Research

Agency & Interactivity

My research is at the crossroad of human computer communication, cognitive neurosciences and psychiatry. I strive to understand the processes involved in monitoring and controlling one's own social behavior while interacting with another individual, be it a human being or an artificial agent. More specifically, I am studying the sense of agency (the awareness of being the author of one’s action) and the self-monitoring of social behaviors.

Issues pertaining to the control of social behavior are crucial for neuropsychiatric disorders that impede social interactions and emotional communication. I dedicate a large part of my research to Autism Spectrum Disorders, although some of my projects also address depression or schizophrenia. Understanding social control disturbances in these pathologies can help in enhancing treatment approaches, which is one of the goals of my research.

The methods that I use to investigate social behavior are based on human-computer communication technologies, such as virtual reality, avatars, eye-tracking, haptic devices etc. Creating virtual environments that simulate social interactions opens new opportunities for experimental paradigms that are both closer to real life and well controlled.

Projects

Learning and joint attention in autism: Modelization in Social Robotics

(ongoing project)

The goal of this project is to use algorithms developed in computational neurosciences to model learning in people with autism.

Developing and implementing a framework for evidence based practice for technology relevant for autism

(ongoing project)

This project seeks to create a framework to enable the understanding of how to apply evidence based practice to digital technology intended for people with autism. It is a collaboration with the University of Bath (UK) and partners in the University of Edinburgh (UK), the University of Valencia (Spain) and North-Eastern University (USA).

Visual Attention of Adolescents with Autism in Natural Social Situations

(ongoing project)

This project investigates the attention of adolescents and young adults with ASD when they are viewing pictures or movies of real life scenes. This project uses blindness to change paradigms as well as eye-tracking methods to tackle this issue. The project is funded by the International Programs for Scientific Cooperation (PICS) of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

JEMImE project - Serious Game for Children with austim spectrum disorders based on Multimodal Emotion Imitation

(completed project)

This project aims at designing new emotion recognition algorithms to develop a serious game meant to help children with ASD learn to mimic facial and vocal emotions. The project leader is Kévin Bailly and it is funded by the French National Research Agency. For more information, follow the link.

SeNSE project - Socio Emotional Signals

(completed project)

This project focuses on social emotional signals exchanged during an interaction, from signal acquisition (video, audio, neurophysiological) to their exploitation (e.g. virtual agents) through their interpretation and modelling. This project is part of the SMART laboratory of Excellence program. For more information, follow the link.

Social gaze in high functioning autism during face-to-face situations

(completed project)

This project has a twofold goal: It seeks to investigate joint attention and to design a remediation method for training social gaze in Autism Spectrum Disorders. It is based on the use of eye-tracking technologies and virtual human avatars. This project is funded by the Orange Foundation and involves two laboratories (the ISIR and the LIMSI). An article on this topic has been published in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing (see Publications tab).

Computerized training for high functioning autism in pragmatics comprehension and spatial planning

(completed project)

This project was meant to design and test a computerized training specialized for high functioning autism. It was conducted as a partnership between two laboratories (the LIMSI and the Centre Emotion) and was supervised by Pr Jean-Claude Martin and Dr Jacqueline Nadel. Results have been published in Interaction Studies and the International Journal of Human - Computer Studies (see Publications tab). The software is in French language. Contact me if you are interested in testing it.

Examples of the training tasks

Virtual environment for cognitive and social training in high functioning autism

(completed project)

This project was funded by the Fondation de France and Fondation Adrienne et Pierre Sommer. It encompassed three laboratories (LIMSI, LORIA & Centre Emotion) and one hospital (hôpitaux de Chartres). It studied self-monitoring and the sense of agency of social gaze in autism using virtual humans and eye-tracking. Results have been published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (see Publications tab).

Short video presenting this project

Computerized Cognitive Remediation in Depression

(completed project)

This project was a partnership between the Centre Emotion and a company called SBT.

SENSO project - Biomarkers of social sensitivity in major depression

(completed project)

I am the leader of one of the workpackages in this project that is lead by Pr Fossati in the La Salpêtrière hospital.