Research

• Read more about APHANTASIE-LPNC

Perceiving is essentially a decision process, whereby our brain has to deal with multiple uncertain and often ambiguous elements from the sensory input to make sense of the world. This is particularly evident with multistable, ambiguous visual stimuli, where multiple interpretations (percepts) are possible for a single physical stimulus. In this condition, human observers spontaneously alternate between the possible percepts at unpredictable times. This phenomenon has intrigued brain scientists and philosophers for decades, who have addressed questions like “What pushes our brain to switch to a new percept?”, “What factors, in the observer’s experience, conscious will, or learnt behaviors, can help or interfere with perceptual multistability?”.
Another important property of human visual processing is that it is strongly non uniform, meaning that only the central part of the image projected to the eye, reaching the fovea, is processed with high resolution. Therefore, a reliable analysis of the sensory input requires a sequential sampling of information (e.g. collecting different viewpoints and local detailed observations), which is achieved with incessant eye movements: we call this active vision.
Vision-3E builds on the assumption that visual perception results from a dynamic functional loop, which consists of three major building blocks : Expectation about the physical world (through our internal beliefs), Exploration of the sensory evidence, and Exploitation (monitoring) of the combined information resulting from expectation and exploration, to build or update a stable percept of the world. Rather than a mere feed-forward construct we assume fully recurrent connections, since for instance percept-related activity projects back onto the early sensory processing levels, leading in turn to a more focused filtering of the sensory evidence.
We aim at collecting behavioural and physiological evidence about these three key functions— expectation, exploration, and exploitation, in order to better understand and model their interaction. Importantly we also make the assumption that eye movements participate actively to the functional closed-loop, contributing to the sensory exploration and to the filtering of information leading to stabilise the percept (in the exploitation phase).
Hence we will use multiple techniques (visual psychophysics, eye tracking, EEG, fMRI-guided neuro-stimulation) with innovative experimental designs, as well as computational modelling, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of active visual decision-making. We will focus on the particular framework of multistable perception, but we will exploit the consortium synergy to be able to generalize results and interpretations across different visual ambiguous stimuli and different experimental manipulations. The originality of Vision-3E is three-fold: First, as already mentioned, the role of eye movements for perceptual decisions will be thoroughly addressed (including with specific interventional experiments selectively perturbing them). Second, we will integrate a dynamic model of the sequential decisions leading to percept reversals in the standard theoretical stationary framework of multistability. Third, we will extract (offline, then online) oculomotor and EEG markers that will be directly fed into the model, and eventually test its predictive power (offline and online) about forthcoming percept reversals. The online closed-loop stimulation, involving fast computation on the EEG-model-TMS chain is the most ambitious and slightly risky development of the project.
Feasibility and success of the workplan are granted by the strong collaborative attitude and complementary expertise of the consortium members, across five labs and three sites, all provided with state of the art equipment.

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This project proposes an innovative approach to studying the role of gesture in social evaluations and learning across development. Social judgements shape our social world, and can lead to discrimination or conflict. Despite ample evidence that the language someone speaks and their accent drive social preferences, research to date has not addressed how the gestures that routinely accompany speech influence social evaluation. However, gestures are universal, and they show cross-cultural variation. In the proposed project, we will study gesture along with language to uncover the social preferences that result from the integration of multiple communicative cues. We will develop a unique and high-quality set of videos that will manipulate the background of gesture (native vs foreign), and of language (native vs foreign). We will use this set of videos to test the role of gesture in social preferences (WP1), and social learning (WP2) in 5-year-old children and 12-14-month-old infants. More specifically, we will test how different combinations of gesture and language (both native, both foreign, or mismatched) affect social preferences and learning across development. This project will provide the first evidence about the link between gestural communication and intergroup cognition, and how it unfolds across development. This could lead to new research and breakthroughs in our understanding of gestural communication and its connection to other cognitive processes. This project brings together two experienced developmental scientists with expertise in cultural learning, gesture research and nonverbal communication: Dr Cristina Galusca, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Neurocognition Laboratory at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Grenoble, France, and Prof Gerlind Grosse, from the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany.

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• Read more about ANR SocialGesture

Macular degeneration is the main cause of visual impairment in Western countries. It is manifested by the gradual appearance of a scotoma in the macula which causes central vision loss and considerably handicaps patients in their everyday life.

ReVis-MD is an interdisciplinary and multi-centric project (Toulouse / Grenoble) which aims at better understanding functional reorganization in patients following the onset of the scotoma. By combining ophthalmological, psychophysical, neuronal (fMRI) and neuro-computational (artificial neural networks) measurements, the project pursues three main objectives.

The first objective is to characterize the cortical reorganizations which spontaneously occur in patients and how they modify their visuo-cognitive skills, in comparison with a control group of age-matched participants whose central vision is masked by an artificial scotoma in order to reproduce the same visual stimulation conditions as in patients. Our hypothesis is that central vision loss in patients could be partially compensated by an improvement of their visual-cognitive skills in peripheral vision which remains preserved. This hypothesis will be tested in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as well as in patients with the juvenile form of the disease (Stargardt syndrome). In particular, we will test their ability to detect movements and recognize visual scenes.

The second objective of the project is to test whether these cortical reorganizations can be reinforced by perceptual learning approaches based on intensive training of the patient visuo-cognitive skills in peripheral vision. Patients (AMD and Stargardt Syndrome), as well as age-matched controls whose central vision will be masked by an artificial scotoma, will have to carry out psychophysical tasks based on motion disctrimination and visual scene categorization over several weeks. We will characterize the evolution of performances for each of the group, as well as the potential changes in their fMRI activations after training. This will allow us to quantify learning effects in each patient with respect to his/her control. If successful, the project could pave the way for future rehabilitation strategies for patients based on perceptual learning.

The third objective of the project is to model the spontaneous and training-induced reorganizations from approaches in computational neurosciences. For this, we will use neural networks which will be trained with images or videos masked by an artificial scotoma. The properties of the network after learning will permit to better understand the mechanisms involved in reorganizations (for example, do they occur following changes in cortico-cortical connections?). In order to validate the model, the network responses will be compared with those measured in patients (fMRI and psychophysics). The network will also be used to predict the effects of other types of learning (e.g., using stimuli such as faces).

The project has multiple implications at the scientific, clinical and societal level. In particular, it could improve rehabilitation strategies for patients suffering from macular degeneration, but also from other visual diseases (glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa) or more generally from sensory deficits following a pathology or stroke. The data collected during the project will be made available to the scientific community on servers and the results promoted both academically and to the general public.

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LAMI project aims to explore the links between two cognitive systems: language and motor imagery, with the aim of exploiting their link to improve behavioral performance in these systems (specifically at the level of language comprehension and motor learning). Indeed, better knowledge of the links between these two systems will make it possible to propose a "cross-systems" training which has the advantage of strengthening the links and improving the behavioral performance of the targeted cognitive system. To do this, we have formed a consortium with complementary theoretical expertise and methodological approach. We propose to 1) explore the bidirectionality of these links and the presence of common representations 2) characterize the links between these two cognitive functions at the anatomo-functional level, to allow us to induce a plasticity of these cognitive networks which would allow the improvement of behavioral performances 3) to propose training programs which exploit these links in particular to improve the comprehension of language by training motor imagery, the improvement of motor performances by training action language in addition to motor imagery. These programs could be evaluated in specific populations such as second language learners and high-level athletes. We expect that in the future LAMI will be able to open avenues on clinical applied rehabilitation programs to be used with the pathological population.
key words: language comprehension , motor imagery, motor learning, action verbs

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During speech, singing, or music playing, the auditory feedback involves both an aerial component received by the external ear, and an internal vibration: the ‘bone conduction’ component. While the speaker or musician hears both components, a listener only hears the aerial part. Thus, a person, child or adult, must learn to control oral sound production with a different information than that communicated. Since von Bekesy (1949), studies have consistently found that about half of the cochlear signal comes from bone conduction, but the information it conveys, and how it impacts oral motor control, is still unclear. Previous studies have highlighted important differences in spectral balance between the aerial- and bone-conducted signal during speech, but these studies have not led to an understanding of their possible difference in terms of informational content. Besides, nearly nothing is known of the bone-conducted feedback of other oral audiomotor behaviors like singing or playing a wind instrument through a mouthpiece (although modulation of auditory feedback by ear protectors is obvious, and some studies noted their behavioral consequences). Recent preliminary findings of our consortium suggest that specific information exists in the bone-conducted signal of speech, and in particular, information related to articulator (tongue) position. This intriguing observation warrants further examination and raises several questions. How does the bone-conducted component differ from the aerial component in general, during oral audiomotor tasks (speech, singing, playing a wind instrument), and can we explain these differences, e.g. link them to articulator motion? Are these differences typical, or does bone-conducted auditory feedback vary significantly among individuals and could explain behavioral idiosyncrasies? Can we recover the complete auditory signal that subjects obtain during oral audiomotor tasks, that is, including faithfully its bone-conducted part? How does bone-conduction affect perception of ones’ production in speech and music; in particular, does it lead to biases in auditory perception? Last, does bone-conducted sound guide audiomotor behavior, or in other words, is sound production guided by sounds that cannot be perceived by the interlocutor or the audience? The aim of the present project is to tackle these questions by combining 1) careful experimental extraction of the bone-conducted component thanks to deep in-ear recording during speech and music production, using a specially developed experimental apparatus; 2) a modeling approach, using signal processing, statistical and information-theoretic tools; 3) experimental psychoacoustics to analyze auditory perception; and 4) a sensory modification method for which a novel technique based on sound cancelation will be developed, in order to demonstrate behavioral consequences of a bone conduction perturbation. Answers to the aforementioned questions should help appreciate the role of the invisible part of the auditory iceberg, understand how the central nervous system uses the auditory feedback even when its acoustic communicative goal is different, and pave the way for further research on audiomotor control, in particular its short-term flexibility and longer-term plasticity. Our consortium unites specialists of sensorimotor control, acoustics, phonetics, psychoacoustics, music and modeling around this undertaking, that should contribute both to behavioral/cognitive neuroscience, phonetics and to artistic practice, and could translate down the road into improvements in speech therapy, speech communication systems and ear protection devices.

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• Read more about ANR INCEPTION-CONTROL

People have an implicit tendency to perceive and treat other members of their in-group more positively: Ingroup Preferece (IGP). Its emergence and development remains unclear. 9-month-olds are doing both perceptual and social categories for individuals. We will explore the interactions between face and speech processing in the context of the development of the IGP. In infants, we will test the hypothesis that hearing the native language in combination with looking at an own-race face versus hearing a non-native language combined with another-race face boosts the IGP. In a second part, we will not only record electroencephalography (EEG) during frequency-tagging, providing implicit quantifiable measures of IGP objectively comparable across development, but also test for evidence of interactions between face and speech processing in the context of the IGP in adults and infants. Our results will be key for understanding how infants represent their social world and determining the factors influencing their representation of others and the emergence of IGP.

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• Read more about ANR IGBDEV

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• Read more about ANR EULALIES

In recent decades, the world around us has experienced profound technological changes, driven in particular by advances in autonomy, robotics and artificial intelligence. Today, human agents are regularly confronted highly automated, even autonomous systems, whose the primary role is to supervise these new artificial partners. This major change in the role assigned to human operators has generated new risks related to human factors. These riks include in particular difficulties in understanding artificial agents, detecting their errors and taking them in hand when necessary, a set of problems grouped together under the term "out of the loop phenomenon" (or ("OOL performance problem". Although widely studied, this out of loop phenomenon remains to this day very difficult to characterize, and even more difficult to compensate. Our observation is that of an explanatory weakness regarding the concepts and tools used when it comes to studying this phenomenon.In this context, our project aims to propose new tools inspired by recent work in cognitive and computational neuroscience in order to better understand and characterize this OOL phenomenon. and prevent it. In particular, through the use and joint analysis of electroencephalographic and oculometric signals, the EMOOL project aims to provide a tool to better characterize the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the supervision activity of an automated system, but also to better understand how this activity evolves during OOL situations. One of the major and innovative interests of this coupling lies in analysis of the dynamics of the supervision activity during more ecological dynamic supervision tasks such as those envisaged in the research project in an aeronautical context (i.e. supervision task of obstacle avoidance assistance system), involving visual exploration and continuous information processing. The emotional context, so important in the aeronautical context, likely to modulate this visual exploration will, moreover, be modulated in order to study its influence on the supervision activity and the emergence of the OOL phenomenon. Finally, our project aims to develop a first model for estimating supervision activity based on brain and/or eye tracking markers using deep learning methods and methodological approaches taking into account the spatio-temporal dynamics of the OOL phenomenon. The scientific challenges are multiple, such as the induction of the OOL phenomenon, the manipulation of the emotional context, the combined analysis of EEG and eye tracking data in an ecological and dynamic context, and the identification of sufficiently discriminating and robust features of the OOL state in order to develop a model for estimating the supervision activity. The works proposed in this project, although instantiated here in tasks specific to aeronautics, seems to us both ambitious from a scientific point of view and potentially disruptive from an applied point of view. Finally, this work will open up new perspectives on the real-time compensation of this phenomenon.

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Power imbalance occupies a central place in reflections on gender relations. Be it sexual violence (e.g. #MeToo), wage inequalities, or unequal conversation dynamics (e.g. mansplaining), the control of power by men is at the heart of current societal concerns and gender studies. The concept of gender is tightly intertwined with the notion of hierarchy, as in nearly all human societies gender categories are shaped by inequalities in status, resources, or rights. From a psychological viewpoint, people often view the gender distinction as a status distinction, which may lead them to conform their behavior to gender hierarchies. The internalization of gender norms and the adoption of gender-typed behaviors is likely to emerge in early childhood. Since the association between power and masculinity in children’s representations may entrench and perpetuate gender inequalities, it is paramount to understand how and when children become sensitive to the power imbalance between genders.

While much is known about adults' conceptions of power and gender, research has rarely addressed this issue in children. First, most studies on understanding of dominance and power in infants and preschoolers have neglected the gender issue, using stimuli that involve interactions between two characters who are either non-gendered, of a single gender, or whose gender is confounded with the participant's gender. Second, studies on early conceptions of gender have neglected to explore how children view power dynamics between males and females, focusing instead on their ability to distinguish between the traits, behaviors, preferences, activities, or even symbolic qualities that are stereotypically associated with males and females. Furthermore, when some of these studies did address children’s representations of gender inequalities, they called upon complex notions such as occupational status, economy, politics, all of which are far beyond the youngest children’s experience of the social world.

Based on an experimental approach CHILD-GAP addresses three key questions: 1) Do infants and preschoolers have specific expectations about gendered power? 2) What are children’s attitudes regarding gendered power? 3) How do they conceive of their own identity in the context of gendered power? We will study several factors that might modulate the mechanisms underlying these representatinos. First, we will examine how children associate gender with different types of power, as power manifests in several forms that might be more or less prosocial. Second, we will focus not only on preschool and school-age children children, but also on infants and toddlers. Given that in their first year of life, infants show some understanding of concepts such as dominance, and are able to make gender distinctions, it is worth asking whether they understand gendered notions of power. In addition, we will analyze how children’s representations of gendered power change as they grow older. Third, children’s expectations, attitudes and self-concepts with regards to gender and power are likely to be modulated by their own gender, as children as young as 4 years an own-gender preference. Fourth, because children's cultural environment is likely to influence their conceptions of gender, we will carry out some of our experiments not only in France but also in countries that differ greatly in terms of gender gap, namely Norway and Lebanon.

By considering all these factors, we believe that CHILD-GAP will advance our knowledge of the early development of representations linking gender and power, and that it could be the building block for intervention research to reduce power imbalance in gender relations.

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