ILCB

8th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Cognitive Science of Culture
2026-04-22 - 2026-04-24 | Théâtre Antoine Vitez, 29 Av. Robert Schuman, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
8thAnnual Meeting of the Society for the Cognitive Science of Culture. The Society aims to promote research into the role of culture on cognition, with a particular focus on extending research beyond WEIRD populations.
The meeting will take place from 22nd to 24th April 2026 at Aix-Marseille University in Aix-en-Provence, France.
This year, we are honoured to welcome four outstanding keynote speakers.
Prof. Usha Goswami, University of Cambridge
Brain Beats: Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuroscience of Rhythmic Language
Prof. Helmut Leder, University of Vienna
Beauty as sensory pleasure?
Prof. Patrick Lemaire, Aix-Marseille University
Mathematics across cultures: What can we learn about the role of culture on cognition?
Dr. Daniele Schön, Aix-Marseille University
Music as window into language processing and rehabilitation
We invite abstract submissions for 20-minute talks and posters from the full spectrum of research interested in the relationship between cognition and culture in its many forms across domains including psychology, neuroscience, behaviour, linguistics and literature, visual art and music.
Please visit the submission website for further information: https://culturalcogsci.org/AnnualMeeting.html
Submission Deadline: January 31st 2026
Early bird registration: Until February 28th 2026
The SCSC 2026 Organizing Committee

dedicated to “Quantitative imaging and its applications.”
2026-05-04 | Amphithéâtre de CERIMED, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, Marseille, 13005

Integrating Neural Noise and Neuroinflammatory Hypotheses: Exploring the Comorbidity of Dyslexia, Depression, and Stress
2026-05-22 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Paris) | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Fumiko Hoeft
Recent advancements in our understanding of dyslexia have highlighted the complex interplay between neurobiological mechanisms and comorbid conditions such as depression and stress. The Neural Noise Hypothesis (NNH) of dyslexia proposes that dysregulated neural activity, characterized by excessive glutamatergic neurotransmission, leads to the disrupted auditory and visual processing that typifies this learning disorder. Concurrently, emerging research suggests that these neural irregularities may overlap with pathways involved in stress and depression, pointing to a shared neurobiological foundation. This presentation explores the synthesis of the NNH with recent findings on the role of neuroinflammation in dyslexia and its comorbidities. Building on our foundational work (Hancock, Pugh, and Hoeft, TiCS. 2017), and integrating recent insights into stress and mood disorders from neuroimaging studies, we propose a model where dyslexia-related neural noise may exacerbate susceptibility to depression through neuroinflammatory pathways. This model is supported by recent research by Lasnick and Hoeft (Front Hum Neurosci. 2023), which provides compelling evidence of altered neural connectivity in regions critical for emotional and stress regulation in individuals with dyslexia. Furthermore, this talk will delve into how environmental stressors and individual resilience factors contribute to the variability in dyslexia presentations, particularly focusing on how these elements interact with neurobiological mechanisms to influence the severity and range of comorbid symptoms. By bridging gaps between disparate research domains, we aim to foster a more comprehensive understanding of dyslexia that acknowledges its potential as a multisystem disorder with significant neurobiological and psychosocial dimensions. This integrated approach sets the stage for discussing potential interventions that target these overlapping pathways, offering hope for more effective treatments that address both the core symptoms of dyslexia and its common comorbidities.

The evolution and social functions of human nonverbal vocalisations
2026-06-05 12:00 - 13:00 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Dr. Katarzyna PISANSKI
Human nonverbal vocalisations such as screams, cries, and laughter convey socially vital information, yet have received far less attention than speech. We still know very little about how emotional vocalisations develop, how we use them in everyday life, or how they vary across cultures. While human vocalisations share important features with the calls of other mammals including primates, humans are unique in one crucial respect: we can flexibly and deliberately modulate our voices for social ends, for instance by exaggerating or completely faking pain or pleasure. In this talk, I argue that our advanced capacity for volitional vocal control represents a critical bridge between animal calls and human speech. I will present evidence that (1) the acoustic forms of human vocalisations have evolved to support their communicative functions; (2) voluntary vocalisations systematically exploit these same form–function mappings for social benefit; (3) data from children and deaf adults show that such vocal control depends on learning; and (4) cross-cultural findings reveal both universal patterns and culturally specific variation in emotional vocalisations. Together, this body of work shows that human vocalisations — and our capacity to produce them voluntarily — are powerful social tools shaped by both selection pressures and social experience, offering unique insights into the evolution of vocal control.

Brain mechanisms for structuring and searching through knowledge via cognitive maps
2026-06-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Salle des voûtes, St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
Simone Viganò (Neurospin, CEA & Université Paris-Saclay)
A central challenge for the brain is not only storing knowledge, but organizing it in a form that can be flexibly searched, recombined, and used to guide behavior. Over the past decade, the cognitive map framework has emerged as one leading account of how this may be achieved, proposing that neural systems involved in spatial navigation also support the representation of abstract relationships among concepts, memories, and experiences.
In this talk, I will discuss a series of fMRI, sEEG, and eye-tracking studies conducted in recent years to investigate how cognitive maps support the organization, retrieval, and exploration of knowledge across different domains. These studies suggest ways in which the cognitive map framework may be extended to accommodate some of the distinctive characteristics of primate interactions with the environment and human conceptual knowledge.

Spectacle
2026-09-16 18:00 - 20:00, 2026-09-17 18:00 | Friche la Belle de Mai — GMEM, 41 Rue Jobin, Marseille, 13003
