My research interests concern the emergence of intelligent behavior by distributed computing with real or artificial neural networks. They are investigated in the domains of computational neuroscience and cognitive modeling, in tight loop with neuroscience and the medical domain.
Concerning computational neuroscience, I explore the structure/function relations in the brain and the links, at several levels of description, between biologically inspired neural architectures and functioning and learning principles. At the level of the population of neurons, I study adapted elementary mechanisms of neuronal functioning and learning. At the level of information flows, I design models of cerebral structures including the posterior and prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus with application to perceptive scene interpretation, planning and the related various aspects of memorization. A major challenge concerns exchanges of information and transfer of learning between the neuronal structures.
Concerning cognitive modeling, I am interested in adaptive behavior for autonomous robotics. My main reference frameworks are embodied cognition and enaction, and I aim at building a global model of the cognitive architecture to study how a variety of functions ranging from perceptive analysis and sensorimotor coordination to executive functions and consciousness are built by interaction with the inner (emotional) and the outer (physical) world. These studies exploit the above-mentioned neural systems but also my other fields of expertise related to machine learning, pattern recognition, data, image and signal processing and neuro-control.
Concerning neuroscience and the medical domain, I work in the Bordeaux Neurocampus and have other national and international collaborations to feed the loop of interactions, building models from data and knowledge in these domains and assessing and exploiting them for the study of neuronal mechanisms and structures, animal and human behavior and neurodegenerative diseases.