Current models of cognitive functioning consider visual perception as a proactive process which is not only determined by the characteristics of sensory inputs, but also strongly depends on expectations we have about them. However, the extent to which what we know influence what we see it still a matter of intense debate. The EXPER project aims to address this issue and provide a comprehensive understanding of how expectations (and more broadly cognition) shape visual perception. Our main working hypothesis is that expectations qualitatively affect subjective perception (i.e. how well we see or even what we see). We will test this through a series of psychophysical experiments involving subjective reports on the appearance of expected and unexpected visual stimuli (objects in context), while taking into account various viewing constraints (e.g., processing time, visual noise). We will also address the neural correlates of these effects for the first time, as well as their functional consequences during scene viewing, using EEG recording and eye tracking. This project will have important theoretical implications in the context of the long-standing debate on whether cognition influence perception. It will also shed lights on what determines subjective perception of expected or unexpected visual stimuli under normal viewing conditions and how it may be affected by noise or sensory loss (e.g., while driving on the foggy night, will our perception be dominated by the expected cars or the unexpected presence of a pedestrian on the road?). Results of this project will also have wider applications as the mechanisms investigated here are thought to apply to other sensory modalities and to dysfunction in some psychiatric or developmental disorders. In this context, EXPER also aims to provide robust experimental paradigms that can be easily adapted to quantify these effects in other modalities and populations.

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.

The RECOR program aims to investigate the visual and neural mechanisms involved in the processing of natural scenes, through behavioural and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) investigations on healthy participants and patients with retinal diseases. Therefore, we aim to develop visual tests (based on natural scene image categorization) for the diagnosis of visual deficits and the monitoring of treatments in retinal diseases such as Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) with the investigation of the functional cerebral reorganization of these patients, using fMRI. For this purpose, we will first investigate on healthy participants the hemispheric specialization and retinotopic mapping of spatial frequency processing during scene perception using for the first time large scenes (> 24° of visual angle) which cover a large part of the visual field and movies of these scenes that experimentally “mimic” the sequential processing of spatial frequencies within the visual system ('coarse-to-fine' scheme). Studies will also be conducted on children (4 to 10 years) and aged participants (50 to 70 years) to precise the mechanisms of spatial frequency processing in childhood and normal aging. Then, we will focus on the retino-cortical interaction during scene perception through the investigation of the visual deficits for spatial frequency processing in two contrasted retinal diseases (AMD patients with a central retinal lesion and RP patients with a more peripheral retinal lesion) and the changes in the brain and the retinotopic maps of the visual cortical areas after a lesion of the retina. Finally, we will assess the effect of an anti-VEGF treatment (Ranibizumab) used in the treatment of wet type AMD on the functional cerebral reorganization of these patients. The achievement of this project will have a strong theoretical impact on models of scene perception, and will contribute to improve the children teaching programs (such in reading), the quality of life for older people, and the ophthalmological rehabilitation with novel tools for the diagnostic and the monitoring of future treatments in retinal diseases.

The Sense of Agency (SoA) refers to the subjective experience of being in control of one’s own actions and their consequences. Influential theories about speech development implicitly assume that infants must already have a SoA over their own vocalizations (SoA-V) in order to understand how communication works, but this assumption has never been tested empirically. Thus, in this project we will investigate: 1) how and when infants acquire a SoA-V during the first few months of life, 2) whether this predicts the development of intentional vocal communication, and 3) whether daily caregivers’ responsiveness predicts the emergence of infants’ SoA-V and intentional communication. To do so, we will combine two lines of research. On the one hand, we will build on research involving adult participants that has shown that the functioning of sensorimotor forward models – which can be inferred from neural prediction errors and acoustic compensation – supports the SoA-V. On the other hand, we will build on developmental research that has documented how caregivers' responsiveness impacts infants’ communicative development, and on recent developments in the field that will allow us to measure caregivers’ responsiveness at home. In a longitudinal design combining electroencephalographic recordings (in the lab) and daylong recordings (at home) we will examine: 1) whether infants display neural prediction errors and auditory compensation to altered vocal feedback during proto-conversations with their caregivers when they are 2.5 and 4.5 months; 2) whether these neural and behavioral signatures of SoA-V predict infants' communicative development; 3) by collecting home recordings when infants are 2.5 and 4.5-months, we will investigate whether caregivers’ responsiveness relates to infants emerging SoA-V, and to their communicative development. By combining two previously unconnected lines of research, this project will shed new light on the emergence of the SoA during ontogeny, and how it supports the development of communication.

One important challenge in psychology is to understand to what extent our visual perception of space relies on our body. Although this question is interesting in theoretical and applied respects, this project will focus on theoretical considerations. This question is controversial in psychology of perception since it is not largely accepted that visual perception is sensitive to body properties and social context. Our project is embedded in the economy of action account which posits that visual perception of space depends on the action we intend to perform and on factors functionally relevant to these intended actions. The objectives of the projects are to (1) improve the theoretical basis of this account, (2) to fill empirical lacks about its theoretical statements, and (3) to extend its rational to the integration of social factors in visual perception. We propose three tasks in order to complete these objectives by using original experimental manipulations of our factors of interest and original measures of space perception. By doing so, this project will open the French research about space perception to interesting questions which are mostly investigated by American researchers. Furthermore, the integrative nature and the interdisciplinarity of this project strengthen its originality. The Task 1 aims to investigate if physical features of obstacles (e.g., width or height) lead people to perceive distance to a target differently according to their intended action (Sub-Task 1.1), and to precise when and how the opportunity to use a tool influences perceived distances to this target (Sub-Task 1.2). The Task 2 aims first to investigate if people perceive distance to a target differently when they have the opportunity to use someone to reach it and when making more salient the instrumentality of the other person (Sub-Task 2.1). Second, the Task 2 aims to investigate the relative influence of social relationships (e.g., friendship), social constraints (e.g., personal space invasion), and physical effort on perceived interpersonal distance depending on the intended action (Sub-Task 2.2). The Task 3 aims to extend our previous research about the influence of closeness feeling and social relationship on the perception of apertures (Sub-Task 3.1), and to precise if this effect depends on intended actions (Sub-Task 3.2).