Benjamin Morillon

Here is our latest work on newborns and music perception!

Modelling time-resolved electrophysiological data with Bayesian generalised additive multilevel models Providing utility functions for fitting Bayesian generalised additive multilevel models (BGAMMs) to time-resolved data (e.g., M/EEG, pupillometry, mouse-tracking, etc) and identifying clusters.

If you analyse time-resolved data (M/EEG, iEEG, pupillometry, force recordings…) and feel limited by cluster-based permutation tests (CBPTs); especially when trying to determine when an effect starts or ends; you may want to try our new R package: lnalborczyk.github.io/neurogam/
#rstats #brms #EEG

Please repost: another kind of Black-Friday deal!

1/2 Brain and Cognition Master at
@UPFBarcelona

Why to enroll here?
Nuria Sebastian-Galles (language, Premio Nacional)
Gustavo Deco (comp neuro)
Chris Summerfield (cognition & AI)
Salva Soto-Faraco (attention)
Rubén Moreno-Bote (comp neuro & AI)

New preprint!
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Are cortical rhythms entrained by speech or simply evoked?
👉 Evoked.

TL;DR:
Speech acoustics already carry the nested theta–gamma structure seen in auditory cortex.
Using advanced signal analyses, stereoEEG data, and speech corpora (17 languages).
🧵👇

CCL #1: Neural response to speech primarily reflects the signal’s own temporal architecture.
CCL #2: Cross-frequency coding principles are not confined to brain dynamics but also shape communicative signals.

Feel free to DM me if you’d like to discuss it.
Happy to answer questions!

Using stereo-EEG in 18 epilepsy patients during naturalistic listening, we show that:
• speech → brain Granger causality peaks at theta and gamma bands.
• PAC emerges during speech (not at rest)
• theta and gamma responses come from spatially segregated sources in auditory cortex.

We analysed speech corpora in 17 languages and found that classic theta (~4 Hz) and gamma (~30–50 Hz) spectral signatures — and their phase–amplitude coupling (PAC) — are embedded in the speech signal itself (not just in the brain).

New preprint!
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Are cortical rhythms entrained by speech or simply evoked?
👉 Evoked.

TL;DR:
Speech acoustics already carry the nested theta–gamma structure seen in auditory cortex.
Using advanced signal analyses, stereoEEG data, and speech corpora (17 languages).
🧵👇

Hierarchical interactions between sensory cortices defy predictive coding Perceptual experience depends on recurrent interactions between lower and higher cortices. One theory, predictive coding, posits that feedback from higher to lower brain regions decreases neuronal activity predicted by higher-level representations. Despite the widespread adoption of predictive coding in neuroscience, the correspondence to neurophysiological findings in sensory cortices remains elusive. Here, we review how the canonical patterns of intra- and inter-cortical interactions that occur during perception and shifts of attention deviate from those predicted by predictive coding. We argue that these circuit interactions are better captured by alternative theories, which we summarize under the umbrella term BELIEF. We review how BELIEF theories account for the inter-areal interactions during attentive perception.

Online Now: Hierarchical interactions between sensory cortices defy predictive coding

Human auditory cortex integrates information in speech across absolute time (e.g., 200 ms), not phonemes, syllables, words, or any other time-varying speech structure: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Une nouvelle page s’écrit pour la recherche au CHUM! | CHUM - Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal Une nouvelle page s’écrit pour la recherche au CHUM! Nous avons le grand plaisir d’annoncer la nomination de M. Sylvain Baillet, Ph.D., à titre de directeur de la recherche et de l’innovation du CHU...

Big news, and more to come, from our lab.

www.linkedin.com/posts/centre...

Variance partitioning is used to quantify the overlap of two models. Over the years, I have found that this can be a very confusing and misleading concept. So we finally we decided to write a short blog to explain why.
@martinhebart.bsky.social @gallantlab.org
diedrichsenlab.org/BrainDataSci...

⚠️JOB ANNOUNCEMENT⚠️
Postdoctoral Position in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience (Marseille) in collaboration with @alainbarrat.bsky.social. Join us to study higher-order brain interactions in causal learning using information theory and network science. More info
www.fens.org/careers/job-...

15-17 octobre 2025
🧠Neurosciences de demain à + 2°
🌏 Quelles neurosciences à l'ère de l'Anthropocène ?
Lieux : Palais du Pharo et Campus Timone, Marseille

neuro22m1a2deg.sciencesconf.org

1/n

Rapid emergence of a maths gender gap in first grade - Nature Boys and girls exhibit very similar maths scores upon school entry, but a gender gap in favour of boys becomes highly significant after 4 months of schooling, which increases with years of schooling,&...

Do girls and boys really differ in their mathematical skills? A recent @nature.com paper by @standehaene.bsky.social et al shows that French boys and girls enter school with similar abilities, but after just four months, boys pull ahead 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

my lab (lacns.github.io) at @mpi-nl.bsky.social and @dondersinst.bsky.social is recruiting for two PhD and two postdoctoral positions funded by an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator - come join us!

PhD: www.mpi.nl/career-educa...

Postdoc: www.mpi.nl/career-educa...

(please share widely)

Register now for our interdisciplinary summer school on “Language, Communication, and the Brain” — featuring outstanding teachers, a blend of theoretical and methodological courses, and plenty of fun!

Permanent link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

hmmm, sorry about that (the temporary free link has expired)...
Here's a permanent link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

funded by: @agencerecherche.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu
@insermpacacorse.bsky.social @univ-amu.fr @ilcb.bsky.social

Want to dive deeper into how rhythmic movement and speech production can facilitate speech perception in noise?
Check out our full paper in Proc. R. Soc. B!
➡️ royalsocietypublishing.org/eprint/ZWRPM...

These findings highlight the functional role of our motor system in processing the temporal dynamics of naturalistic speech in noisy situations. 👂

But that's not all: We also discovered that overtly vocalizing words (regardless of their meaning) during the priming period also enhances the efficiency of later speech-in-noise processing. 🗣️

Interestingly, this benefit wasn't just about following an external beat. Whether the rhythmic movement was self-generated or triggered by an auditory cue, the positive impact on speech perception remained.

Our study found that rhythmic finger tapping at the lexical rate (~1.8 Hz) prior to speech-in-noise perception significantly improves subsequent speech processing in noise.
Importantly, tapping at syllabic or phrasal rate had no such effect.

📢 New publication alert! 📢
👂Ever struggled to understand natural speech in a noisy environment? 🤔
Our new research shows that moving rhythmically can actually help you hear better!

royalsocietypublishing.org/eprint/ZWRPM...

with: @strijkers.bsky.social & Noémie teRietmolen

🧵👇

Congrats to Anna Lorenz and the d-cap iEEG team @INS @univ-amu.fr @insermpacacorse.bsky.social !

Supported by @ilcb.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @agencerecherche.bsky.social and Fondation pour l'audition.

Importantly, the neural response to simple perceptual repetition of the same excerpt of speech and music was different from the modulation observed during self-production. This indicates that the production effects are not simply due to familiarity or repetition.

Our results also challenges the idea of a uniform suppression of auditory cortex activity during self-production: we instead show widespread low-frequency (4-8 Hz) suppression and mid-frequency (8-80 Hz) enhancement.