Speech pathologist (graduate of l’Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and l’Université de Montréal)
PhD candidate in biomedical sciences, option : speech pathology
Research Professional
Thesis : Brain dynamics during the lexical-semantic processing depending on the age and level of cognitive stimulation.
Description : Since the development of neuroimaging techniques, the perspective given to the neurobiological basis of language has evolved from a localizationist view to a more hodological vision. The function of language is now seen as the result of parallel neuron groups separate but connected and distributed in both hemispheres. This inter-hemispheric collaboration has specifically been demonstrated when remote semantic links should be established between concepts. For example, when processing polysemous words according to a given context. In order to adequately describe the complex networks involved in cognitive function, brain reorganization due to aging cannot be ignored, since more bilateral recruitment is observed in a complex cognitive processing in the elderly. To observe the processing of words based on their context, an experimental task based on priming seems appropriate. The combination of two brain imaging methods: structural connectivity (DWI) and functional (fMRI) will deduce which brain networks are involved in the contextual semantic processing in two distinct age groups of individuals. These results provide a new look at the semantic processing in the continuum of aging and help, indirectly, to better understand the alterations in the communication patterns among individuals with brain injury.
Communication and aging 