LSP-ENS

Responses to combinations of motion clouds were well explained by a simple summation mechanism of the individual components.

Finally, a subset of neurons exhibited responses that could distinguish different speeds.

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Graphical abstract of the main results of the study by Thomas Schaffhauser

We found that motion features were encoded in a temporally ordered sequence: orientation and spatial frequency emerged within 120 ms after stimulus onset, while temporal frequency and direction followed at later latencies.

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This work was done with Yves Boubenec at the @lsp-ens.bsky.social

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RT @mamassian.bsky.social‬:
Delighted to share this work led by Thomas Schaffhauser on the processing of rich natural-like motion stimuli (“motion clouds”) in the visual cortex of the ferret:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.23.678183v1

Big seminar room, with people sitting in comfortable red seats. Three people (the organizers) are on the stage.

Slide titled "Questions". The text on the slide is: "1. Can we distinguish between real vs. fake zoom laughter? 2. Can a ferret learn to DJ? 3. Can statistical modelling predict the microwaves behaviour better than intuition? 4. Do coffee breaks transfer more knowledge than official meetings? 5. Can the cleanliness of someone's desk predict the prettiness of their figures?"

Last week we kicked off our first lab meeting of the new academic year. No scientific presentation this time. Instead, we were tasked with designing experiments to answer some *truly critical* research questions.

@tarrynbalsdon.bsky.social and @nadiahosseinizaveh.bsky.social had a great time at #ASSC28.

Thank you organizers @assc28.bsky.social!

Myself, in front of the title slide "une étude microscopique des mécanismes auditifs de la perception du langage oral".

Yesterday I defended my 'Habilitation à diriger des Recherches'! Thanks to those who attended! And thank you to a wonderful jury: J. Gervain, A. Calcus, I. Chitoran, J.J. Aucouturier, E. Gaudrain, C. Lorenzi.

Highlight from #VSS2025

@tarrynbalsdon.bsky.social giving a talk on "Probing metacognition with the psychophysicist's microelectrode".

A project in collaboration with Paolo Bartolomeo, Vincent de Gardelle, @mamassian.bsky.social and Marion Rouault!

@vssmtg.bsky.social

Highlight from #VSS2025
Ljubica Jovanovic presenting "When a blunt event is perceived depends on its temporal profile". A joint work with @mamassian.bsky.social

@vssmtg.bsky.social

2 people in front of a scientific poster

A group of people in front of a scientific poster

A group of people in front of three scientific posters

Some memories from a few weeks ago: poster presentations from our lab at #CFA2025

The paper is now online and #openaccess on @hal_fr : "50 Years of Reverse Correlation: Replicating Ahumada et al.’s Pioneering Study" hal.science/hal-05060148

Actualités: Écouter l’eau pour comprendre la relation des habitants et des habitantes à leur environnement | DEC Département d'études cognitives Recherche: Le projet de recherche ALEAU porté par Pauline Guinard, géographe à l’ENS, a reçu un financement de l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) à la fin de l’année dernière. Ce projet qui a dé...

Écouter l’eau pour comprendre la relation des habitant·es à leur environnement, un projet né d’une rencontre entre la géographe Pauline Guinard et le chercheur en sciences cognitives, Christian Lorenzi @normalesup.bsky.social @lsp-ens.bsky.social @psl-univ.bsky.social 👉 bit.ly/44bUeTS

Thank you Karl Gegenfurtner and Doris Braun for two fantastic talks last week in our department!

Existe-t-il des mélodies naturelles ? De nombreuses cultures musicales choisissent des échelles établissant des rapports de fréquence simples (2:1, 3:2, 4:3) entre les notes.

La nature compose-t-elle ses propres mélodies ? 🐦🎶
Des scientifiques se sont penchés sur la question et ont découvert des structures sonores fascinantes… et peut-être même des harmonies inattendues !

a man 's face is being measured by a device with wires attached to it ALT: a man 's face is being measured by a device with wires attached to it

Dans Severance, la dernière (super) série SF du moment, ça discute cerveau et oscillations ! ! L'occasion rêvée pour un article dans @france.theconversation.com, où neurosciences et science-fiction se mêlent ➡️ theconversation.com/severance-le...
Merci Aurélie Louchart, @bentonson.bsky.social !

Sons de la nature : quand les chants d’oiseaux nous donnent des ailes De récentes études scientifiques documentent les bienfaits des chants des merles, pinsons ou mésanges pour le bien-être et la santé mentale.

MÉDIAS I Sons de la nature:quand les chants d’oiseaux nous donnent des ailes."Nous avons pu constater des réactions émotionnelles positives de la part des personnes qui ont pu réécouter des sons de la nature grâce à des prothèses auditives"C.Lorenzi @lsp-ens.bsky.social @liberation.fr bit.ly/4iXjoJX

Antoine Prosper in front of his "summary and discussion" slide

Congratulation to Antoine Prosper who successfully defended his thesis yesterday! You can check out his two recent articles on Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity in vision below:
- www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
Well done Antoine!

The interplay between Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity in the adult visual cortex Abstract figure legend (A) Modulation of the P1 component of visual evoked potential (VEP) by high-frequency stimulation (HFS) used as a proxy of Hebbian plasticity in adult humans. (B) Correlation b...

Proud of sharing our latest study, just out on @jphysiol.bsky.social ! We show that Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity are linked in adult humans, but do not directly interact. @lsp-ens.bsky.social @cognitionens.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @erc.europa.eu

physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Congratulations to Pierre Orhan (@pierreorhan.bsky.social) who successfully defended his PhD on "Learning dynamics in biological and artificial neural networks", conducted at @normalesup.bsky.social

Hierarchical encoding of natural sounds mixtures in ferret auditory cortex Extracting relevant auditory signals from complex natural scenes is a fundamental challenge for the auditory system. Sounds from multiple sources overlap in time and frequency. In particular, dynamic ...

We reveal a hierarchical gradient for background invariance in ferret auditory cortex with #fUSI 🔬, as found in humans by @joshhmcdermott.bsky.social.
▶️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Neuroscience

Neurons in auditory cortex integrate information within constrained temporal windows that are invariant to the stimulus context and information rate Much remains unknown about the computations that allow animals to flexibly integrate across multiple timescales in natural sounds. One key question is whether multiscale integration is accomplished by...

@magdalenasabat.bsky.social used 🔌 ephys to show that ferret auditory cortex neurons integrate sounds within fixed windows (~15–150 ms) that increase in non-primary auditory cortex, independent of information rate.
▶️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Neuroscience

🎉 TWO new preprints from our lab on hierarchical processing in ferret auditory cortex! 🦊🧠
🚨 Stay tuned for highlights on each study in the following posts 🚨
#Neuroscience #CogSci #BioRxiv

Do you want to study cognitive science and live in Paris?

Our master’s program in Cognitive Science at @ENS_ULM, @psl_univ, and @EHESS_fr is now accepting applications for 2025-2026. All courses are in English.

Deadline: 13 March 2025

More info: master-cognitive-science.ens.psl.eu/en

Premotor cortex hemodynamics reflect internal auditory category, not reported category In sensory decision-making tasks, animals’ decisions are driven by perception, but also by non-perceptual factors. Because of external and internal noise, stimuli may be internally misclassified, lead...

Animals make errors influenced by both perceptual and non-perceptual factors. Last study from Jeffrey Boucher and Yves Boubenec from our lab uses this to show that premotor cortex tracks the perceived stimulus, not the one reported by behavior. Discover more: tinyurl.com #Neuroscience #fUSi

If you are in London, consider going to this very nice symposium organized by @danieljamesyon.bsky.social where you’ll be able to listen to our lab member @tarrynbalsdon.bsky.social

Flavien Feral in front of his title slide

What a sprint of academic achievements! In just 15 days, four PhD students from the lab successfully defended their theses. Today, a big congratulations to Flavien Feral, who presented his research on sensorimotor interactions in a sound production task.

Rodrigue Bravard in front of his title slide

Congratulations to Rodrigue Bravard from our lab, who successfully defended his thesis on interindividual frequency weighting differences in auditory perception!

Cartographier la perception des phonèmes du français Qu'écoutons-nous vraiment lorsque nous écoutons quelqu'un parler ?

Un petit résumé en français de notre dernière étude, sur le site du @cnrs.bsky.social : "Cartographier la perception des phonèmes du français" www.inshs.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/...

Linnea Evanson in front of her title slide, in the Amphithéâtre Louis Liard of la Sorbonne.

We have a new doctor!
Congratulations to Linnea Evanson for successfully defending her #PhD thesis on language acquisition in brains and deep learning algorithms!

Award for the best ferret of the year

Best ferret of the year