My research activities focus on the cognitive aspects of visual processing, in both normal individuals and those who have suffered brain injuries. My main objectives are to identify the normal mechanisms involved in visual processing and to characterize the functional deficits resulting from brain damage. I use behavioural and electrophysiological methods. My current projects concern a number of themes:

1. Reading: visual mechanisms (i.e. shape perception and visuospatial attention) involved in accessing orthographic-lexical knowledge when recognizing written words, and organization of the lexical representation system
2. Visual recognition of objects: properties of the system for encoding visual shapes and representation of structural knowledge

Jean Gagnon, MPs, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, a neuropsychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal. His field of teaching is psychological assessment and personality theories. He is a full member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR) at the Centre de recherche en neuropsychologie et cognition (CERNEC).

My current research mainly concerns the cognitive and cerebral effects of different pediatric diseases and syndromes, such as epilepsy, infantile spasms, tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), prematurity and congenital cardiac anomalies. In the laboratory, I use neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging (optical imaging (NIRS), electroencephalography) and magnetoencephalography (MEG)) to better understand these pathologies and their impact on brain development, identify predictive markers for certain related disorders or developmental prognostics and develop pre-surgical assessment techniques suitable for use with these populations.

Experimental cognitive science, computer models and simulations of cognitive processes and neuroimaging to determine why and how attention functions or fails.

My field of research is cognitive neuropsychology. The approach is characterized by the study of the effects of brain lesions on cognitive functions. I am interested in musical perception and recognition; emotions; language; prosody; and memory. These functions all have a link with musical cognition, which remains my main field of interest. Aside from brain lesions, we also work with neurologically healthy adults or those with a specific congenital disorder (autism, congenital amusia). Lastly, we use various exploration techniques including, currently, event-related potential (ERP) responses, neuroimaging by magnetic resonance and electrodermal responses. Our team has access to two laboratories: one in the psychology department, in the GRENE research centre, and the other at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. I receive financial support for my research work from the NSERC and the CIHR (MRC) and from the FCAR and FRSQ.

Dr. Simon Rigoulot is a Professor of Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR, Dept. of Psychology) and an Associate Professor at Université de Montréal. He studied Cognitive Sciences at Université de Lille (France), and defended his thesis in 2008. His work has been focused on Affective Neurosciences and deals with the neural correlates of the processing of emotional information, in visual and auditory modalities. He is now interested in multimodal emotional information and how individual factors such as cultural background or emotional skills influence this processing. His research methods involve a multi-dimensional approach, combining peripheral (Eye-Tracking, Skin Conductance Response, Heart Rate, Electro-myography…), central (Electro- and Magneto-Encephalography, functional near infrared spectroscopy) and behavioral measures. His projects also aim to shed light on the links between a set of emotional competences (identification, detection, regulation, and utilization) and the development of psychopathologies such as anxiety, depression. In parallel, his interests extended to the study of speech and music, through two specific avenues. The first concerns the role of prosody (tone of voice) in conveying meaningful information, be it emotion or real intention of speakers, such as in irony, lies, innuendos. The second one is about the processing of rhythmic information and the ability of lay participants to synchronize to this type of information, and how attentional and emotional processes can affect this ability.