Cognitive neuropsychology laboratory

Research in the lab focuses on normal and impaired cognitive functioning in the areas of conceptual representations, visual perception and speech and language with a current focus on stuttering. We are also interested in the impact of sensorimotor deprivation on cognition and brain organization. Our goals are to: (1) understand the mental representations and processes underlying these cognitive functions; (2) understand how these representations and processes are disrupted when the brain is damaged or fails to develop normally and (3) apply the knowledge gained about normal and impaired functioning to the development of effective remediations. To explore these issues, we use a combination of cognitive neuropsychological studies of brain-damaged individuals, of individuals with atypical sensorimotor development and of individuals with learning disabilities, of behavioral studies, including eye-tracking techniques, transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and anatomical and Functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Principal Investigator

Gilles Vannuscorps

PhD students

Amélie Van Thorre
Antoine Vandenbergh
Sarah Pereira Carneiro
Marie Houbben
Virginie Dasse
Elise Masquelier

Postdoctoral researchers

Jean-François Patri
Emmanuelle Bellot

UCLouvain

Michael Andres
Nicolas Masson

International

Alfonso Caramazza (Harvard)
Albert Galaburda (Harvard)
Moritz Wurm (Uni. Trento)

A green future for a new type of dyslexia: prevalence, phenotype, and management.

This project focuses on developmental dyslexia. Three main types are currently recognized: phonological, cerebellar, and magnocellular. My colleagues and I have recently identified a new form, caused by abnormally strong competition between two types of neurons connecting the eye to the brain – the parvocellular and magnocellular neurons. In the lab, we are conducting behavioural studies to clarify the prevalence and visual consequences of this disorder, as well as to corroborate the effect of a chromatic filter I developed to alleviate this imbalance. This way, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of both dyslexia and the visual system

A multi-disciplinary approach to the interplay between cognition and action: From mental representation to muscle control – and back!

The overarching goal of the project is to propose an integrated approach of human behaviour that captures the inter-dependency of perceptive, cognitive, and motor processes, as it normally occurs in everyday life, in both healthy and clinical populations, thereby also offering a new framework to understand the mechanisms underlying cognitive and motor comorbidities.

Vannuscorps, G., Galaburda, A., & Caramazza, A. (2022). Shape-centered representations of bounded regions of space mediate the perception of objects. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 39, 1-50.

Vannuscorps, G., Andres, M. & Caramazza, A. (2020). Efficient recognition of facial expressions does not require motor simulation. eLife 2020;9:e54687

Masson, N., Andres, M., Carneiro Pereira, S., Pesenti, M., & Vannuscorps, G. (2020). Typical exogenous covert shift of attention without the ability to plan eye movements. Current Biology

Vannuscorps*, G., Wurm*, M., Striem-Amit, E., & Caramazza, A. (2019). Large-scale organization of the hand action observation network in individuals born without hands. Cerebral Cortex, 29, 3434-3444.

Vannuscorps, G. & Caramazza, A. (2016). Typical action perception and interpretation without motor simulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A, 113, 86-91

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