Raphaël Le Bouc (MD, PhD)

Research Interests (français)

What drives us to do what we do? How does our brain make choices between different rewards, different actions, or adapt behavior to different social contexts? The cognitive and neural bases of motivation are addressed in the recent field of decision neuroscience, and represent a key question in many clinical situations, since abnormal value-based decision-making processes are pervasive in neuro-psychiatric diseases. 

My research goal is to characterize the computational principles and the neural bases of normal and pathological decision-making in healthy subjects and in patients with focal or neurodegenerative lesions, in order to contribute to the development of future diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies for behavioral disorders. 

A particular focus of my work is on using computational modeling in conjunction with neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, VBM, VLSM, etc.) that allow inferring of the patients’ dysfunctional mechanisms in both cognitive and neural terms. This computational approach may therefore not only give insight into the motivation deficit but may help with diagnostic and prognostic, and hence with personalizing treatment. 

Selected key publications

• Pessiglione M., Le Bouc R., Vinckier F.  When decisions talk: computational phenotyping of motivation disorders. Curr Opin Behav Sci. (2018) 22:50-58. 

• Pessiglione M, Vinckier F, Bouret S, Daunizeau J, Le Bouc R.  Why not try harder? Computational approach to motivation deficits in neuro-psychiatric diseases.  Brain. (2017) Nov 29. 

• Le Bouc R, Rigoux L, Schmidt L, Degos B, Welter ML, Vidailhet M, Daunizeau J, Pessiglione M. Computational Dissection of Dopamine Motor and Motivational Functions in Humans. J Neurosci. (2016) Jun 22;36(25):6623-33. 

• Le Bouc R, Pessiglione M.  Imaging social motivation: distinct brain mechanisms drive effort production during collaboration versus competition. J. Neurosci. (2013) Oct 2;33(40):15894-902. 

• Le Bouc R, Lenfant P, Delbeuck X, Ravasi L, Lebert F, Semah F, Pasquier F.  My belief or yours? Differential theory of mind deficits in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Brain. (2012) Oct;135(Pt 10):3026-38.