ILCB

Understanding Understanding -- in General, and in Large Language Models
2024-02-09 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Paris) | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
David Schlangen : Professor, “Foundations of Computational Linguistics”, University of Potsdam
Abstract:
In the first part of the talk I will present an overview of the activities of my group (Foundations of CompLing at Uni Potsdam), organised around the quest to understand how linguistic communication can yield shared understanding. I will present an analytical framework in which similarities and differences in method and approach between text NLU (natural language understanding) and SLU (situated language understanding) can be described.
In the second part, and motivated by this framework, I will present a new computational framework for the evaluation of “chat-optimized LLMs” (cLLMs) like ChatGPT for their capabilities in task-oriented interaction.

Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?
2024-02-23 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Jeremie Brugidou : Artiste-chercheur · PhD Art&Sciences – Recherche-Création · ENS / Paris 8 / Nanterre / Aix-Marseille – Romans / Films / Installations et performances
Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?
À travers une approche théorique, historique, expérimentale et science fictionnelle, je propose de réfléchir aux liens qui nous unissent à ces autres vivants qui produisent de la lumière.

Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?
2024-02-23 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
L’ILCB est heureux de recevoir vendredi 23 février Jérémie Brugidou pour un séminaire Art & Sciences intitulé :
“Phylogénies hérétiques de la bioluminescence : quels partenariats peut-on inventer avec les organismes lumineux ?”
À travers une approche théorique, historique, expérimentale et science fictionnelle, J. Brugidou propose de réfléchir aux liens qui nous unissent à ces autres vivants qui produisent de la lumière.
Jérémie Brugidou est résident à l’IMERA (https://www.imera.fr/chercheur/brugidou-jeremie/)
Voici un rapide portrait de cet artiste-chercheur : “cinéaste et docteur en Arts. Il est l’auteur de deux long-métrages documentaires, ainsi que de nombreux essais visuels. Il soutient à l’Université Paris 8 en 2020 sa thèse intitulée « Vers une écologie de l’apparition. Le mystère de la genèse des formes à partir d’une Annonciation bioluminescente chez James Cameron », co-dirigée par Christa Blümlinger et Dominique Lestel (ENS Paris). Il a obtenu une bourse postdoctorale (2020-21) dans le cadre d’un projet intitulé « L’Esthétique au présent : puissances de l’image mouvante », et financé par la Fondation Balzan. Le titre de son projet de recherche est “Biomedialuminescence : vers une écologie de l’apparition “. Il fonde son travail sur la recherche-création, tissant des relations fructueuses entre les arts et les sciences. Dans ce cadre il est l’auteur de plusieurs articles scientifiques en sciences humaines, en langue française et anglaise, de chapitres d’ouvrages, et a co-dirigé un numéro spécial de la revue Social Science Information (SSI) sur la thématique de l’océan.”
pour en savoir plus :

Site web : http://www.estca.univ-paris8.fr/index.php/jeremie-brugidou/
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiebrugidou

PS Dominique Lestel, son co-directeur de thèse, s’intéresse directement à la question du langage et de la frontière (ou pas) entre animal humain et non-humain, see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Lestel

Leveraging the auditory oscillatory function to treat speech and language disorders.
2024-03-15 12:00 - 14:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Anne-Lise Giraud
Abstract:
The neural computations that make oral communication possible must operate on multiple time scales, both in parallel and recursively. Neuronal oscillations at different scales and their precise coordination are a key instrument of this necessary multiplexing, a phenomenon we are exploring in humans through surface and intracortical EEG. In this presentation, I will recall the key computational principles and show how we can exploit them to address fundamental questions about neurodevelopmental pathologies and propose therapeutic solutions.
Link Zoom : https://univ-amu-fr.zoom.us/j/82661920965?pwd=[REDACTED]

ILCB’S KALEIDOSCOPE A Collective Journey through Multidisciplinary Insights
2024-03-29 | Espace Pouillon, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13003

Beyond typology: experimental explorations of language universals
2024-04-19 12:00 - 13:30 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Jennifer Culbertson
Human languages exhibit striking variation. At the same time, certain linguistic patterns crop up again and again, while others seem to be extremely rare. What these tantalising observations tell us about human language is one of the most contentious questions in linguistics. Do similarities between languages reflect a special capacity for language that has evolved only in humans? Do they reflect more general features of the human mind, potentially shared with our ancestors? Are they just down to accidents of history? Traditionally, linguists have argued for one or another of these answers based on limited sources of evidence. For example, it is common to base claims on small samples of languages, case studies of how a handful of languages change over time, or examples of how individual languages are learned. In this talk, I highlight problems with these traditional sources of evidence and survey what I see as the solution: cross-cultural experiments. I show how this approach can be used to bring crucial empirical evidence to bear on how language is shaped (or not!) by the human linguistic and cognitive system.

Linking Speech Rhythms Inside and Outside the Brain
2024-05-21 - 2024-05-22 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
The workshop “Linking Speech Rhythms Inside and Outside the Brain”
The workshop will feature several short presentations and panel discussions aimed at achieving a better understanding of the relationship between oscillatory patterns of activity observed during speech processing in neurophysiological data and signals representing characteristics of speech utterances.

11th Implicit Learning Seminar
2024-05-23 - 2024-05-25
The “Implicit Learning Seminar” is an international conference that draws together leading researchers who share an interest in the cognitive and neural bases of implicit learning.
The meeting is small (max. 100 participants) and features oral and poster presentations. There is no registration fee, but registration is mandatory.
Previous ILS : Sopot (2012), Bergen (2013), St. Petersburg (2014), Krakow (2015), Lancaster (2016), Budapest (2017), Cluj-Napoca (2018), Tromso (2019), Graz (2022), Bruxelles (2023).

Subdivide and Conquer. brain processing of musical melody, harmony and rhythm
2024-05-24 11:00 - 13:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Peter Vuust : Director of the Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), MSc, PhD, Prof. in Neuroscience, Dept. of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Prof. in Music, the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark, Bassist and composer

Music is ubiquitous across human cultures—as a source of affective and pleasurable experience, moving us both physically and emotionally—and learning to play music shapes both brain structure and function. Music processing in the brain—namely, perception of melody, harmony, and rhythm—has traditionally been studied as an auditory phenomenon using passive listening paradigms. However, when listening to music, we actively generate predictions about what is likely to happen next. This enactive aspect has led to a more complete understanding of music processing involving brain structures implicated in action, emotion, and learning.
The present talk is highlights how music perception, action, emotion, and learning all rest on the human brain’s fundamental capacity for prediction—as formulated by the predictive coding of music model and elucidates how this formulation of music perception and expertise in individuals can be extended to account for the dynamics and underlying brain mechanisms of collective music making. This sheds new light on what makes music meaningful from a neuroscientific perspective.

About Peter Vuust
Professor Peter Vuust, Ph.D. is a unique combination of a top-level jazz musician and a world class scientist. He leads the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center for Music In the Brain” and holds joint appointments as full professor at the Danish Royal Academy of Music and Dept of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University.
He has published more than 150 scientific papers in high ranking international journals, most recently the review “Music in the brain” in Nature Reviews Neuroscience (March, 2022). He uses state-of-the-art brain scanning techniques such as fMRI, PET, EEG, MEG and behavioral measures and is a world leading expert in the field of music and the brain – a research field he has single-handedly built up in Denmark as leader of the center for Music In the Brain (MIB) currently employing more than 30 researchers. Among many other grants, he has received DKK 98 million (~ US $ 15 billion) as PI, from the Danish National Research Foundation.
In addition, Prof Vuust is a renowned jazz bassist and composer; leading the Peter Vuust Quartet with Alex Riel, Lars Jansson and Ove Ingemarsson of which seven records have been released so far. He has also played on more than 100 recordings and been sideman with international jazz stars such as Lars Jansson, Tim Hagans, John Abercrombie, Dave Liebman and many more. He is the recipient of the 2009 Jazz Society of Aarhus’ “Gaffel”-prize. His album “September Song” was widely acclaimed by reviewers and received a nomination for a Danish Music Award in 2014. In 2022, he released the album “Further to Fly”, which contained jazz arrangements by Peter Vuust of the Songs of Paul Simon with unanimously excellent reviews.
As professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, he has taught electric and acoustic bass as well as music theory, ear training and ensemble playing. He has given many keynote talks and masterclasses at international conferences and institutions on a wide range of topics ranging from the neuroscience of music to improvisation and composition. He has written three monograph’s “Polyrhythm and –meter in modern jazz; a study of Miles Davis’ Quintet from the 1960s”, “Music on the Brain”, and most recently a book on musical leadership.

Conference on Multilingualism
2024-06-10 - 2024-06-12
The Conference on Multilingualism (COM) 2024 will be held from June 10th to 12th at ”Le Cube” on the campus of Aix-Marseille Université, in the beautiful city of Aix-en-Provence. It is an annual international venue for research on bilingualism and multilingualism and follows recent COM meetings, held in Ghent, Leiden, Reading and most recently Konstanz.
Abstracts will be accepted from a wide range of topics involving the study of bilingualism or multilingualism, from education to neuroscience.
Submissions :
We look forward to seeing you in Aix!
For more information visit our website:
https://multilingualism.sciencesconf.org/
______________
Administrative support: Nadéra Bureau
Local Organizing committee:
F.-Xavier Alario, Elin Runnqvist, Núria Gala, Kristof Strijkers, Marco Cappellini, Cheryl Frenck-Mestre, Clément François

Scientific committee:
Ian Cunnings (University of Reading)
Cheryl Frenck-Mestre (Université Aix Marseille)
Robert Hartsuiker (Gent University)
Niels Schiller (University of Leiden)
Ludovica Serratrice (University of Reading)

Development of the lexical-semantic organization in the infant brain: electrophysiological evidence
2024-06-14 12:00 - 13:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Dr. Pia Rämä
Until recently, there has been little evidence regarding how and when infants begin to integrate words into an inter-connected lexical-semantic system. Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies show that lexical-semantic system emerges together with early vocabulary during the second year of life (Rämä et al., 2013; Rämä et al., 2018). These studies also suggest that the N400 component is an useful tool to investigate lexical-semantic development in infancy. Some further evidence shows that lexical-semantic organization develops later in bilingual than in monolingual infants. There is mixed evidence as to whether lexical-semantic activation occurs similarly in dominant and non-dominant languages in bilingual language learners (e.g., Sirri & Rämä, 2019). In my talk, I will present our findings regarding neurophysiological mechanisms underlying lexical-semantic activation in monolingual and bilingual infants, and I will also describe my recent findings on the effect of speaker familiarity on processing of word meanings.
References
Rämä, P., Sirri, L., & Serres, J. (2013). Development of lexical–semantic language system: N400 priming effect for spoken words in 18-and 24-month old children. Brain and language, 125(1), 1-10.
Rämä, P., Sirri, L., & Goyet, L. (2018). Event-related potentials associated with cognitive mechanisms underlying lexical-semantic processing in monolingual and bilingual 18-month-old children. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 47, 123-130.
Sirri, L., & Rämä, P. (2019). Similar and distinct neural mechanisms underlying semantic priming in the languages of the French–Spanish bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(1), 93-102.

International Workshop on Language Production (IWoLP 2024)
2024-06-26 08:00 - 2024-06-28 17:00 | Site du Pharo, 58 boulevard Charles Livon, Marseille, 13007, France
WoLP, 20th anniversary edition!

The IWoLP series returns to Marseille 20 years after its launching event, back in the summer of 2004.
The workshop is a venue for multi-disciplinary discussion of cognitive science research on how the brain produces language. Each event is organized around poster sessions, and a few hour-long keynote-style talks. Details about the previous editions can be found online.
IWoLP 2024 Web site : https://iwolp-2024.sciencesconf.org/

ILCB welcome back party – ILCB fête de la rentrée
2024-09-27
We invite you to join the ILCB welcome back party on Friday the 27th of September at 9:30 in the gardens of the LPL. This will be an opportunity to welcome our three ILCB IMERA residents who kindly accepted to give talks and to celebrate some more good news, which I will tell you about.
Program
9:30 -10:00 Acceuil/Reception coffee
10:00-10:40 Suzanne Fuchs Moving while talking
11:00- 11:40 Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells Language information-seeking in infants
12:00 12:40 Peter Simor The Wandering Mind in Sleep and Wakefulness
13:00 Lunch in the garden

15th annual scientific day of the Centre IRM-INT (Marseille) : Register NOW
2024-10-04 | Amphithéâtre de CERIMED, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, Marseille, 13005
The MRI-INT Center in Marseille is organising its 15th annual scientific day on Friday, October 4 at Cerimed (medical school campus of La Timone, Marseille).
This year’s theme is ‘Developmental Neuroimaging from fetal to adolescent stages (MRI in human and nonhuman primates)’.
It will feature talks by international, national, and local experts in the field. It will also be an opportunity for postdocs and students to present their MRI neuroimaging work in a poster session, whether related to brain development or not.

You can access the program here : https://irmf.int.univ-amu.fr/en/annual-meetings/
Registration is free but mandatory : https://15thday-mri-int.sciencesconf.org
If you are interested, please register as soon as possible : the number of places is limited.
We are looking forward to you participation to this event !
The organizers : Florence Bouhali, Olga Kepinska, Adrien Meguerditchian, Jean-Luc Anton, Marie-Hélène Grosbras

Journée d’étude &- Soutenance HDR de Clément François
2024-10-11 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Programme :
9h30 à 10h30h : Jutta Müller (Wien Univ) : Auditory rule learning across early childhood: Does speech matter?
Pause-café
10h45 à 11h45 : Ruth De Diego Balaguer (Barcelona Univ) : In the right place at the right time: temporal expectations modulate language learning
Pause-café
12h à 13h : Sam Wass (East London Univ) : Hyperscanning and natural conversation in infant-caregiver interactions.
Lunch ILCB
15h : Soutenance HDR de Clément François (LPL – AMU) : Towards an integrated neurodevelopmental model of language acquisition

Résumés des interventions

The Rise and Fall of the Franconian Tone
2024-10-21 16:30 - 18:00 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Limburgish is spoken in the north-western 12% of the area in which the Franconian tone is spoken, where Cologne was the medieval centre of prestige. It was there, after the beginning of the construction of the cathedral in 1248, that a remarkable lexical tone contrast arose from the contact between the hundreds of highly qualified immigrant craftsmen and thousands of local workmen whose employment was related to the building enterprise. With hindsight, that tonogenesis can be seen as an experiment in pushing the conditions for L1 language acquisition to its limits: the tonogenesis occurred in declarative intonations, yet in principle the tone contrast needed to be available under all intonational conditions.
Unsurprisingly, the embedding of the tone contrast in the intonation grammar led to a wide variety of solutions, causing the dialects to vary in the number of intonation melodies (from 1 to 4) as well as in the pitch shapes of the tones. When focusing on individual dialects, a unique typological feature becomes apparent:
It is not possible to specify the pitch shapes of the tones: These vary with intonational conditions.
Importantly, despite the high pressure that must have been placed on infants to create grammars for what must be seen as implausibly varied set of phonetic forms, the grammars of the dialects known to date all conform to the model of Pierrehumbert (1980) and the assumptions of OT. The Limburgish data offer three confirmations of these models:

The star in T* is an instruction to associate with a *-marked TBU.
Edge-aligned tones align their (R/L) edge with the (R/L) edge of some other phonological constituent.
OT constraints are ranked.

With no basis in those models, other work added the stipulations for (a) that T* must always associate, for (b) that alignment implies association, and for (c) that some rankings are ungrammatical. The Limburgish data prove those stipulations wrong.
Today, the survival of the tone contrast may depend on the function of Acc2 as a local identity marker. In fact, this may be one route for tonoexodus. neutralizations would appear to occur through the generalization of Acc2. Another route lies in reducing the salience of the contrast: one case will be presented in which the tone contrast does exist, but is phonetically too subtle for outsiders to hear as anything than repetitions of the same unremarkable standard Dutch intonation contour. A third way out is through reinterpretation of the tone contrast in terms of consonants, vowels or vowel quantity. This will be illustrated on the basis of the Weert dialect.

Revisiting the origins of meaning
2024-11-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Espace Pouillon, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13003
Klaus Zuberbuhler

The three core properties of language – meaning, syntax and social interaction – have received considerable comparative research attention in recent years, driven by a desire to advance theories of language evolution. Somewhat surprisingly, progress on the origins of meaning has been least remarkable, after the initial pioneering discoveries of referential signals in primate communication some 50 years ago. Here, I will revisit the problem of animal meaning and reference, first, by taking stock of the current state of the art and, second, by pointing out possible new directions of research. I will discuss new conceptual and methodological tools that are likely to provide progress in our understanding of the evolutionary transition from animal signal meaning to human linguistic meaning.

Multimodality in Social Interactions 2.0
2024-12-02 - 2024-12-03 | FRUMAM, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
2-day workshop on various theoretical and methodological problems confronted in the field of multimodal communication and social interactions in humans and non-humans.
For more information, visit our webpage: https://multimodalityinsocialinteractions20.wordpress.com/

Cracking the Code: Unveiling Hidden Patterns in Words, Speech, and Objects Through Implicit Statistical Learning
2025-01-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Professor Shelley Xiuli Tong, Director of Speech, Language and Reading Lab (https://slrlab.edu.hku.hk/) Faculty of Education – The University of Hong Kong
Abstract:
Humans possess remarkable abilities to learn new words, acquire language, and recognize objects based on sparse and ambiguous inputs. These abilities are rooted in the robust and efficient learning mechanism of statistical learning, which enables individuals to automatically detect regularities in their environment through exposure to multiple stimuli. Despite decades of research demonstrating the involvement of statistical learning in the formation of memory and internal models of prediction, the cognitive and neural mechanisms underpinning statistical learning remain unclear.
In this talk, I will share my team’s research on statistical learning over the past decade and discuss a series of behavioral and neurophysiological experiments designed to address newly emerging questions that uncover how statistical learning functions in the human brain across various encoding contexts. Specifically, I will address three fundamental questions: 1) Is statistical learning disrupted in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially dyslexia?; 2) How do different types of statistical learning change across ages and interact with other cognitive functions?; and 3) What cognitive and neural mechanisms support statistical learning?
In conclusion, I aim to demonstrate how new paradigms and theoretical frameworks are necessary to advance our understanding of how humans comprehend the probabilistic world, the mind, and the increasingly complex relationships between people and machines.

Talks + HDR Abdellah Fourtassi
2025-01-17 | FRUMAM, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France

Exploring Truth and Biases in Cognitive Science
2025-01-20 - 2025-01-21 | Espace Pouillon, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13003
Site : (https://truth-biases.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en)
Monday January 20 (salle des voûtes)

13h00 Welcome and Introduction

13h15-14h45 Denis Caroti & Jeremy Attard (Aix Marseille Université)
title:
14h45-15h30 Mathieu Cassotti
title: TBA
Coffee break

16h00 -16h45 Anna Montagnini Institut des neurosciences de la Timone Aix Marseille Université
title:
16h45-17h30 Natacha Cyrulnik, Satis , PRISM, Aix Marseille Université
title: The bias or the assumed subjectivity in the creative documentary’

Tuesday January 21st (espace Pouillon)
8h45 Welcome
9h00-9h45 Jacques Py
title:
9h45-10h30 Pascal Belin Institut des neurosciences de la Timone, Aix Marseille Université
title: Biasing emotion and personality impressions via voice

Coffee break

11h00-11h45 Stephen Lewandowsky, FAcSS, University of Bristol https://www.lewan.uk
title : Honest Liars and The Threat to Democracy”
11h45-12h30 Clarisse Volon, Aix Marseille Université
title:

Lunch

Computational passive bioacoustics: Will AI really solve animal communication?
2025-01-20 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Paul Best (Eq. Multisense & Body) has been awarded an 2024 ILCB post-doc grant to work on the topic of spatialised bioacoustics for the analysis of turn-taking in non-human interactions. Paul’s original background is in computer science and machine learning. During his PhD and post-doc in Toulon university, he worked on automating the analysis of non-human vocalisations using neural networks. Paul has applied these methods to a range of species with a variety of research questions, always working with long-term acoustic data recordings of free-ranging animals. Some of these projects include analysing the presence patterns of sperm whales, characterising the evolution of song structure in fin whales, and linking communicative complexity to sociality in orcas. Currently at CRPN, Paul is working with recordings of pilot whales and cao-vit gibbons, with a focus on how contextualising passive acoustic data with spatial information (the location of the vocalising animal) contributes to a better understanding of their vocal behaviour.
Abstract:
For this seminar, we will look at current research in passive bioacoustics, especially regarding opportunities and limitations of using machine learning to study non-human communication. With the increasing use of long-term monitoring systems such as autonomous acoustic recorders, the relatively young and growing field of computational passive bioacoustic is promising in collecting naturalistic data to contribute to ethological and evolutionary questions. Drawing on my research experience and project in this domain, I will present what is and could be possible with such approach, including with the use self-supervised learning, case studies of cetacean communication systems, the benefits of sound localisation and the relevance of integrating a musical perspective in the study of non-human communication.

Restitution des projets en ingénierie cognitive des M2 MASCO
2025-01-24 | Espace Pouillon, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13003
Nous vous invitons à nous rejoindre le 24 janvier 2025 pour assister à la restitution des projets en ingénierie cognitive des étudiants en M2 MASCO.
Ce sera le moment de découvrir le fruit de leur travail acharné : durant les 2 semaines qui précèdent la restitution, les étudiants auront pour mission de développer un projet en équipe, en mettant en œuvre les connaissances et compétences acquises durant leurs études ainsi que leur créativité, autour de la captation et de la manipulation de signal neuro/physiologique et du prototypage.
…un ballon dirigeable contrôlé par les ondes cérébrales, un piano virtuel, un dispositif portatif qui vous aide à combattre ces moments de stress… qui sait ce que vous aller découvrir…
Cette année, la restitution débutera avec un séminaire, Une ingénierie de la perception : vers un langage des sons de Mitsuko Aramaki & Salomé Sudre de PRISME.
Retrouvez-nous le 24 janvier à 9h à l’Espace Pouillon sur le campus St Charles pour ce moment de découverte et pour soutenir les étudiants !
L’équipe d’organisation de l’ingéCo (Deirdre Bolger, Thierry Legou et Christelle Zielinski)

Different bodies, different minds: Biology as a central driving force in the building of cognitive functions?
2025-01-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Amphi MASSIANI, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13331, France
Marie MONTANT
Abstract:
By focusing on language, I will try to show that cognitive architectures are built from goal-driven perceiving and acting bodies in their physical environment, a perceptive that holds for humans as well as other animals. To illustrate this theoretical position, firstly, I will show in humans that words conveying time information are tightly linked to body mouvements (Camille Grasso’s PhD thesis), that syntax is probably built on domain-general fine motor planification (Raphaël Py’s PhD thesis), that our lexica are grafted onto sensorimotor networks (Melissa Yavuz’s PhD thesis, Anna Poberezhnaia master’s thesis, Anne Kavounoudias collab.). Secondly, I will describe the approaches of Lise-Habib Dassetto (PhD) and Paul Best (Postdoc) that address the questions of how communicative systems appeared during evolution and what kind of method we can develop to conduct fair comparisons between humans and baboons (Lise H.D.) or pilot-whales (Paul B.).

The foundations of verbal working memory in the language system
2025-02-25 08:00 - 17:00
Steve Majerus
Professeur à l’Université de Liège
https://www.uliege.be/cms/c_9054334/fr/repertoire?uid=u182078

Many models of verbal working memory acknowledge interactions with verbal long-term memory. The nature of these interactions remains, however, a matter of debate. I will present a series of behavioral and neuroimaging studies showing that (1) even subtle aspects of language knowledge such as syntactic positional knowledge can influence verbal working memory, (2) the capacity and neural substrates of verbal working memory cannot be defined independently of the linguistic nature of the stimuli to-be-maintained, (3) recruitment of deep semantic knowledge may not characterize all WM situations. Our results support hybrid linguistic models of verbal WM considering that verbal WM is grounded in the language system but cannot be reduced to it.

The foundations of verbal working memory in the language system”
2025-02-26 12:00 - 13:00

Functionally specific multi-sensory brain networks and their plasticity
2025-02-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Espace Pouillon, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13003
Professor : Olivier Collignon
Evolution has endowed humans with several senses allowing them to capture distinct forms of energies from their physical environment, opening different windows through which we can experience the world around us. Being able to capture redundant sensory information allows us to build stronger representations and react faster to an event (eg focusing on the lips while listening to a speaker in a cocktail party). How do we represent in our mind and brain a perceptual unit that we can see and hear (eg, a corresponding phoneme/viseme)? Is there representation somewhere in the brain that goes beyond the sensory experience we have of things? The presence of these different sensory systems also paves the way for considerable flexibility by allowing brain systems to supplement another following sensory deprivation. In the talk, I will rely on the most recent data collected in my lab to suggest that crossmodal plasticity in blind and deaf people recycles the intrinsic multisensory scaffolding of functional brain regions, with a specific emphasis on face and voice networks.

The Origin of Language: Insight from neuroethology of gestural communication in nonhuman primates
2025-03-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Adrien MEGUERDITCHIAN (Eq. DéPhy)

Where: Salle des Voûtes
Summary: Language is an unique communicative system involving hemispheric lateralization of the brain. To discuss the question of its origins, I will highlight the works on the communicative gestures in our primate cousins and their brain correlates. Indeed, nonhuman primates communicate mostly communicate not only with a rich vocal repertoire but also with manual and body gestures. In the last 20 years, we investigated this gestural system in the baboons Papio anubis, an Old World monkey species, as well as its lateralization and cortical correlates across development, using both ethological, psychology and longitudinal noninvasive in vivo brain imaging approach (MRI). In the present talk, I will summarize our main findings showing similar key intentional, referential “domain general” properties of language as well as some similar underlying structural hemispheric specialization including Broca, the Planum Temporale and the STS. I will also present our recent MRI longitudinal work documenting their brain ontogeny from birth and how they pave the way for the further emergence of gesture lateralization across development.
More

the annual docs&postdocs workshop,
2025-03-27 | FRUMAM, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Language of sounds and sounds of language

Journées de l’ILCB à Porquerolles
2025-04-23 - 2025-04-25
