters specific to dysgraphic children have been identified and used to develop our first algorithm. Performances achieved in terms of dysgraphia detection are around 85%.
The current PhD position aims at analyzing the handwriting in typical and dysgraphic children by using 3 simultaneous measurements: handwriting kinematic parameters, brain activity recorded by EEG and oculomotor activity recorded by eye tracking. From these data, contribution of EEG and oculomotor features in supervised machine learning models will be assessed. The final goal is to develop a new tool, automatic and reliable, for dysgraphia diagnosis.

Supervisors :
- Caroline JOLLY - caroline.jollyuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (caroline[dot]jolly[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
-  Jérôme BOUTET

Keywords : Dysgraphia,EEG,Handwriting,Eye tracking,Child development,Supervised machine learning models,

• Read more about Thesis Raphaël LAMBERT

Recent studies have reported that during a stress-hazard situation, emergency evacuation systems for buildings including emergency lighting, are not always readily perceived and monitored by evacuators. However, the human stakes of a well guided and successful evacuation are considerable.
At present, these studies (1) do not consider populations with various disabilities (motor, sensory, mental) or extreme age (children or elderly dependent (2)but essentially test the visual affordance (3) do not measure and model the effect of psychological stress related to evacuation on the detection, nor do they measure the understanding and application of an evacuation instruction issued by a lighting panel (4) they do not explain the neurocognitive mechanisms involved when choosing an emergency evacuation way and do not quantify the effect of evacuation signage characteristics on the cerebral processing of information.
This thesis project is part of the desire of a market-leading security lighting manufacturer to pursue research aimed at improving the affordance of evacuation luminaires in order to increase their efficiency. The work will help to better understand and specify the psychophysical, behavioral and neurophysiological mechanisms that determine the detection, understanding and application of an evacuation instruction provided by a safety lighting fixture.
As a first step, our research will focus on the characteristics of safety lighting fixtures that have the greatest impact on sensory perception, that is, those that most significantly activate the mechanisms of peripheral and central vision. Thus, these data will enable us to determine the characteristics that most effectively orient the attentional focus of the evacuators towards the evacuation signals. Our work, in a second time, will be to study the effect of the psychological stress on the perception of the characteristics, in order to consider the modifications of sensory perception generated by the stress associated with an emergency situation (eg., fire, alert attacks). But also, to prioritize the importance of stimuli according to the mechanisms of perception, especially visual retinal and central channels, which will also identify potential areas of improvement for particular populations (eg., people with AMD who lose central vision, people with chronic glaucoma who lose peripheral vision, colorblind, people with lateral hemianopia). The identification of important psychophysical parameters will be complemented by a functional neuroimaging experiment that will help to understand the mechanisms involved in the detection, understanding and application of the instructions according to the parameters identified and to develop theoretical models of cognition.
From a fundamental point of view, all these observations will make it possible to determine the nature of the perception-action coupling during an evacuation task, and to establish explanatory neurocognitive models, notably the role of the various central pathways of the vision involved (retino-geniculo-striated vs. retino-subcortical) and the influence of brain tonsils. Ultimately, these results will make it possible to propose recommendations for the design of evacuation lighting luminaires and to promote a modification of the current standards for the design of emergency lighting for a better consideration of the human factor.

Supervisors :
- Martial MERMILLOD - martial.mermilloduniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (martial[dot]mermillod[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
- Sébastien POINT - 0381666738 - sebastien.pointcnrs.fr (sebastien[dot]point[at]cnrs[dot]fr)
- LAURIE MONDILLON - 473406107 - Laurie.MONDILLONuca.fr (Laurie[dot]MONDILLON[at]uca[dot]fr)
- Pierre-Olivier DEFAY - Pierre-OlivierDefayEaton.com (Pierre-OlivierDefay[at]Eaton[dot]com)

keywords : Fear processing,Vision and attention,Emergency egress,Exit signs,Affordances,

• Read more about Thesis Sarah KHAZAZ

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a cognitive-motor disorder characterized by difficulties in performing coordinated movements, which may cause academic learning difficulties in children. The prevalence of the disorder is 5-6% in children between the ages of 5 and 11 years, which highlights the importance of better understanding the disorder through scientific research in order to improve its detection and management. In particular, it is necessary to investigate in more detail the cognitive and motor mechanisms underlying the disorder, and to better characterize the different subtypes of the disorder. This must be done by strengthening research on the learning difficulties and the different types of memories involved, as well as the conditions in which these learning difficulties appear.
This thesis project will focus on three main objectives: (1) To evaluate the transfer of cognitive and motor learning between different tasks that are more or less similar to each other, in children with DCD/Dyspraxia. (2) To contribute to a better characterization of the different subtypes of the disorder. (3) To contribute to a better knowledge of the disorder among people who may be confronted with it, in particular parents, teachers, and children themselves.
This thesis project will be carried out in close collaboration with the OCIRP foundation, and will allow the establishment of a network of partners around the disability in children, as well as the implementation of support and information actions on DCD/Dyspraxia.

Supervisors :
Jérôme CLERC -  jerome.clercuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (jerome[dot]clerc[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
Caroline JOLLY  - caroline.jollyuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (caroline[dot]jolly[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr) -

Keywords : Dyspraxia,Learning,DCD,transfer of learning,

• Read more about Thesis Laureen JOSSERON