Seminar "Moving fast and slow: Cognitive mechanisms and brain correlates of motor timing".
As part of the scientific leadership of the LAMIH's SHV department, a seminar will be held by Ségolène Guerin, post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience (UCLouvain, Belgium).
In order to interact with and move through their environment, human beings constantly adapt the spontaneous rate of their actions. Advances in time psychology research indicate that two processes (automatic vs. controlled) would be involved in the processing of temporal information. However, the cognitive mechanisms and brain regions underlying the temporal control of motor behaviors remain unclear. In this presentation, I will detail the cognitive and brain resources required during the execution of movements performed under different temporal constraints. Through a series of studies combining behavioral cues (reaction time, auto-correlations) and brain imaging (fNIRS), I will demonstrate the essential role played by prefrontal cognitive control during the production of slow motor behaviors in healthy subjects. The effect of the type of movements performed (upper limbs vs. whole body) will be discussed. These results have applications in a wide range of fields, from the creation of rehabilitation programs for people with impaired motor production abilities (e.g., Parkinson's disease) to the development of cooperative robots to support the physical effort of workers.
Dr. Ségolène M. R. Guérin is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience (UCLouvain, Belgium). Her research focuses on the brain correlates of time perception and production. This line of research is part of a multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach, combining cognitive psychology, neuroscience and movement science.