We investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the acts of decision-making, and their interactions with cognitive control and motor systems. Our methodological approach is resolutly integrative: we combine behavioral research, computational modeling, and electrophysiology (EEG, EMG) to test theories and generate new perspectives. Part of our research is dedicated to investigating decision-making mechanisms in developmental and clinical populations.

email: mathieu.servant@univ-fcomte.fr

Publications

• Servant, M., Dendauw, E., Logan, G. D., Schall, J. D., & Gajdos, T.  (in revision). Decomposing decision and motor processes driving response bias: a model-based electromyographic study in humans.

• Béreau, M., Servant, M. (in revision). De novo Parkinson's disease patients do not show impaired use of priors in conditions of perceptual uncertainty.

• Dendauw, E., Evans, N. J., Logan, G. D., Haffen, E., Bennabi, D., Gajdos, T., & Servant, M. (2024). The gated cascade diffusion model: an integrated theory of decision-making, motor preparation, and motor execution. Psychological Review. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000464

• Nalborczyk, L., Longcamp, M., Gajdos, T., Servant, M., & Alario, F.-X. (2024). Towards formal models of inhibitory mechanisms involved in motor imagery: a commentary on Bach et al. (2022). Psychological Research. doi: 10.1007/s00426-023-01915-8

• Béreau, M., Kibleur, A., Servant, M., Clément, G., Dujardin, K., Rolland, A-S., Wirth, T., Lagha-Boukbiza, O., Voirin, J., des Neige Santin, M., Hainque, E., Grabli, D., Comte, A., Drapier, S., Durif, F., Marques, A., Eusebio, A., Azulay, J-P., Giordana, C.,  ... Anheim, M.  (2024). Apathy before and one year after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease: cognitive and motivational  predictors. Brain, 147(2), 472-485. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awad324

• Béreau, M., Castrioto, A., Servant, M., Lhommée, E., Desmarets, M., Bichon, A., Pélissier, P., Schmitt, E., Klinger, H., Longato, N., Phillipps, C., Wirth, T., Fraix, V., Benatru, I., Durif, F., Azulay, J.-P., Moro, E., Broussolle, E., Thobois, S., … Anheim, M. (2023). Imbalanced motivated behaviors according to motor sign asymmetry in drug-naïve Parkinson’s disease. Scientific Reports, 13(1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48188-0

• Mann, L. G., Servant M., Hay, K. R., Song, A.K., Trujillo, P., Yan, B., Kang, H., Zald, D., Donahue, M. J., Logan, G. D., Claassen, D.O. (2023). The role of a dopamine-dependent limbic-motor network in sensory-motor processing in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 35(11), 1806–1822. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02048

• Béreau, M., Van Waes, V., Servant, M., Magnin, E., Tatu, L., Anheim, M. (2023) Apathy in Parkinson’s Disease: Clinical Patterns and Neurobiological Basis . Cells 2023, 12, 1599. https://doi.org/10.3390/ cells12121599

• Evans, N. J. & Servant, M. (2022). A model-based approach to disentangling facilitation and interference effects in conflict tasks. Psychological Review, 129(5), 1183–1209. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000357

• Servant, M. , Logan, G. D., Gajdos, T., & Evans, N. J. (2021). An integrated theory of deciding and acting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(12), 2435–2454. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001063 

• Śmigasiewicz, K., Servant, M., Ambrosi, S., Blayes, A., & Burle, B. (2021). Speeding-up while growing-up: synchronous functional development of motor and non-motor processes across childhood and adolescence. Plos One, 16(9), e0255892. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255892

• Lesourd, M., Servant, M., Baumard, J., Reynaud, E., Ecochard, C., Medjaoui, F. T., Bartolo, A., & Osiurak, F. (2021). Semantic and action tool knowledge in the brain: Identifying common and distinct networks. Neuropsychologia, 159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107918

• Servant, M. , Evans, N. J. (2020). A diffusion model analysis of the effects of aging in the flanker task. Psychology & Aging, 35(6), 831–849. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000546  

• Gajdos, T., Servant, M., Hasbroucq, T., & Davranche, K. (2020).  A Measure of the Interference Effect Distribution. Behavioral Research Methods, 52(4), 1629–1639. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01339-6 

• Evans, N. J. & Servant, M. (2020). A comparison of conflict diffusion models in the flanker task through pseudo-likelihood Bayes factors. Psychological Review, 127(1), 114-135. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000165 

• Servant, M., & Logan, G. D. (2019). Dynamics of attentional focusing in the Eriksen flanker task. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 81(8), 2710-2721. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01796-3

• Servant, M., Tillman, G., Schall, J. D., Logan, G. D., & Palmeri, T. J. (2019). Neurally constrained modeling of speed-accuracy tradeoff during visual search: gated accumulation of modulated evidence. Journal of Neurophysiology, 121(4), 1300–1314. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00507.2018 

• Ambrosi, S., Servant, M., Blaye, A., & Burle, B. (2019). Conflict processing in kindergarten children: New evidence from distribution analyses reveals the dynamics of incorrect response activation and suppression. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 177, 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.06.006 

• Reppert, T. R., Servant, M., Heitz, R. P., & Schall, J. D. (2018). Neural mechanisms of speed-accuracy tradeoff of visual search: saccade vigor, the origin of targeting errors, and comparison of the superior colliculus and frontal eye field. Journal of Neurophysiology, 120(1), 372–384. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00887.2017 

• Servant, M., Gajdos, T., & Davranche, K. (2018). ELF: A new measure of response capture. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(2), 539–547. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1389-2 

• Boehm, U., Annis, J., Frank, M. J., Hawkins, G. E., Heathcote, A., Kellen, D., Servant., M., … Wagenmakers, E.-J. (2018). Estimating across-trial variability parameters of the Diffusion Decision Model: Expert advice and recommendations. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 87, 46–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2018.09.004 

• Servant, M., Cassey, P., Woodman, G. F., & Logan, G. D. (2018). Neural bases of automaticity. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44(3), 440–464. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000454 

• White*, C. N., Servant*, M., & Logan, G. D. (2018 *equal contribution). Testing the validity of conflict drift-diffusion models for use in estimating cognitive processes: A parameter-recovery study. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(1), 286–301. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1271-2 

• Servant, M., van Wouwe, N., Wylie, S. A., & Logan, G. D. (2018). A model-based quantification of action control deficits in Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychologia, 111, 26–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.01.014 

• Spieser, L., Servant, M., Hasbroucq, T., & Burle, B. (2017). Beyond decision! Motor contribution to speed-accuracy trade-off in decision-making. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(3), 950–956. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1172-9 

• Servant, M., White, C., Montagnini, A., & Burle, B. (2016). Linking Theoretical Decision-making Mechanisms in the Simon Task with Electrophysiological Data: A Model-based Neuroscience Study in Humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28(10), 1501–1521. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00989 

• Servant, M., White, C., Montagnini, A., & Burle, B. (2015). Using Covert Response Activation to Test Latent Assumptions of Formal Decision-Making Models in Humans. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 35(28), 10371–10385. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0078-15.2015 

• Servant, M., Montagnini, A., & Burle, B. (2014). Conflict tasks and the diffusion framework: Insight in model constraints based on psychological laws. Cognitive Psychology, 72, 162–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.03.002

• Burle, B., Spieser, L., Servant, M., & Hasbroucq, T. (2014). Distributional reaction time properties in the Eriksen task: marked differences or hidden similarities with the Simon task? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21(4), 1003–1010. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0561-6

Datasets and experiment/model codes

Servant et al. (2021, JEP General): https://osf.io/r5c2b/

Servant & Evans (2020, Psych & Aging): https://osf.io/td573/

Servant & Logan (2019, AP&P): https://osf.io/v6kn2/ 

Servant et al. (2015, J Neurosci): https://osf.io/3zptk/ 

Servant et al. (2014, Cog Psychol): https://osf.io/swny9/ 

Awards, distinctions, and grants

2022    ERC starting grant "An integrated theory of deciding and acting"

2022    Junior member, Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)

2021    Fellow member of the Psychonomic society

2018    Bob Fox Award of Excellence in Post-Doctoral Research, Vanderbilt University 

https://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/about/awards.php

2015    Early  career  publication  award,  European  Society  for  Cognitive  Psychology    

https://www.escop.eu/awards-en-funding/awards/early-career-publication-award

About me:

I was born and raised in Auvergne (France). After studying violin and music theory in Lyon's High School of Music, I completed a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Aix-Marseille (supervision: Boris Burle & Anna Montagnini) and post-doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University's department of psychological sciences (collaborators: Gordon Logan, Thomas Palmeri, Jeff Schall & Geoff Woodman). I am currently an associate professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Franche-Comté (France).