Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition
PRESENTATION
Our group investigates the cerebral mechanisms of cognition, including perception, emotion, and consciousness. We use neuroimaging techniques such as functional resonance magnetic imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERPs). The major questions of our research concern how the human visual system can recognize objects and faces, how we identify sounds and voices, and how we perceive and respond to emotions and social signals, such as facial expressions or eye gaze. We also study the neural circuits by which emotions can influence perception and behavior, for example in response to fear, anger, or reward. We are particularly interested by the role of the amygdala in emotion and social processes. Our work also investigates the impact of brain lesions on cognitive functions (after stroke or other brain diseases), such as deficits in attention and space representations in hemineglect syndrome, with the aim to understand how different brain areas interact to produce normal conscious awareness of sensory space, and to develop new therapeutic approaches to improve impaired functions.
DIRECTOR
Prof. Patrik Vuilleumier is a neurologist who uses brain imaging techniques (such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) to study the brain mechanisms controlling emotion, perception, and action, as well as their links with consciousness. After an initial training in neurology and neuropsychology in Geneva and Lausanne, he continued his research in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California at Davis (1997-1999), then in neuroimaging at University College London (1999-2002). He is now the director of the Laboratory of Neurology and Cognitive Imaging at the University Medical Center of Geneva, in connection with the Neurology Department of the University Hospital of Geneva. His current research focuses on the neural circuits in the human brain that allow emotional signals to influence attention and behavior, as well as the effect of brain damage and psychiatric illness on emotion, perception, and consciousness.
Publications