Associate professor, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
INSERM - U1093 Cognition, Action, and Sensorimotor Plasticity
Until now, I focused my research on behavioral aspects of motor control, with fundamental implications for Space programmes and rehabilitation in medicine. Conditions of altered and particularly microgravity provides a unique method to decouple mass and weight in a manner that is completely novel to a novice subject. In 0g, the arm and the manipulated object have mass but no weight, leading to dramatically new dynamic consequences of movements. To another extent, force field experiments are nowadays able to simulate very realistic uni and bimanual object manipulations that allow to further our understanding of adaptive control. Therefore, this context provides a method to investigate the working and the adaptation of internal models where the usual relationships between variables are profoundly modified.
In my opinion, the future of research in the Neuroscience area lies in understanding of how the brain achieves adaptive and flexible control. In addition of behavioral studies, cutting edge techniques in mathematical modeling and imaging are a necessary condition to further push the limit of our knowledge in this domain. Hopefully, this will have practical implication in medicine therapy. Objects manipulation and interaction with the environment is a good starting point because (1) this activity is worth to be further investigated due to its ubiquity in everyday life, (2) it rests on solid grounds already published , and (3) is the task our brain had to solve in evolution that likely drove forward the devolvement of flexible control strategies and intellectual skills and (4) is crucial to ensure a good quality of life of elderly and impaired population because they keep people independent.
We recently showed why grip force peaks are delayed ca 60ms after an impact as opposed to the usually observed tight coordination between grip and load forces when the latter vary smoothly:
In my opinion, the future of research in the Neuroscience area lies in understanding of how the brain achieves adaptive and flexible control. In addition of behavioral studies, cutting edge techniques in mathematical modeling and imaging are a necessary condition to further push the limit of our knowledge in this domain. Hopefully, this will have practical implication in medicine therapy. Objects manipulation and interaction with the environment is a good starting point because (1) this activity is worth to be further investigated due to its ubiquity in everyday life, (2) it rests on solid grounds already published , and (3) is the task our brain had to solve in evolution that likely drove forward the devolvement of flexible control strategies and intellectual skills and (4) is crucial to ensure a good quality of life of elderly and impaired population because they keep people independent.
We recently showed why grip force peaks are delayed ca 60ms after an impact as opposed to the usually observed tight coordination between grip and load forces when the latter vary smoothly:
We also demonstrated that pupil diameter reflects motor control and learning:
- We disentangle the motor and cognitive components of a fine motor task
- Not only cognitive load, but also pure motor output influences pupil dilation
- Pupil diameters are sensitive to a motor learning task, on a trial basis
- Pupillometry is a valuable method to assess motor imagery in close to real time
More generally, I am also interested in the following questions in the future:
- Can grip force reflexes be modulated depending on the object dynamics and task demands?
- Are vertical arm movement asymmetries flipped in a -1g environment?
- Coding gravity in the brain; an fMRI approach.
- Influence of uncertainty and task demands on the safety margin when manipulating objects
- Estimation of noise in redundant system
- Links between space representation and visuomotor/proprioceptive adaptation
- Does the mechanical continuum between a soft and a stiff elastic force field translate into a gradual adaptation of motor control?
- Use of fractal analysis to measure complexity in motor control
- ...