My research concerns the understanding of spatial somatosensory characteristics, i.e., how tactile information arising from the skin is interpreted by the brain as being located in the external world.
In particular, my studies are focused on how movement and body representations are construed and interact with tactile information. Further, I work on how sensory information influences motor behaviour, in healthy subjects but also in neurological and psychiatric pathologies. Technically, I use a combination of behavioural and neurophysiological methods such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), MRI and EEG.
Lucile Dupin, PhD
Since 2022, I am CNRS researcher at the INCC in the Spatial Orientation Group (link). I was previously post-doctoral fellow at the Institut de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences de Paris (Inserm/Université de Paris) between 2018 and 2022 where I investigated spatial characteristics of touch related to body representation in healthy population, neurologicial (post-stroke) and psychiatric (anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia) diseases.
I obtained my PhD at the Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception (CNRS/Université Paris Descartes) on spatial perception in haptics. I continued as postdoctoral researcher in "Manual dexterity in Health and Disease" laboratory (CNRS/Université Paris Descartes) working on sensory-motor impairments in schizophrenia. Then I obtained a FYSSEN fellowship for a post-doctoral research position at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience UCL, London. There I studied the role of movement on tactile localization. This was followed by a short post-doctoral position at the ENS in Paris.
Publications and communications can be find here
Selected research below:
Selected work
Touch, movement and space
Dynamic Displacement Vector Interacts with Tactile Localization
L Dupin, P Haggard
Current Biology 29 (3), 492-498. e3 (2019)
Human tactile localization is biased by simultaneous finger displacement
The shift between two successive events biases the relative localization of touches
The bias effect is vectorially organized
Interplay of tactile and motor information in constructing spatial self-perception.
A Cataldo*, L Dupin *, H Dempsey-Jones ,Gomi H, P Haggard P *Equal contribution
Current Biology 32 (6), 1301-1309 (2022)
Sensorimotor signals underlying space perception: An investigation based on self-touch.
A Cataldo, L Dupin , H Gomi, P Haggard P Neuropsychologia. (2021)
Many theories of space perception give motor signals an underpinning role. Movement, especially if self-generated rather than passive, strongly affected touch. Crucially, touch input also affected judgements of movement. Our results warrant a revision of strong motor-based theories of space perception.
Direct coupling of haptic signals between hands
L Dupin, V Hayward, M Wexler
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (2), 619-624 (2015)
When we actively explore objects by touch, the brain receives two types of signals, tactile sensory inputs and signals about the exploratory movement, which must be combined to perceive the shape and location of objects in space. Whereas these signals usually come from the same body part, we have developed a technique to separate them, directing the tactile signals to one hand and the movement signals to the other. We find that separated and synchronized signals are combined as if they arose from the same hand. Our results suggest that to solve the difficult problem of multidimensional signal combination in touch perception, the brain uses a simplified, source independent representation of movement.
Cortical activations associated with spatial remapping of finger touch using EEG
A Alouit, M Gavaret, C Ramdani, PG Lindberg, L Dupin
Cerebral Cortex, 34(4) (2024)
The spatial coding of tactile information is functionally essential for touch-based shape perception and motor control. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of how tactile information is remapped from the somatotopic reference frame in the primary somatosensory cortex to the spatiotopic reference frame remains unclear. This study investigated how hand position in space or posture influences cortical somatosensory processing. Results suggest that tactile remapping of fingers after electrical stimulation occurs around 100–125 ms in the parietal cortex
Body representations and somatosensory localization in health and disease
Spatial hand representation in anorexia nervosa: a controlled pilot study
J. Verbe,P.G.Lindberg, P.Gorwood, L. Dupin* & P. Duriez*
Scientific Reports, 11(19724) (2021)
*Equal contribution
Body representation distortion (BRD) is a core criterion of Anorexia Nervosa (AN), and is usually assessed subjectively, focusing on body shape. We aimed to develop a new assessment to evaluate body representation independently from socially-mediated body image, on a body part with low emotional salience (hands).Our results propose that BRD is not limited to body parts with high emotional salience, strengthening the hypothesis that anorexia nervosa is associated with profound unspecific BRD.
The shrinking of the spatial hand representation across lifespan
Dupin L, Cuenca M, Baron J-C, Maier MA, Lindberg PG
Cortex 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.10.009
Perception and action are based on cerebral spatial representations of the body and the external world. However, spatial representations differ from the physical characteristics of body and external space (e.g., objects). It remains unclear whether these discrepancies are related to functional requirements of action and are shared between different spatial representations, indicating common brain processes. We assessed hand representations using tactile and verbal localization tasks and quantified object representation in three age groups (20–79 yrs, total n = 60). Our results show significant shrinking of spatial hand representations (hand width) with age, unrelated to sensorimotor functions.
Hand representation in schizophrenia (ongoing)
Hand representation related to motor impairments after stroke (ongoing)
Sensorimotor impairements in schizophrenia and ASD
L Dupin, L Carment, L Guedj, M Cuenca, MO Krebs, MA Maier, I Amado, P. G. Lindberg
Schizophrenia Bulletin 45(6), 1358–1366
The ability to infer from uncertain information is impaired in schizophrenia and is associated with hallucinations and false beliefs. The accumulation of information is a key process for generating a predictive internal model, which statistically estimates an outcome from a specific situation. This study examines if updating the predictive model by the accumulation of information in absence of feedback is impaired in schizophrenia. We explored the implicit adaptation to the probability of being instructed to perform a movement in a Go/NoGo task in terms of reaction times (RTs), electromyographic activity, and corticospinal excitability (CSE) of primary motor cortex (M1).
Impaired attentional modulation of sensorimotor control and cortical excitability in schizophrenia
L Carment, L Dupin, L Guedj, M Térémetz, MO Krebs, M Cuenca, ...
Brain 142 (7), 2149-2164
Altered attentional processing in patients with schizophrenia, probed through saccadic inhibition, would partly explain impaired sensorimotor control and would be reflected as altered task-dependent modulation of cortical excitability and inhibition.
Common vs. distinct visuomotor control deficits in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia
L Carment, E Khoury, L Dupin, L Guedj, N Bendjemaa, M Cuenca, N. Bendjemaa, M. Cuenca, M. Maier, M-0 Krebs, P.G. Lindberg, I. Amado
Autism Research 3(6):885-896
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are neurodevelopmental disorders with partly overlapping and partly distinct clinical symptoms. Sensorimotor impairments rank among these symptoms, but it is less clear whether they are shared or distinct. In this study, we showed using a grip force task that sensorimotor impairments related to motor inhibition are common to ASD and SCZ, but more severe in ASD. Impaired motor anticipation may represent a further specific impairment in ASD
Neural noise and cortical inhibition in schizophrenia
L Carment, L Dupin, L Guedj, M Térémetz, M Cuenca, MO Krebs, I Amado, MA Maier, PG Lindberg
Brain Stimulation 13 (5), 1298-1304
Increased variability in force and EMG during grip maintenance in schizophrenia.
Altered task-related cortical excitability and inhibition in primary motor cortex.
Variability of force and EMG were both correlated with altered cortical inhibition.
Cortical excitation/inhibition imbalance likely contributing to motor noise.