Research

This project aims to reduce difficulties in learning to read and write in the first year of primary school (CP) by promoting 2 practices recognised as effective: encoding and targeted activities carried out with small groups of at-risk pupils. ECRIMO is an application designed to encourage independent encoding practice and enable teachers to work more often with small groups of pupils. An initial prototype for a tablet was developed as part of a previous project. It will be improved through collaborative research with a team of 5 teachers. Its usability and acceptability will be measured and optimised between the 1st prototype and the final product. Its effectiveness will be tested in 2 phases, on pupil progress and also on teaching practices (particularly the frequency of activities in small groups). Finally, the project will also answer the question of the value of gamification for this type of application.

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From 18 months, children acquire words at a remarkable nonlinear pace, a phenomenon called vocabulary burst. While this burst has been widely reported, the mechanisms underlying it remain unknown. I posit that one key mechanism behind it is the development of attentional control towards talking faces. Notably, the mouth region of talking faces provides redundant audiovisual cues: focusing on is a good strategy to better memorize the sounds contained in these words. Yet, attentional control is immature in young children. My first hypothesis is that the benefit provided by talking faces should emerge when attentional control is efficient enough to start a vocabulary burst. My second hypothesis is that atypical attention control towards talking faces derails vocabulary burst and causes the word learning difficulties observed in children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD). In WP1, I use eye-tracking to measure how children attentional scanning to fully visible and masked talking faces teaching them new words, and how these scanning pattern have cascading effects on their word learning performances. I test these questions at the onset (12 months) and after different levels of improvement of their attentional control system (18 & 24 months). I also assess these questions in children with DLD (aged between 6 and 11 years of age) and TD children (aged-matched to children with DLD). In WP2, I devise computational models to tease apart the influence of attentional control mechanisms in participants’ exploration of talking faces and word learning trajectories, to identify the atypical/immature attentional mechanisms of word learning. This project presents critical theoretical, educational and clinical implications, but also tackles a question of public health relevance relative to the impact of face masks on language learning. In addition to its scientific merits, this JCJC provides a mechanism for launching my career to advance already thriving research programs.ttaquant au verrou scientifique des mécanismes cognitifs de l’apprentissage, ce projet favorisera ma prise de responsabilité et la construction de mon équipe de recherche. 

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• Read more about ANR CONTROLEARN

Monica BACIU

Mathilde SAUVEE

Olivier MOREAUD

The incidence of cognitive neurodegenerative diseases (CND) increases with age. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common. Other diseases related to Alzheimer's disease (AD) share common features with AD, but vary in terms of genetics, clinical course, neuropsychology, proteinopathy, neuroimaging, evolution and management. A major advance is the use of biomarkers in CSF to approach neuropathological diagnosis. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods applied to multimodal parameters have real phenotyping potential (i.e. automatically identifying multimodal characteristics specific to a pathology, enabling it to be distinguished from others). In addition, the development of AI-based clinical decision support atlases is booming. We have a retrospective database with prospective potential that will enable us to carry out this project.

An example is provided in the image above.

CN= cognitive normal; sMCI= Stable mild cognitive impairment; pMCI= Progressive MCI; AD= Alzheimer's disease; FTLD: Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.

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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