Centre de Recherche Cerveau & Cognition - UMR5549

PhD and Postdoc positions in Simon Thorpe's group.

sceinfo — 2013-05-03T07:29:03Z

Simon Thorpe will have a number of PhD and postdoc positions in his group in the next few years thanks to financing from an ERC Advanced Grant as well as other funding from the French Agence National de Recherche (ANR). The ERC project ("M4 - Memory Mechanisms in Man and Machine") aims to understand how we can recognize visual and auditory stimuli that we have not experienced for decades. The existence of these extremely long duration memories is a major challenge because it is unclear how such memories can be stored in neural hardware. We will be exploring a number of radical suggestions, including the idea that such memories involve the formation of highly selective "grandmother cells" in the neocortex, and the idea that many of these neurons may be totally inactive under normal conditions – a sort of neocortical "Dark Matter". These are two ideas that are currently extremely controversial.

We are looking for people to work on this groundbreaking and interdisciplinary project with a wide range of backgrounds including psychology, neuroscience, computational modeling and even hardware development. We will be developing novel experimental paradigms to study the formation and maintenance of very long term sensory memories. These will be combined with imaging techniques including fMRI imaging, EEG, and intracerebral recording from epileptic patients. In parallel, computer simulations using very large-scale networks of spiking neurons equipped with Spike-Time Dependent Plasticity will attempt to explain the experimental results, but also used to develop bio-inspired hardware systems that can reproduce the learning capacity of the brain using novel memristor-based technologies.

Required

Up to 4 Ph.D positions in Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology and Computer Science. Positions will normally start in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, and Fall 2015.
Up to 6 postdoc positions in Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology and Computer Science for an initial period of 1 year with the possibility of extension, starting anytime from now to 2015.

Desired

The ability to work both individually and as a member of an interdisciplinary team is a strong prerequisite together with proficiency in both written and spoken English.

Different complementary profiles are required. Both students and researchers with a psychological background or with a strong background in computer science, mathematics, and engineering are encouraged to apply. The ideal candidates will have an interest in memory, vision and attention and prior experience in one or more of the following areas :
Psychophysics : research design, data collection and analysis
Programming, familiarity with MATLAB
Eye movement recordings
Intracranial recordings
fMRI data analysis and programming
Image processing and computer vision
Hands-on statistical skills

Job Details

Salary will be in accordance with CNRS norms : €1430 per month for a PhD and a take-home salary of between €2030 and €3250 for a postdoc, depending on experience. In addition, the French system adds additional payments for health, pension and social security contributions, totaling over €1000 per month for a student, and between €1600 and €2500 for a postdoc. Research will be performed on the Purpan hospital site in Toulouse France, mainly at the CerCo lab : Pavillon Baudot - CHU Purpan BP 25202 - 31052 Toulouse Cedex.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should send a CV, a brief statement of research and development interests, and the names and contact details of two references by e-mail to : Simon Thorpe and Nadège Macé (project-m4@cerco.ups-tlse.fr) with subject "PhD-M4" or “Postdoc- M4”. Simon Thorpe will be at the Visual Sciences meeting in Florida (10-15 May) and at the ECVP meeting in Bremen (25-29 August), and will plan job interviews there. Job interviews can also be arranged in Toulouse.

More information

On the lab : http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/ On the position : ask Nadège Macé, project-m4@cerco.ups-tlse.fr On the project :
10 provocative claims of this M4 project : http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/IMG/pdf/Su...
For more information, ask Simon Thorpe, project-m4@cerco.ups-tlse.fr

Le Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition fête ses 20 ans !

sceinfo — 2013-04-10T16:10:57Z

A cette occasion le laboratoire organise une réunion internationale un peu particulière les 4 et 5 Juillet 2013 pour laquelle nous attendons plus de 150 personnes ! A côté des conférences données par des speakers prestigieux, les communications porteront sur les thématiques qui ont été développées par les anciens doctorants formés depuis la création du CerCo et ayant fait carrière dans les milieux scientifiques et académiques mais aussi industriels en France et à l'International. En savoir plus ...

ERC Advanced Grant 2012

2013-02-04T13:19:19Z

L'appel à proposition « Chercheurs confirmés » 2012 du Conseil Européen de la Recherche (ERC) vient de distinguer 302 projets, parmi lesquels celui de Simon J.THORPE "Memory Mechanisms in Man and Machine" (SHS) : Communiqué du CNRS

Nous allons tester 10 postulats provocateurs sur les bases cérébrales de la mémoire à très long terme avec une approche fortement interdisciplinaire impliquant la psychologie, les neurosciences, la modélisation informatique et le développement de "hardware".


Liste des 10 postulats

De nouveaux paradigmes expérimentaux vont étudier la formation et la maintenance de souvenirs sensoriels à très long terme. Ils seront combinés avec les techniques d'imagerie, notamment l'imagerie IRM, l'enregistrement EEG, et l'enregistrement intracérébral chez des patients épileptiques. En parallèle, des simulations informatiques utilisant des réseaux de neurones impulsionnels équipés avec Spike-Time Dependent Plasticity (STDP) vont tenter d'expliquer les résultats expérimentaux, mais aussi de développer des systèmes matériels bio-inspirés qui peuvent reproduire la capacité d'apprentissage du cerveau à l'aide de nouvelles technologies à base de memristor.

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sceinfo — 2013-01-21T11:05:30Z

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Thomas BUSIGNY

thomas Busigny — 2013-01-18T16:17:48Z

#INCLURE (popmode.php)

Thomas BUSIGNY

Post-Doctorant

Mandat de Chargé de Recherches FNRS

Tél : (+33) (0)5-62-74-61-58

Perception and Recognition of Objects and Scenes (PROS)

Research Career

2006-2010 : PhD student supported by the National Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) of Belgium. Clarifying the nature and the specificity of face recognition mechanisms by means of single-case studies of brain-damaged prosopagnosic patients. Supervisor : Professor Bruno Rossion (UCL, Belgium)

2010-2011 : Postdoctoral fellow supported by the National Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) of Belgium. Supervisor : Professor Jason Barton (UBC, Canada)

2011- : Postdoctoral fellow supported by the National Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) of Belgium. Supervisor : Dr Emmanuel Barbeau (CERCO, France)

Research Interests

My PhD concerned the neuropsychological studies of brain-damaged patients suffering from disorders of face recognition (i.e. prosopagnosia). I studied the specificity of face recognition and the nature of perceptual mechanisms involved in face processing. Through several single case studies, I demonstrated that face recognition can be selectively impaired (without any difficulties of processing other objects categories, even when visual similarity is parametrically controlled). I also showed that holistic processing of individual faces is strictly necessary for efficient face recognition. Moreover I studied face familiarity through the studies of two patients for which recognition of personally known faces was investigated.

My current scientific interest is to better understand the cognitive processes underlying familiar faces recognition and access to semantic knowledge for familiar people.

Techniques Used

I'm currently using mainly behavioural studies (with normal people and brain damaged patients).

Publications

Busigny, T., & Rossion, B. (2011). Holistic processing impairment can be restricted to faces in acquired prosopagnosia : Evidence from the global/local Navon effect. Journal of Neuropsychology, 5, 1-14.
Van Belle, G., Busigny, T., Lefèvre, P., Joubert, S., Felician, O., Gentile, F., & Rossion, B. (2011). Impairment of holistic face perception following right occipito-temporal damage in prosopagnosia : Converging evidence from gaze-contingency. Neuropsychologia, 49(11), 3145-3150.
Rossion, B., Dricot, L., Goebel, R., & Busigny, T. (2011). Holistic face categorization in higher order visual areas of the normal and prosopagnosic brain : toward a non-hierarchical view of face perception. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4 : 225, 1-30.
Van Belle, G., Lefèvre, P., Laguesse, R., Busigny, T., de Graef, P., Verfaillie, K., & Rossion, B. (2010). Feature-based processing of personnally familiar faces in prosopagnosia : Evidence from eye-gaze contingency. Behavioural Neurology, 23, 255-257.
Busigny, T., & Rossion, B. (2010). Acquired prosopagnosia is not due to a general impairment in fine-grained recognition of exemplars of a visually homogeneous category. Behavioural Neurology, 23, 229-231.
Busigny, T., Joubert, S., Felician, O., Ceccaldi, M. & Rossion, B. (2010). Holistic perception of the individual face is specific and necessary : evidence from an extensive case study of acquired prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 48, 4057-4092.
Van Belle, G., de Graef, P., Verfaillie, K., Busigny, T., & Rossion, B. (2010). Whole not hole : Expert face recognition requires holistic perception. Neuropsychologia, 48, 2620-2629.
Busigny, T., Graf, M., Mayer, E., & Rossion, B. (2010). Acquired prosopagnosia as a face-specific disorder : Ruling out the general visual similarity account. Neuropsychologia, 48, 2051-2067.
Busigny, T., & Rossion, B. (2010). Acquired prosopagnosia abolishes the face inversion effect. Cortex, 46, 965-981.
Ramon, M., Busigny, T., & Rossion, B. (2010). Impaired holistic processing of unfamiliar individual faces in acquired prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 48(4), 933-944.
Busigny, T., Robaye, L., Dricot, L., & Rossion, B. (2009). Right anterior temporal lobe atrophy and person-based semantic defect : A detailed case study. Neurocase, 15(6), 485-508.

Bibliometry

You can find my publications on Google Scholar here

Keywords

Face recognition, Prosopagnosia, Semantic knowledge on people, Neuropsychology, Holistic face processing

Territoires vasculaires du cerveau : une configuration inattendue

Catherine Marlot — 2012-09-11T09:46:46Z

Le réseau vasculaire du cortex cérébral est beaucoup plus robuste que ce que l'on pensait jusqu'à présent. C'est ce que viennent de montrer des chercheurs de l'Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse (CNRS / INP / Université Toulouse III) et du Centre de recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CNRS / Université Toulouse III) qui ont analysé dans les détails l'organisation structurale et fonctionnelle des réseaux artério-veineux assurant la microcirculation cérébrale.

Ces travaux ont été publiés dans la revue NeuroImage : Guibert, R., Fonta, C., Risser, L. & F. Plouraboué (2012). Coupling and robustness of intra-cortical vascular territories, NeuroImage, 62(1):408-417.

Communiqué du CNRS

Comment le cerveau se réorganise-t-il pendant une période de surdité profonde ?

2012-07-13T08:30:00Z

Comment s'adapte-t-il de nouveau à l'audition ? Quels mécanismes cérébraux régissent la récupération de la parole chez les personnes sourdes portant un implant cochléaire ? Telles sont les questions sur lesquelles se sont penchés des chercheurs du Centre de recherche cerveau et cognition (CerCo, CNRS/Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier), en engageant une étude d'imagerie cérébrale chez des patients sourds implantés cochléaires. Fruits d'une étroite collaboration avec le service ORL de l'hôpital Purpan à Toulouse, ces travaux publiés le 6 mai 2011 dans Human brain mapping révèlent comment les régions du cerveau impliquées dans l'audition ou la vision se réorganisent au fur et à mesure de la récupération.

Evolution of crossmodal reorganization of the voice area in cochlear-implanted deaf patients, J. Rouger, S. Lagleyre, J. F. Démonet, B. Fraysse, O. Deguine, P. Barone, Hum Brain Mapping, 2012, 33(8), 1929–1940.

Published online May 6, 2011, doi:10.1002/hbm.21331.

CNRS actualités

Appel à candidature Contrat Doctoral Unique PRES de Toulouse -Région Midi-Pyrénées (contrat de 3 ans)

sceinfo — 2012-07-10T08:57:00Z

Appel à candidature Contrat Doctoral Unique PRES de Toulouse -Région Midi-Pyrénées (contrat de 3 ans)

Thème de la recherche : La synesthésie chez l'enfant : aspects développementaux et neurophysiologiques L'objectif de ce projet de recherche est de mieux comprendre le développement de la synesthésie chez l'enfant. Cette particularité du fonctionnement normal qui permet de percevoir de façon constante et involontaire de manière multimodale des objets qui sont habituellement perçus unimodalement (ex. une lettre est associée à une couleur) concerne environ 5% de la population. Cette particularité peut concerner toutes les modalités sensorielles (ex. association goût/sensation tactile) mais l'association lettre/couleur est celle qui a été la plus fréquemment étudiée et concernerait entre 1 et 2% de la population générale. Cependant très peu de travaux concernent l'enfant alors que pour certains chercheurs, cette particularité se met en place au cours du développement en particulier au moment où l'enfant est confronté aux premiers apprentissages de la langue écrite. L'objectif de ce projet est double ; d'une part, il s'agit de comprendre comment se met en place la synesthésie graphème-couleur chez l'enfant en évaluant sa prévalence dans la population générale entre 5 et 7 ans. D'autre part il s'agit d'analyser ensuite les corrélats neuronaux présents chez les synesthètes une fois repérés. Direction scientifique du projet de recherche : Michèle Guidetti (Octogone, EA 4156, Université Toulouse 2) et Jean-Michel Hupé (CerCo, UMR 5549, Université Toulouse 3/CNRS) Diplôme requis : Master 2 (R ou P, psychologie cognitive ou du développement, neurosciences ou sciences cognitives)
Compétences particulières requises :

Psychologie du développement
Neurosciences
Anglais
Capacités à établir de bons contacts avec de jeunes enfants et les institutions scolaires
Conditions particulières : Inscription à l'école doctorale CLESCO (thèse mention Psychologie) à l'UTM, sous la direction des Pr. Michèle Guidetti et Dr. Jean-Michel Hupé
Conditions pour postuler : envoyer un dossier par voie électronique comprenant :
CV (avec liste des publications ou réalisations),
résumé du mémoire de M2,
lettre de motivation,
relevé de notes L, M1 et M2.
Le dossier est à envoyer par email aux adresses suivantes avant le 1er septembre 2012 : guidetti@univ-tlse2.fr ; hupe@cerco.ups-tlse.fr Les candidats retenus sur dossier seront auditionnés le 10 septembre 2012 à l'Université Toulouse 2. La date définitive d'attribution par le conseil de l'ED est fixée au 21 septembre. Début du contrat 1er octobre 2012 (rémunération : 1684,93 € salaire brut mensuel). Financement sur 3 ans ; CDU type 1

Douglas Mclelland

douglas mclelland — 2012-04-05T14:28:02Z

Current research

I'm currently a post-doc in Rufin VanRullen's lab, working on a computer model of oscillatory network computations. Specifically, I'm interested in the interplay between oscillations at different frequencies (e.g. theta and gamma). The model is designed to test the implementation of two influential theories :

John Lisman's theory of the sequential activation of neuron groups representing items, with each item constrained to a single gamma cycle, and the sequence of items set across the theta cycle (it's recognised that more strongly driven neurons will be activated at an earlier phase of the theta cycle, thus this is a convenient way of controlling item order by saliency).
Pascal Fries' theory of communication-through-coherence, whereby communication of the activity of a group of neurons in a lower level to a higher level is facilitated by matching the phase of gamma oscillations in the two layers. In effect, the higher level can be made to 'listen' to one or other group of neurons in the lower level simply by manipulating the phase of the gamma oscillations. In this case, the role of the slower oscillation (theta or alpha) is to periodically break the locking of activity between layers, allowing the system to explore the different items being represented in the lower level.

Previous Research

For my DPhil, in Dr Ole Paulsen's lab at the University of Oxford (at the time), I studied the responses of hippocampal pyramidal cells in vitro, using whole-cell patch clamp and dynamic clamp. We were interested in the computations performed by cells receiving oscillatory input (of physiologically relevant amplitude and frequency). Consistent with theoretical predictions, these cells perform a systematic transformation from the level of excitatory input (DC) to the phase of firing relative to a theta frequency oscillation (a rate-to-phase transform). This was not true for a gamma frequency oscillation. The experimental work was extended by single-cell modelling and an analytical description of the system, showing that this kind of behaviour is very generalisable (it is not some special property of hippocampal pyramidal cells, rather the simplest integrate-and-fire model shows this kind of behaviour), and setting out a framework for understanding the parameter ranges for which it's valid, and for the effects of basic cell properties on the behaviour (membrane time constant, oscillation frequency and amplitude...). Finally, I used an information theoretic analysis to show that, in our experimental data, the phase of firing carried more information about the level of DC input than did the rate of firing.

More recently, I worked as a post-doc in Dr Wyeth Bair's lab at the University of Oxford, combining single-unit recording in the early visual system in vivo with network modelling. Broadly we looked at adaptive neural computations, with my work following two strands

Neural responses both during and after the presentation of prolonged static stimuli (thus, presumably, the responses underlying the perceptual phenomena of visual fading and negative afterimages). Here we were looking at adaptation on a long time scale, with both responses and after-responses in V1 decaying with a time constant on the order of seconds, and in the LGN, on the order of tens of seconds.
Adaptive computation in the motion pathway. Previously, Wyeth had shown that direction selective cells in V1 (and in MT) change their temporal integration as a function of stimulus statistics, such that a shorter time window of integration is implemented for a fast-moving stimulus (and vice versa), termed Adaptive Temporal Integration (ATI). This relates to a larger body of work describing a change in neural processing (both gain and temporal integration) as a function of stimulus statistics, that is phenomenologically similar across systems (typically, as stimulus variance increases, both gain and time window of integration decrease, described with respect to visual contrast and motion, and also in the auditory system). We used a novel experimental paradigm using a combination of differently oriented stimulus gratings to investigate the mechanisms underlying ATI.

Publications

Ahmed B, Cordery PM, McLelland D, Bair W & Krug K (2012) "Long-range clustered connections within extrastriate visual area V5/MT of the rhesus macaque." Cereb Cortex 22(1):60-73

Kwag J*, McLelland D*, Paulsen O (2011) "Phase of firing as a local window for efficient neuronal computation : tonic and phasic mechanisms in the control of theta spike phase." Front Hum Neurosci 5:3 *equal contribution

McLelland D, Baker PM, Ahmed B & Bair W (2010) "Neuronal responses during and after the presentation of static visual stimuli in macaque primary visual cortex." J Neurosci 30(38):12619-31

McLelland D, Ahmed B & Bair W (2009) "Responses to static visual images in macaque lateral geniculate nucleus : implications for adaptation, negative afterimages, and visual fading." J Neurosci 29(28):8996-9001

McLelland D, Paulsen O (2009) "Neuronal oscillations and the rate-to-phase transform : mechanism, model and mutual information." J Physiol 587:769-85

McLelland D, Paulsen O (2007) "Cortical songs revisited : a lesson in statistics." Neuron 53(3):319-21

Conferences Presentations and Invited Lectures

ECVP 2011, Toulouse : "Neural Response to Prolonged Static Visual Stimuli : Modelling Afterimages"

University of Toulouse, 2011 : "Insights from Visual Illusions : Neuronal Responses During and After the Presentation of Prolonged Stationary Visual Stimuli"

FENS 2010 : "Cortical normalization and the origins of adaptive temporal integration of motion in macaque primary visual cortex"

COSYNE 2010 : "Temporal integration of motion and cortical normalization in macaque V1"

SfN 2009 : "Responses and After-Responses to Prolonged Static Stimuli in V1 of the Macaque"

SfN 2008 : "Neuronal Correlates of Visual Afterimages in Macaque LGN"

Bristol University, 2008 : "Neuronal correlates of visual afterimages place novel constraints on cortical circuits"

Richardson Lecture, Keble College, Oxford, 2008 : "Tricking the Brain— to See How It Works : Scientific Insights from Visual Illusions"

COSYNE 2007 : "The Origin of Adaptive Temporal Integration in Visual Cortex"

COSYNE 2006 : "Oscillations enhance the information efficiency of individual hippocampal pyramidal cells"

Teaching

sceinfo — 2012-03-30T09:59:54Z

ENSEIGNEMENTS DISPENSES PAR LES ENSEIGNANTS-CHERCHEURS ET CHERCHEURS DU CerCo

En Sciences de la Vie (Université Paul Sabatier et Centre Jean-François Champollion)

LICENCE

L1 BIO : L1BIO26FOP Physiologie - Animale- Endocrinologie et fonctionnement du système nerveux (Ghislaine RICHARD) CJFC
L2BIO : L2BIO44FOS Les grandes fonctions physiologiques - Neurosciences (Ghislaine RICHARD) CJFC
L2 BIO (CJFC*) (2ème année) Méthodologie expérimentale (Alexandra SEVERAC CAUQUIL) UPS
L2 SVS* (2ème année) : 3L3BP3M-Neurophysiologie Motricité et anatomie du système nerveux (Florence REMY EL BOUSTANI) UPS
L2 SVS* (2ème année) : 3L4BP5M-Neurobiologie Evaluation de la douleur (Laura DUGUE) UPS
L2 SVS* (2ème année) : 3L4BP5M-Neurobiologie Evaluation de la douleur (Laura DUGUE, Florence REMY EL BOUSTANI) UPS
L2 BIO410FOP Introduction aux techniques bibliographiques (Ghislaine RICHARD) CJFC
L2,L3 : L2BIO36FOP Introduction aux Neurosciences (Ghislaine RICHARD) CJFC
L3PCESVT : EL5PCED2 Motricité volontaire (Alexandra SEVERAC CAUQUIL)
L3 BCP et MABS : EL5BIOC2 Méthodologie expérimentale (Alexandra SEVERAC CAUQUIL, Florence REMY EL BOUSTANI, Laura DUGUE) UPS
L3 SVS* (3ème année) : L6BC4M-Fonctions nerveuses intégrées La vision de la rétine à V1 (Ghislaine RICHARD) Régulation de l'oculomotricité (Alexandra SEVERAC CAUQUIL) UPS

En médecine (Université Paul Sabatier)

DCEM3 : Enseignement de l'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie dans le cadre du pôle céphalique (Olivier DEGUINE)
DES : Enseignement au Diplôme d' Etudes Spécialisées d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie cervico-faciale (Olivier DEGUINE)
DESC : Enseignement au Diplôme d' Etudes Spécialistées Complémentaire d'Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie cervico-faciale (Olivier DEGUINE)
Cours de Chirurgie Otologie et Otoneurochirurgie (Olivier DEGUINE)
Formation Médicale Continue et post-universitaire (Olivier DEGUINE)

En Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, filière Psychologie (Université Toulouse le Mirail et Centre Jean-François Champollion)

L2 PY0014-Neuropsychophysiologie (Alexandra SEVERAC CAUQUIL)

Anatomie du Système nerveux
Neurones et Synapses
Physiologie de la Perception
La Motricité
Les Emotions
Imagerie cérébrale
Chronobiologie
Sommeil 3

AUTRES ENSEIGNEMENTS

Paramédical

DU d'orthoptie de Toulouse (première et deuxième années) (Yves TROTTER)
Orthophonie : Module Audition (Olivier DEGUINE)
DU d'orthoptie Hôpital XV-XX Paris (troisième année) (Yves TROTTER)
DU de strabologie de Nantes (Yves TROTTER)
Maitrise et diplôme d'université d'optométrie d'Orsay, univ. Paris-Sud 11 (Yves TROTTER)

Ecole vétérinaire

I-31ENVT-Chir-07 : Formation de Neuro-anatomie, Neuro-Histologie, Neuro-chirurgie des animaux de laboratoire application à la Neurobiologie Expérimentale (Caroline FONTA))

Filière Espace et Aéronautique

Master of Space Studies (ISU International Space University) (Gilles CLEMENT)
Summer Session Program (ISU International Space University) (Gilles CLEMENT)
Capacité de médecine aéronautique et Spatiale (Gilles CLEMENT)