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

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

My research program is aimed at better understanding the nature of cognitive decline in different neurodegenerative diseases of the brain, as well as the brain changes that are associated with this decline. I have a specific expertise in Alzheimer's disease and atypical forms of dementia (primary progressive aphasias, posterior cortical atrophy, frontotemporal dementia). I am also interested in cognitive decline in individuals with Mild cognitive impairment (MCI). I also have a particular interest in cognitive changes in normal aging and how they are modulated beta-amyloid burden, vascular burden, and cognitive reserve.

More specifically, here are some of my research topics :

• Lexical and semantic disorders in Alzheimer's disease and semantic dementia (sv-PPA)
• Face recognition disorders in dementias and in acquired neurological disorders
• Brain changes associated with normal and pathological aging and how they are related to cognitive decline using different neuroimaging methods (PIB-PET, MRI, MEG)
• Cognitive intervention in older persons presenting with memory deficits