d’Ascoli, S., Bel, C., Rapin, J. et al. (2025)Towards decoding individual words from non-invasive brain recordings. Nat Commun 16, 10521. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65499-0

Résumé :
While deep learning has enabled the decoding of language from intracranial brain recordings, achieving this with non-invasive recordings remains an open challenge. We introduce a deep learning pipeline to decode individual words from electro- (EEG) and magneto-encephalography (MEG) signals. We evaluate our approach on seven public datasets and two datasets which we collect ourselves, amounting to a total of 723 participants reading or listening to five million words in three languages. Our model outperforms existing methods consistently across participants, devices, languages, and tasks, and can decode words absent from the training set. Our analyses highlight the importance of the recording device and experimental protocol: MEG and reading are easier to decode than EEG and listening, and decoding performance consistently increases with the amount of data used for training and for averaging during testing. Overall, our findings delineate the path and remaining challenges towards building non-invasive brain decoders for natural language

Beuchot, T., Nettle, D. & Chevallier, C. (2025). Behavioural public policy should take the psychology of poverty into account. Commun Psychol.doi:10.1038/s44271-025-00366-8

Résumé :
Psychological variability is central to understanding behavioural interventions. Over the past 15 years, many behaviourally informed public policies have proven effective; however, they often yield highly heterogeneous outcomes, and the reasons for this variability remain unclear. We posit that these mixed results are due to researchers and policy makers designing interventions around behavioural strategies that perform well on average, overlooking how individuals differ in their responses. We review discoveries from the psychology of poverty to show how variations in traits such as conformism, present orientation, personal agency, and social vigilance correspond with levels of resource availability. We then demonstrate how these psychological differences systematically shape individual reactions to behavioural policy tools such as default options, self-regulation devices, information campaigns, social-belonging interventions, and social norms. Ultimately, we argue that an applied behavioural science of poverty is essential for crafting interventions that are both effective and equitable.

M. Boon-Falleur, E. Huillery, & C. Chevallier (2025). Waiting time during admission procedures increases social inequalities in higher education, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (47) e2426604122, doi:10.1073/pnas.2426604122

Résumé :
Many domains in life require people to wait to access better outcomes, such as waiting in line to access prized tickets for a show, waiting to obtain a job offer from a selective firm, or being waitlisted for a prestigious university. Although waiting might be perceived as a fair mechanism to allocate resources, it may have unintended consequences on social inequalities as individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (SES) may be less likely to wait. In this study, we investigate socioeconomic differences in waiting behavior during the higher education admission process in France. To do so, we leveraged a unique national database that recorded the admission behavior of every high schooler in France over a period of three years. During the admissions process, students faced a trade-off: They could either accept an immediate offer from a university or wait in the hope of receiving a preferred offer later. Results collected among 274,316 students reveal that low-SES students were significantly less likely to wait for preferred offers, even when controlling for objective costs and benefits of waiting. This led low-SES students to ultimately enroll in programs they liked less and that were less prestigious. These results highlight how admission procedures generating uncertainty and requiring students to wait may inadvertently exacerbate educational inequalities. Such systems, while efficient, can end up favoring students who wait more. This research contributes to current discussions on admission procedure fairness by illustrating that seemingly neutral algorithms can in fact deepen social inequalities if their design rewards patience.

Casati R., Portier A., Astruc Delor C., Baird-Zars, Cerino C., Julian Esteban-Cantillo O., Eveillard D., Malatesta S., Schmidt di Friedberg M. (2026). Sea level rise: A plea for taking the viewpoint of the ocean, Marine Policy, Volume 185,106972, ISSN 0308-597X. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106972.

Résume :
Sea levels have risen an average of 1.5 mm/y over the twentieth century and are predicted to further rise by 2100, in particular under the SSP5–8.5 scenario. Although the consequences of rising sea levels for coastal areas have been observed, predicted, and discussed in the literature, the concerns predominantly addressed are understandably issued from a land-centric perspective. Little consideration has been devoted to systematically studying the consequences of submersion for the sea itself. We suggest that the viewpoint of the ocean should be included in future research and policy-making, inviting the coordination of three main research areas: 1. What parts of land will be submerged? 2. What human infrastructure and non-human features will be reclaimed by the sea? 3. What kind of effects will the submerged infrastructure and features have on the marine environment and its inhabitants? We detail some models and challenges, and advocate for an integrated study of the Marine Impacts of Sea Level Rise (MISR).

Fraisse, N., Bachoud-Levi, A.-C. and Jacquemot, C. (2025). Pragmatics Assessment in Adults: Adaptation and Validation of the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (apacs) in French. Revue de neuropsychologie, 17(3), 163-170. doi:10.1684/nrp.2025.0827.

Résumé :
Pragmatic skills refer to an individual’s ability to appropriately interpret non-explicit information in a given context. These skills are crucial for daily life, and deficits can arise in the context of various neurological or psychiatric conditions. However, few assessment tools are available in French for the adult population. The aim of this study was to adapt the assessment of pragmatic abilities and cognitive substrates (APACS)—a test originally developed in Italian and validated for use with both healthy adult participants and individuals with neurological or psychiatric disorders—into French. This test is notable for its comprehensive evaluation of multiple aspects of pragmatic understanding, including humor, idioms, proverbs, implicit inferences, and metaphors, using a combination of open-ended questions and multiple-choice closed questions. The validation of the French-adapted APACS was carried out with 40 healthy adult participants. Psychometric analyses indicate that the French adaptation is valid (construct validity) and reliable (internal consistency and inter-rater reliability). Furthermore, the scores correlated with those obtained from the Italian version (convergent validity). The French APACS therefore offers a reliable tool for the clinical assessment of pragmatic abilities in French-speaking adults.

Nettle D, Chevallier C, Pickett KE, Johnson MT, Johnson EA, Bateson M. (2025). Why is income volatility associated with poor health? Longitudinal evidence from the UK and France. SSM Popul Health. 32:101869. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2025.101869. PMID: 41142650; PMCID: PMC12547960.

Résumé :
There is some evidence that income volatility (fluctuations in income over time) negatively affects mental and physical health, independently of the level of income. Evidence to date has examined fluctuations from year to year or from day to day, whereas a more relevant timescale might be month to month. Here, we use data from the Changing Cost of Living Study, a longitudinal panel from the UK and France with monthly data (n = 484). We examine the association between month-to-month income volatility and two outcomes, self-rated general health and anxiety-depression (a composite measure derived from GAD-7 and PHQ-8 scores). Higher volatility was associated with worse health on both measures, with volatility accounting for similar amounts of variation as the level of income. Some association between income volatility and health is to be expected as a consequence of the concavity of the income-health relationship: because of concavity, a downward fluctuation damages health more than the equivalent upward fluctuation improves it. We show that the observed associations are 3 and 4 times too strong to be explained by this mechanism alone. We suggest that volatility, because it introduces uncertainty and stress, has substantial direct health effects. This claim is important for public policy: it means that policies and institutions that smooth people's income streams can have beneficial health effects even if they don't raise anyone's income.

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