Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology Laboratory
PRESENTATION
More than half of the European population suffers from a neurological condition, such as stroke, dementia or multiple sclerosis (European Academy of Neurology, 2019). Worldwide, neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death (Lancet Neurology, 2019).
The objective of the Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology laboratory is to improve the quality of life of people living with these diseases. To do so, we pursue two lines of research: i) to increase knowledge of the cerebral bases of cognition, emotion and behavior, and (ii) improve the evaluation and rehabilitation of these processes.
The laboratory is currently attached to the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva, and enjoys close ties with the Neuropsychology Unit of the Neurology Department at University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG). Moreover, the laboratory is affiliated with two interfaculty centers, the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences and the Swiss Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability.
The Unit’s research program gives students an opportunity to hone their clinical neuropsychology skills and gain experience with clinical populations (primarily adults), while at the same time exploring research questions relating mainly to neuropsychological syndromes and their neuroanatomical substrates – questions that have both theoretical and applied implications.
DIRECTOR
Prof. Julie Anne Péron is currently associate professor of clinical neuropsychology and director of the Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology Laboratory at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Geneva.
Biosketch
After obtaining a Diploma of Specialized Higher Studies in 2002 and a Diploma of Advanced Studies in 2004 in the field of neuropsychology, Julie Péron defended her doctoral thesis in Health Sciences at the University of Rennes 1 in 2008, under the supervision of Prof. Vérin, for which she was awarded the Brittany Young Researchers Prize from the Brittany Region Council, as well as the Alain Agniel Prize from the French Language Neuropsychology Society.
Wishing to anchor her scientific research in practice, in parallel with this training, she practiced clinical neuropsychology at the University Hospital of Rennes first in the memory clinic (CMRR), and then in the Adult Neurology Department, and finally in the ‘Highly Specialized Medicine Unit’ in movement disorders.
From 2009 to 2013, she carried out a postdoctoral stay at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva, where she developed her work on the links between motor skills and emotions with people living with central nervous system dysfunction such as Parkinson’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorders, or major and resistant depression.
In 2014, she was appointed senior researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Geneva. At the same time, she resumed her clinical activity in the Adult Neurology Department at the University Hospitals of Geneva, where she was promoted to head neuropsychologist of the Neuropsychology Unit in 2019. She then created the Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology Laboratory, continuing, with her team, her work in the field of ‘neuropsychology of habit’ and pathological repetitive behaviors linked to cerebral affection. One of her major research interests consists in going beyond the cortico-centric bias in clinical neuropsychology by integrating the notion of functional integration and large-scale brain networks on both the theoretical and the practical level.
She was also an active member of the Swiss Association of Neuropsychologists from 2015 to 2019, carrying out mandates in the committee (2015-2016) and the continuing education committee (2015-2019). She is currently a member of the scientific committee of the Humanities Division of the France Parkinson non-profit organization.
Publications