Probing the brain mechanisms of conscious access in humans, by Claire Sergent

Summary:  Probing the brain mechanisms of conscious access in humans

In the past 50 years, research on the neural correlates of conscious perception has seen unprecedented progresses, notably thanks to the development of neuroimaging techniques. We have now a rather clear view of the neural events that correlate with becoming conscious of a stimulus versus processing it unconsciously during wakefulness. The current challenge is to move from the description of neural correlates to the understanding of neural mechanisms, notably with the objective to isolate neural signatures of consciousness that could be used in clinics. In this seminar I will provide an overview of my team’s current research on this theme, where we try to distinguish the core neural signature of conscious access from upstream sensory processes on the one hand, and from downstream decisional or task-related processes on the other hand. I will show recent results suggesting that we might be able to read out conscious access from brain activity alone.

Short Biography: Claire Sergent studied Biology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm). She was initiated to Cognitive Neurosciences during a one year internship in Jon Driver’s lab at University College London. After a Master in Cognitive Sciences in Paris, she conducted a PhD on the the psychological characterization and neural correlates of conscious vision in humans, under the supervision of Stanislas Dehaene. She obtained her PhD in 2005. She was a post-doctoral fellow (Marie Curie) with Geraint Rees at University College London for two years, before joining the lab of Catherine Tallon-Baudry at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, and then the lab of Lionel Naccache (ICM, Pitié Salpêtrière). In 2012 she became Assistant Professor at Université de Paris (at the time called Paris Descartes) with a Chaire d’Excellence. In 2020 she became Professor at Université de Paris, in the Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center. Her central topic of research is the understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms of conscious access, notably in vision and audition, in healthy human adults, and in patients with disorders of consciousness (e.g. unresponsive wakefulness or minimal consciousness syndroms). She uses experimental psychology, human electrophysiology (electroencephalography,  magnetoencephalography, intracranial recordings) and functional MRI as her main inverstigation tools.

To join the Zoom meeting:

https://u-paris.zoom.us/j/89572983922?pwd=RXFzZlk5VjhWTklIeVZrYVZvcW40QT09

ID de réunion : 895 7298 3922
Code : 633556