Juin 2013
  • Focus
  • Financements
  • Appels d'offres
  • Publications
  • Agenda
  • Colloquium

FOCUS

Sharon Peperkamp et Boris Gutkin, directeurs adjoints du Département d'études cognitives et Labex IEC


La gouvernance du département d’études cognitives et du Labex IEC évolue. Depuis le 1er avril 2013, cette équipe est constituée du directeur de département et Labex IEC, Christian Lorenzi, et de deux directeurs adjoints, Sharon Peperkamp (LSCP) et Boris Gutkin (GNT).

Sharon Peperkamp, DR CNRS, est en charge des affaires internes du département et du Labex IEC: gestion du budget du département et du Labex IEC, gestion du personnel technique du DEC et du Labex IEC, représentation dans les instances de l’ENS, contact avec les services de l’ENS.

Boris Gutkin, DR CNRS, est en charge des affaires externes du département et du Labex IEC, de la représentation du département et du Labex IEC au niveau régional, national et international (e.g., IDEX PSL, Sélection Internationale, Programme de coopération scientifique internationale du Labex IEC, etc.). Il assure le suivi des appels d’offre (internes, externes, e.g., ANR, EU, etc), est aussi le correspondant du Conseil scientifique international du DEC/IEC. Enfin, il assure la représentation du DEC et du labex IEC dans les instances de l’ENS et est en contact avec les services de l’ENS.

FINANCEMENTS

PSL retient le projet "Proto Humain" de Dominique Sportiche (IEC-Ling) et le projet de Chair d'Excellence Junior EVOLFAIR de Nicolas Baumard (IJN).



PROJET "PROTO HUMAIN", DOMINIQUE SPORTICHE

Paris, Sciences et Lettres (PSL) vient de retenir le projet de Dominique Sportiche (IEC-LING/DEC/ENS) sur l'origine des langues - "Proto humain" - dans le cadre de l'Appel à projets de recherche en arts, sciences humaines et sociales et gestion.

Les langues actuelles se subdivisent en de multiples familles distinctes (Indo-Européenne, Sémitique, Bantoue, Austronésienne, etc. ). Ces langues partagent-elles un même ancêtre, à savoir un langage dit "proto-humain" parlé par les premiers homo sapiens ? A l'aide de méthodes de modélisation statistique importées de la phylogénétique et appliquées à des données syntaxiques, psycholinguistiques et autres, ce projet tentera de construire des arbres généalogiques fiables des langues s'étendant si possible dans un passé lointain, précédant la diversification des langues humaines en grandes familles et ainsi de dater les langues humaines ancestrales (voire le proto-humain) et de déterminer certaines de leurs propriétés.


PROJET DE CHAIRE D'EXCELLENCE JUNIOR EVOLFAIR, NICOLAS BAUMARD

Le projet de Nicolas Baumard (Institut Jean Nicod) de Chaire d’excellence Junior EVOLFAIR dans le domaine de la cognition sociale a été retenu par le jury du conseil de la recherche de PSL.

Les jugements moraux se caractérisent par une logique spécifique régie par les notions d’équité et de proportionnalité. Il est ainsi courant d’estimer que la peine doit être en rapport avec le crime, que la distribution des bénéfices doit se faire en fonction de la contribution de chacun, ou encore que les droits doivent être proportionnés aux devoirs. Le projet EVOLFAIR vise à mieux comprendre comment la logique de l'équité est apparue au cours de l'évolution humaine en réponse à un environnement de plus en plus coopératif dans lequel les individus se devaient de traiter les autres équitablement pour mieux accéder au bénéfices de la coopération.

En savoir plus sur le site internet de l'Institut Jean Nicod.
En savoir plus sur PSL.

APPELS D'OFFRES

Retrouvez l'ensemble des appels d'offres sur le site web de l'Institut d'étude de la cognition.

PUBLICATIONS

Englitz B, David SV, Sorenson MD, Shamma SA, MANTA-an open-source, high density electrophysiology recording suite for MATLAB. Front Neural Circuits. 2013 May 6;7:69. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2013.00069. Print 2013..

Abstract:
The distributed nature of nervous systems makes it necessary to record from a large number of sites in order to decipher the neural code, whether single cell, local field potential (LFP), micro-electrocorticograms (μECoG), electroencephalographic (EEG), magnetoencephalographic (MEG) or in vitro micro-electrode array (MEA) data are considered. High channel-count recordings also optimize the yield of a preparation and the efficiency of time invested by the researcher. Currently, data acquisition (DAQ) systems with high channel counts (>100) can be purchased from a limited number of companies at considerable prices. These systems are typically closed-source and thus prohibit custom extensions or improvements by end users. We have developed MANTA, an open-source MATLAB-based DAQ system, as an alternative to existing options. MANTA combines high channel counts (up to 1440 channels/PC), usage of analog or digital headstages, low per channel cost (inf$90/channel), feature-rich display and filtering, a user-friendly interface, and a modular design permitting easy addition of new features. MANTA is licensed under the GPL and free of charge. The system has been tested by daily use in multiple setups for >1 year, recording reliably from 128 channels. It offers a growing list of features, including integrated spike sorting, PSTH and CSD display and fully customizable electrode array geometry (including 3D arrays), some of which are not available in commercial systems. MANTA runs on a typical PC and communicates via TCP/IP and can thus be easily integrated with existing stimulus generation/control systems in a lab at a fraction of the cost of commercial systems. With modern neuroscience developing rapidly, MANTA provides a flexible platform that can be rapidly adapted to the needs of new analyses and questions. Being open-source, the development of MANTA can outpace commercial solutions in functionality, while maintaining a low price-point.



Landerl, K., Ramus, F., Moll, K., Lyytinen, H., Leppänen, P. H. T., Lohvansuu, K., . . . Schulte-Körne, G. Predictors of developmental dyslexia in European orthographies with varying complexity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(6), 686-694. *equal contributors, (2013)

Abstract:
Background: The relationship between phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term/working memory (ST/WM) and diagnostic category is investigated in control and dyslexic children, and the extent to which this depends on orthographic complexity. Methods:  General cognitive, phonological and literacy skills were tested in 1,138 control and 1,114 dyslexic children speaking six different languages spanning a large range of orthographic complexity (Finnish, Hungarian, German, Dutch, French, English). Results:  Phoneme deletion and RAN were strong concurrent predictors of developmental dyslexia, while verbal ST/WM and general verbal abilities played a comparatively minor role. In logistic regression models, more participants were classified correctly when orthography was more complex. The impact of phoneme deletion and RAN-digits was stronger in complex than in less complex orthographies. Conclusions:  Findings are largely consistent with the literature on predictors of dyslexia and literacy skills, while uniquely demonstrating how orthographic complexity exacerbates some symptoms of dyslexia.



Friederike Moltmann.The Semantics of Existence. Linguistics and Philosophy 36.1., 2013, pp. 31-63.

Abstract:
The notion of existence is a very puzzling one philosophically. Often philosophers have appealed to linguistic properties of sentences stating existence. However, the appeal to linguistic intuitions has generally not been systematic and without serious regard of relevant issues in linguistic semantics. This paper has two aims. On the one hand, it will look at statements of existence from a systematic linguistic point of view, in order to try to clarify what the actual semantics of such statements in fact is. On the other hand, it will explore what sort of ontology such statements reflect. The first aim is one of linguistic semantics; the second aim is one of descriptive metaphysics. Philosophically, existence statements appear to reflect the distinction between endurance and perdurance as well as particular notions of abstract states and of kinds. Linguistically, statements of existence involve a particular way of drawing the distinction between eventive and stative verbs and between individual-level and stage-level predicates as well as a particular approach to the semantics of bare plurals and mass nouns.



Shamma, S., & Lorenzi, C., On the balance of envelope and temporal fine structure in the encoding of speech in the early auditory system. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 133, 2818-2833 (2013)

Abstract
There is much debate on how the spectrotemporal modulations of speech (or its spectrogram) are encoded in the responses of the auditory nerve, and whether speech intelligibility is best conveyed via the "envelope" (E) or "temporal fine-structure" (TFS) of the neural responses. Wide use of vocoders to resolve this question has commonly assumed that manipulating the amplitude-modulation and frequency-modulation components of the vocoded signal alters the relative importance of E or TFS encoding on the nerve, thus facilitating assessment of their relative importance to intelligibility. Here we argue that this assumption is incorrect, and that the vocoder approach is ineffective in differentially altering the neural E and TFS. In fact, we demonstrate using a simplified model of early auditory processing that both neural E and TFS encode the speech spectrogram with constant and comparable relative effectiveness regardless of the vocoder manipulations. However, we also show that neural TFS cues are less vulnerable than their E counterparts under severe noisy conditions, and hence should play a more prominent role in cochlear stimulation strategies.



Stiefel KM, Englitz B, Sejnowski TJ, Origin of intrinsic irregular firing in cortical interneurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 7; 110(19):7886-91. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1305219110.

Abstract:
Cortical spike trains are highly irregular both during ongoing, spontaneous activity and when driven at high firing rates. There is uncertainty about the source of this irregularity, ranging from intrinsic noise sources in neurons to collective effects in large-scale cortical networks. Cortical interneurons display highly irregular spike times (coefficient of variation of the interspike intervals >1) in response to dc-current injection in vitro. This is in marked contrast to cortical pyramidal cells, which spike highly irregularly in vivo, but regularly in vitro. We show with in vitro recordings and computational models that this is due to the fast activation kinetics of interneuronal K(+) currents. This explanation holds over a wide parameter range and with Gaussian white, power-law, and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise. The intrinsically irregular spiking of interneurons could contribute to the irregularity of the cortical network.



COLLOQUIUM

De 12h à 13h30, 29 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, salle Paul Langevin.


11 juin 2013

Sarah Beck (University of Birmingham): "What counts as counterfactual thinking in children?"


Abstract:
The first studies on the development of counterfactual thinking focussed on one question: whether there was a shift in children's speculation about what might have been at 3-4 years of age. Since then findings from a diversity of tasks have suggested that children's abilities develop somewhat earlier (German & Nichols, 2003; Harris, 1997), later (Beck et al., 2006; Rafetseder, Cristi-Vargas, & Perner, 2010), or that the emergence of adult-like counterfactual thinking (e.g. shown by regret) might be separate from the basic reasoning abilities (e.g. Guttentag & Ferrell, 2004; Weisberg & Beck, 2010; 2012). I will explore which of the developmental data offer good evidence for counterfactual thinking and identify questions that remain.



AGENDA

Retrouvez l'intégralité de l'agenda de l'Institut d'étude la cognition sur le site de l'IEC.