Research

Metacognition, or the ability to evaluate our performance, has been studied extensively in the fields of memory (see above) and visual perception, but much less in other areas such as motor skills. This interdisciplinary thesis project (co-supervised by Céline Souchay, Aïna Chalabaev and Estelle Palluel) therefore aims to explore our self-evaluation capacities in motor tasks. The aim will be to conduct studies that are both 'systematic', i.e. carried out under controlled laboratory conditions, and 'representative', i.e. more ecological.
We will also explore motor metacognition in children and in the context of developmental coordination disorders (dyspraxia).

Financements : CBH Graduate School
Chercheurs : Céline Souchay, Lise Brun

• Read more about Metacognition and motor skills

We seek to identify the electrophysiological mechanisms that give rise to the phenomenal experience associated with the processing of perceptual information, in other words what it feels like to consciously perceive an object. We also study the brain's ability to observe itself, which gives us the so-called metacognitive ability to evaluate and control our own mental states. Our hypothesis is that consciousness and metacognition depend on a mechanism of accumulation of evidence.

• Read more about Axis 4. Perceptual awareness and metacognition

We are developing a neurobiological model of visual recognition. This model is predictive, that is to say it is based on the hypothesis that our brain interprets the external world according to a pre-existing model that it continually updates according to the information, particularly visual and emotional, that it receives. We draw inspiration from this model to produce more efficient artificial intelligence (neural networks).

• Read more about Axis 3. Proactive vision and emotional experience

We study the role of eye movements in perceptual, motor, or cognitive processes using experimental psychology paradigms with controlled but nevertheless ecological stimuli (such as faces and visual scenes). We also use these eye-tracking measurements as biomarkers of cognitive disorders in various ophthalmological pathologies (AMD, glaucoma), neurodegenerative (Parkinson's, Alzheimer's) and psychiatric (bipolar disorders)

• Read more about Axis 2. Active vision and eye movements

We are developing models of visual perception inspired by the biology of retinal neurons. For example, we propose a model of color perception inspired by the mosaic of retinal cones and their non-linear and adaptive processing. Our algorithms significantly improve the color processing of digital images. We therefore apply our models to digital cameras and machine vision systems.

• Read more about Axis 1. Visual sensory inputs

Univ. Grenoble-Alpes

Univ. Normandie

Ecole Polytechnique

In Grenoble, the LPNC (Body and Space team), in collaboration with the GIPSA-Lab (COPERNIC team), we are developing the AdVIS System, a virtual prototype allowing you to reach a target object without vision. The prototype is built on a choice of spatial metrics accessible from an artificial sensor, to be matched with a choice of percepts initiated by sound and tactile stimuli. The effectiveness and comfort of the human-machine interfacing resulting from these choices are tested on typical participants (blindfolded) mainly in a controlled environment, in the laboratory and virtually. In a hot-cold game, they seek to hit a 3-D virtual target in a motion-captured space. The deviations in angle and/or distance from this target are sent in real time according to the position of the index finger seeking to aim and then touch the target

At the University of Normandy, CERREV (Caen) in collaboration with LITIS (Rouen) are developing a tactile belt which indicates through vibrations on the skin around the user's waist their position in relation to beacons placed on their path .

In Palaiseau, the CMAP of the Polytechnique school is developing spatialized sound algorithms making it possible to place a "flying" sound source in front of the person's head as a virtual guide such as a "Tinkerbell" or "Navi" fairy. This fairy replaces a human assistant who normally runs in front of her in the corridor of an athletics stadium track. The culmination of this 24-month project is a festive disabled sports event modeled on the “Laser Run”, which is two combined modern pentathlon events. The person (blind, or deprived of vision) who runs on a circuit, approaches a shooting station with a table on which he must find and take in hand a laser gun, to shoot three times at a target before resume, possibly in relay, the rest of his race on the circuit. Performance requires coordination of the systems developed in the three sites. The main issue is not a hypothetical immediate improvement in the living conditions of these people, but a leisure activity; in fact, competitive play is a situation which stimulates the development of devices, then adapted to everyday life. 

At NU, we guide a person along markers using a tactile belt At UGA, we guide by sound towards a 3D virtual target In Saclay, we guide a person on a racing circuit using spatial sound Bottom: Coordination will allow in Laser Run (modern pentathlon), without eyes, to run on a circuit, find the weapon, aim at the target...

Voir les publications dans le portail HAL ANR

• Read more about ANR SAM-Guide

• Read more about APHANTASIE-LPNC

Monica BACIU

Marcela PERRONE-BERTOLOTTI

Christine BULTEAU

Doctorante: Anna BORNE



Rasmussen encephalitis is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive unilateral hemispheric atrophy. This pathology causes drug-resistant partial epilepsy and is accompanied by progressive, disabling neurocognitive disorders. Due to its drug resistance, the only curative treatment is hemispherotomy, a functional disconnection between the hemispheres. Given the young age of surgery, patients with Rasmussen are expected to benefit from significant brain reorganization that allows significant recovery of cognitive functions, even if it occurs unevenly, depending on the specific developmental trajectories of these functions. and individual cognitive and cerebral reserve. In addition to the cognitive recovery observed in adulthood, different models of brain reorganization have also been described. Therefore, it is of particular interest to understand the strategies recruited by these patients due to neuroplasticity. Overall, this research project aims to evaluate both the cognitive outcome and the reorganization of brain networks in adult patients with Rasmussen encephalitis after hemispherotomy performed during childhood. A multimodal approach will be used, combining experimental psychology and neuropsychology to assess a wide range of cognitive functions (language, executive functions, theory of mind and memory) and clinical scores, as well as fMRI in resting state and DTI-MRI to measure the connectivity of functional and structural networks of the functional hemisphere, respectively. The originality of this work also consists of the development of a new multi-cognitive battery specifically adapted to this population (LEXTOMM, Perrone-Bertolotti, M., 2021). We thus wish to improve our understanding of patients with Rasmussen encephalitis by describing cognitive and cerebral phenotypes, with new directions for cognitive rehabilitation and pre-habilitation to ensure their best possible recovery.

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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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Modèle L∪M langage-union-mémoire (Roger et al., 2022)

See the publications in the HAL-ANR portal

• Read more about ANR REORG