Swann Pichon

Phd Thesis : Functional neuroanatomy of the perception of emotional signals : Recognizing fear and anger in other's actions

During my PhD, I investigated brain response to threat signals from the nonfacial motor behaviour of others and how these responses relate to known findings from functional imaging in monkeys and humans, as well as to the physiology of defense in animals.
I extended current knowledge of the cerebral substrates implicated in affective and attentional processes in the non-pathological human population with the purpose to enrich functional models that can later be applied to the pathological population.
I am now working in Geneva as a postdoctoral fellow in Pr Vuilleumier's lab, pursuing research on affective and attentional processes.

Here is a short resume of my PhD work :

Abstract: The perception and processing of motor behaviors plays an essential role in understanding others' actions and for regulation of social interactions. The implementation of cerebral functions responsible for the extraction of emotional signals from others' actions remains unclear, notably concerning the role of motor and frontal regions. This project aims to understand the cerebral substrates involved in perceiving other's emotions, in particular fear and anger. We hypothesize that exposure to actions signaling a potential threat triggers an adaptive response in the observer. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we aim to: i) identify the regions associated with the passive observation of actions signaling fear and anger and study the influence of movement on their activity; ii) investigate treatments that are common and specific to the recognition of fear and anger signals; iii) study how attention influences the activity of regions engaged during such tasks. We observe a network of temporal (STS, TPJ, amygdala & temporal pole) and frontal regions (BA45/BA47, vmPFC & arMFC) that are modulated by emotional and attentional factors, and it appears to be involved in evaluating the affective significance of actions. The activity of the hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray and dorsal premotor cortex, which also responds to threat signals, remains unaffected by the focus of attention in the task. In animals, these regions are known to participate in the organization of defensive behaviors, which suggests that the observation of threatening behaviors triggers adaptive responses in the observer. Finally, these results raise questions regarding the role of the frontal lobe (BA47 & arMFC) in regulating affects and behavior in the context of social interaction.

Direction : Dr Julie Grèzes