This is a presentation of my current research activities. For the past activities, see here.
For publications, see here.
The cortical map
Collaboration with Thomas Girod, Nicolas Rougier, Hervé Frezza-Buet, Thierry Viéville
Summary: The overall goal is to propose a generic model of cortical map, valid for any region of the cortex and including functioning and learning mechanisms. We presently work on:
- neuronal spatio-temporal learning and processing of information in the cortex (Thomas Girod's PhD)
- the link to variational approaches and to dimensionality reduction (collaboration with the Odyssee team, Thierry Vieville)
- multi-modal integration (collaboration with Supelec, Hervé Frezza-Buet)
Frédéric Alexandre, Nicolas Rougier and Thierry Viéville. A regularization process to implement self-organizing neuronal networks. In International Conference on Engineering and Mathematics, Jul 2006.
Olivier Ménard, Frédéric Alexandre, Hervé Frezza-Buet. Multi-criteria self-organization: Example of motor-dependent phonetic representation for a multi-modal robot, in Neurobotics Workshop of the 27th german conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ulm, Germany, 2004.
Modeling visual attention
Collaboration with Jérémy Fix, Wahiba Taouali, Nicolas Rougier and within the ANR project MAPS.
Summary: Model of the visual axis; behavioral task; implementation on robot; overt and covert attention. Recent developments on:
Julien Vitay, Nicolas P. Rougier, and Frédéric Alexandre.A distributed model of spatial visual attention. In Stefan Wermter, Günther Palm, and Mark Elshaw, editors, ''Biomimetic Neural Learning for Intelligent Robots: Intelligent Systems, Cognitive Robotics, and Neuroscience'', volume 3575 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 54-72. Springer, Aug 2005.
Decision, motivation and emotion
Collaboration with Wahiba Taouali
Functional analysis of emotion in learning and decision
PFC, memory and goal oriented behavior
Summary: explore the role of emotion in the organization of behavior; from pavlovian to more elaborated learning; Model of Basal Ganglia and PFC for executive functions
Modeling information flows in the brain
Collaboration with Wahiba Taouali, Yann Boniface, Alain Dutech and Randa Kassab
Summary: For large scale applications, our local learning and functioning models are expended in large networks corresponding to functional information flows in the brain and including extra-cortical structures like the cerebellum, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the colliculus, etc. This is for example the case in the MAPS project. The consistency of the whole is ensured by an approach inspired from principles of enaction and embodiment.
EEG signal interpretation and Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)
Collaboration with Laurent Bougrain
Summary: automatic labeling of EEG signal: features extraction, multi-scale analysis, medical knowledge integration in neural networks; relating EEG signals to electrophysiology (dipole models and neuronal activity); application to BCI: closing the loop (STICAmSud project with Argentina, Mexico and Chile);
Kerkeni, Nizar and Alexandre, Frédéric and Bédoui, Mohamed Hédi and Bougrain, Laurent and Dogui, Mohamed, Neuronal Spectral Analysis of EEG and Expert Knowledge Integration for Automatic Classification of Sleep Stages, WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, 2(11)1854-1861,Oct. 2005.
My present PHD students:
- Wahiba Taouali: Coupling neural fields for the temporal organisation of the activity of complex neuronal systems. To be defended in 2012. Grant from the French ministry of education and research MESR, co-supervised with Nicolas Rougier.
- Georgios Detorakis: Dynamic Neural Field and Self Organization. To be defended in 2013. CORDIS Grant, co-supervised with Nicolas Rougier.