Researchers
Anne Giersch
Patients describe strange perceptual experiences, such as a fragmentation of thought, reputedly linked to disorders of the sense of self. Trying to understand these experiences leads us to explore abstract questions such as the continuity of time. We intuitively think that we perceive the information around us as continuous, in the same way that physical time seems continuous. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that we perceive time rhythmically. What is it that allows us, but not patients, to perceive time as continuous? We have demonstrated the existence of prediction mechanisms on the millisecond scale, which would compensate for the constraints of our conscious perception and enable us to follow what is happening around us in a fluid manner. These mechanisms appear to be disrupted in schizophrenia, but not in patients with bipolar disorder, who instead have difficulty controlling their mental activities on the scale of the second. We are seeking to ascertain whether these disorders pre-exist the development of psychosis, how they contribute to disorders of the sense of self, why these disorders are often transient, what causes them, and what the neurobiological bases of these disorders are. Our expertise lies in the field of experimental psychology and psychophysics, but we are broadening our methods to answer our questions: eye movement recording, electroencephalography, fMRI, virtual reality, motion capture and motor trajectory recording are used in current practice in our ongoing projects.
Anne Bonnefond
My research is organised around two main themes: 1. the neurophysiological study of sustained attention, an impaired cognitive function in many clinical populations, and 2. the study of multidimensional apathy, a very common transnosographic clinical symptom. Our studies of healthy subjects and clinical populations - schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) and depression - are based mainly on tools developed in experimental cognitive psychology and the electroencephalography (EEG) technique.
- Sustained attention is a basic form of attention which refers to our ability to maintain our cognitive activity effectively on a task for a relatively long period of time. Although it plays a decisive role in the proper functioning of a large number of perceptual and cognitive functions and, by extension, in all goal-directed behaviour, the cognitive and neuronal mechanisms underlying it are still poorly understood. To make progress in this area, AS deficits are explored along a continuum with, at one end, the state of inattention (a transient state of reduced attention), at the other end, inattentive symptomatology (a diagnostic criterion for ADHD) and, in between, the inattentive trait, i.e. a characteristic that is more stable than the state of inattention but without the disabling consequences associated with the symptom.
- Apathy is a clinical symptom defined as a quantitative reduction in goal-directed behaviour compared with the person's previous level of functioning. Despite the frequency of this symptom and its negative repercussions in all spheres of daily life, there is currently no effective treatment for it. To improve our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying apathy, our studies, conducted in healthy subjects with an apathetic trait as well as in patients suffering from schizophrenia or depressive disorders, are based on a multidimensional model of apathy that considers three distinct clinical sub-forms (i.e. emotional, executive, initiation).
Fabrice Berna
My main area of research concerns the study of autobiographical memory in schizophrenia, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of how disorders of this form of memory have an impact on certain symptoms such as personal identity (or self), delusions, hallucinations, etc. Our work also aims to develop innovative approaches to cognitive remediation of autobiographical memory, using portable cameras in particular. Our more recent work aims to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms common to alterations in episodic memory and autobiographical memory in schizophrenia by exploring different experimental materials, ranging from the most controlled (similar to episodic memory) to the most ecological (similar to autobiographical memory).
Gilles Bertschy
Throughout my career I have been interested in mood disorders and their treatment and more recently in their comorbidities such as ADHD. A generation of work on tachypsychia as a clinical marker contributing to the study of the distinction between bipolar and unipolar mood disorders is nearing completion. Our current involvement is focused on supporting the work of Sébastien Weibel.
Isabelle Offerlin-Meyer
Clinical Psychologist specialising in Neuropsychology, Doctor of Science.
With an applied focus, my research concerns :
The design and implementation, using an analytical and operational approach, of cognitive-functional care methods (ecological and tailor-made) with a view to reducing psychological disability in people suffering from schizophrenia and other psychological disorders and mental pathologies (bipolarity, autism, X-Fragile, multi-dys-, ADD, etc.). ), based on
The identification of the processes involved in target activities, and the design of optimisation methods and remediation strategies aimed at achieving the said objectives,
And this frequently leads me to work with the three establishments specialising in vocational support for people with disabilities of the Association Route Nouvelle Alsace chaired by Professor Jean-Marie Danion (http://www.r-n-a.org), which are :
- The Etablissement et Service d'Aide par le Travail [ESAT]
- The Entreprise Adaptée [EA]
- The Service d'Insertion en Milieu Ordinaire de Travail [SIMOT]
Born of the initial work of a collaborative network (M. Van der Linden, F. Larøi and M.-N. Levaux - Interreg IIIB project; collaboration between the University Hospitals of Liège and Strasbourg, 2003-2006), our approach is:
- Individualised and centred on the specific activities of daily life and/or work involving the impaired functional aspects;
- The basic paradigm is that of multiple baselines;
- The areas of interest to be assessed are :
- The effectiveness and specificity of each treatment, and
- The ability to generalise and transfer what has been learnt.
- The methodology used is that of the single case and multiple cases.
Aims of the approach:
- Reducing the mental handicap caused by cognitive disorders and their deleterious consequences on integration possibilities,
- Increasing the autonomy of the individuals concerned,
- Improving their quality of life and their self-esteem in order to offer them the possibility of integration and rehabilitation as fully-fledged individuals.
- In practice, cognitive disorders are undoubtedly a major obstacle to the professional integration of people with mental disabilities, and one of their main complaints and concerns. We therefore regularly offer talks at coffee meetings and training courses organised by SIMOT, to help play down these disorders by providing scientific information and presenting rehabilitation methods for people with mental disabilities.
Sébastien Weibel
My main area of research concerns attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) in adults and emotional regulation disorders, present in ADHD but also in other psychiatric disorders such as borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. Adult ADHD and emotional regulation difficulties are disorders that are still little recognised and little treated in France. What's more, these different disorders are often associated, making treatment more complex. My work as a researcher is linked to my work as a clinician. I'm looking to improve treatment and develop innovative therapeutic approaches. More specifically, my first line of research concerns the clinical characteristics and diagnostic limits of ADHD in adults, taking into account the complexity of co-morbidities (acceleration of thought, emotional dysregulation, borderline personality traits, temperament and sleep disorders). Secondly, I am interested in the cognitive mechanisms of attentional lapses in ADHD. We are seeking to characterise the neural mechanisms of these attention lapses, which are particularly frequent in ADHD, by comparing them with healthy controls and non-clinical participants with attention difficulties, and analysing the relationships between attention lapses and wandering thoughts. Thirdly, my projects are aimed at treating these patients. In collaboration with the Faculty of Psychology (Luisa Weiner), we are developing psychotherapeutic approaches using dialectical behaviour therapy, a therapy focusing on problems of emotional dysregulation, in patients with ADHD, borderline personality disorder, autism spectrum disorders and acquired brain injury. I am also interested in pharmacological approaches and particularly the cerebral effects of methylphenidate (the main treatment for ADHD) in people with ADHD associated with comorbidities.
Giulia Lafond-Brina
My research focuses on a better understanding of the transdiagnostic mechanisms of apathy, a clinical symptom defined as the reduction, or even absence, of the initiation of voluntary behaviour. Despite the frequency of this symptom in schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and resistant depression, and its negative impact on daily life, there is currently no effective treatment for it. To improve our understanding of the cognitive and neuronal mechanisms underlying apathy, our studies are based on a multidimensional model of apathy that considers three distinct clinical sub-forms (i.e. emotional, executive, initiation).
Our studies of healthy subjects with an isolated apathetic trait and of clinical populations - schizophrenia and unipolar and bipolar depressive disorders - are based mainly on tools developed in experimental cognitive psychology and the electroencephalography (EEG) technique.
The results of our work with Anne Bonnefond, mainly carried out as part of my neuroscience thesis, which was awarded the Prix Eurométropole de Strasbourg 2023 in 2024, a thesis prize awarded by the Société de Biologie de Strasbourg, now enable me to focus on two areas of research:
- Axis 1: To determine whether the three dimensions of multidimensional apathy could, rather than representing an early vulnerability factor for the onset of a psychiatric pathology, enable more specific prediction of the psychiatric pathology at risk.
- Axis 2: To gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of apathy in schizophrenia, mood disorders and healthy subjects with an apathetic trait, in order to determine whether the management of this disabling symptom needs to be adapted according to the dimensions of apathy and/or the associated psychiatric pathology.
