Benjamin Morillon

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.

Self-production of both speech and music is also accompanied by a decreased encoding of acoustic features in the auditory cortex, compared to perception.

Self-producing sounds elicit a complex modulation of auditory cortex activity that varies across frequencies and locations, but is consistent across speech and music.
This suggests a domain-general nature of corollary discharge signals from motor to auditory systems.

paradigm

New paper! 🚨
authors.elsevier.com/c/1kqF72VHYF...
"Corollary discharge signals during production are domain general:
an intracerebral EEG case study with a professional musician."
🧵👇

POST-DOC CALL!
2-year post-doctoral position to work in Marseille on any topic in the field of language, communication and the brain.
Deadline May, 20, 2025
www.ilcb.fr/ilcb-postdoc...

Predictive coding and dimension-selective attention enhance the lateralization of spoken language processing Hemispheric lateralization in speech and language processing exemplifies functional brain specialization. Seminal work in patients with left hemispher…

🧠 In our new article, Martin Meyer & I argue that the lateralization of spoken language is enhanced by top-down processes—such as predictive coding and dimension-selective auditory attention—which engage left-lateralized sensorimotor networks.

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread 🧵 1/12

PhD opportunity - ERC ThoughtOrigins We are seeking a graduate student in comparative cognition to work on a ERC-funded project (to Isabelle Dautriche) to investigate the format of thought in the absence of a language in two populations:...

I am looking for a PhD student to work on my ERC-funded project to investigate the format of thought in the absence of language in baboons and bees.

Details here: tinyurl.com/5ff9hcjj

Apply here: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...

opm2025.sciencesconf.org

https://neuro-marseille.org/en/Calls/2025-phd-contracts-for-international-students/

neuro-marseille.org/en/Calls/202...

Information about this project and others can be found here :
neuro-marseille.org/wp-content/u...

Deadline : April 14, 2025.

We are hiring! Come work in sunny Marseille!
NeuroSchool PhD contracts in neuroscience are available at Aix Marseille University, France:

I submitted one project (#11) for the call for international PhDs:
"Investigating Music Listening in Human and Non-Human Primates."