Psychologie Cognitive Expérimentale

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Numerical and Mathematical DevelopmentSpatiotemporal Dynamics of Arithmetic Computation in the Human BrainColloque - Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas : Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Arithmetic Computation in the Human BrainPedro Pinheiro-ChagasRésuméMathematics is among humanity's most remarkable achievements, yet we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how the brain performs even simple arithmetic. In this talk, I will present a series of studies investigating the encoding of elementary math, as well as the architecture, spatiotemporal dynamics, and causal role of the underlying brain networks. I will show that arithmetic computations selectively activate a distinct network in the human brain, which dissociates from language areas and overlaps with regions related to object recognition, visuospatial attention, working memory and relational reasoning. Next, using machine le

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Perception and ConsciousnessBuilding a Theory of Consciousness, One Collaboration at a TimeColloque - Lucia Melloni : Building a Theory of Consciousness, One Collaboration at a TimeLucia MelloniRésuméWhat does it take to transform consciousness from a philosophical puzzle into a scientific theory? Few frameworks have shaped this quest as deeply as Stanislas Dehaene's Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT). By proposing that conscious access arises through large-scale broadcasting and ignition across fronto-parietal networks, GNWT provided both a conceptual framework and concrete, testable predictions

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Infancy, Development, and EducationThe state of the State of the Arts of the Language of thought Colloque - Luca Bonatti : The state of the State of the Arts of the Language of thought Luca BonattiRésuméI will revise the state of the art of the current evidence for Language of thought. I will focus on the identification of primitive operation in early infancy, and will speculate on the relation between natural language and logical primitives.

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Infancy, Development, and EducationDevelopmental Origins of Human CuriosityColloque - Lisa Feigenson : Developmental Origins of Human CuriosityLisa FeigensonRésuméCuriosity underpins the greatest of human achievements, from exploring the reaches of our solar system to discovering the structure of our own minds.  Where does this drive come from?  Here I suggest that far from being reliant on language and sophisticated metacognitive skills, curiosity is present from our earliest days.  In support of this claim, I discuss work showing that preverbal infants not only experience curiosity but harness it: when babies' predictions fail to accord with their observations, they look longer, learn more, and produce exploratory behaviors.  Critically, their exploration is guided by a desire to explain—long before they have the words to describe what they see, babies seek to unde

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Numerical and Mathematical DevelopmentThe Relationship Between The Approximate Number System (ANS) And Math Cognition—Evidence From Across Several ContinentsColloque - Justin Halberda : The Relationship Between The Approximate Number System (ANS) And Math Cognition—Evidence From Across Several ContinentsJustin HalberdaRésuméWhat might be the relationship between our fanciest, most-recent cognitive inventions (e.g., Formal Mathematics) and our most evolutionarily ancient abilities to approximate the world (e.g., The Approximate Number System)? I will review the field's evidence, highlighting data from across 4 Continents.

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Perception and ConsciousnessThe Global Neuronal Workspace from the Molecular to the Cognitive Level: Consequences for Pathology and PharmacologyColloque - Jean-Pierre Changeux : The Global Neuronal Workspace from the Molecular to the Cognitive Level: Consequences for Pathology and PharmacologyJean-Pierre ChangeuxRésuméThe global neuronal workspace (GNW) theory originates from decades-long productive dialogs between Dehaene & Changeux which aimed, in the late 80's, at the elaboration of formal neuronal networks of cognitive functions. They initially included birdsong learning by selection, the Wisconsin card sorting task, infants numerosity detection...All these models were grounded on a molecular level which included allosteric neurotransmitter receptors. In 1998, the "global neuronal workspace" was integrated into a formal organism in order to pass the effort-fu

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Numerical and Mathematical DevelopmentPattern Codes for Numerical Quantity during Perception and Internal Computation in the Human BrainColloque - Evelyn Eger : Pattern Codes for Numerical Quantity during Perception and Internal Computation in the Human BrainEvelyn EgerRésuméDuring the last two decades, neuroimaging has generated a wealth of knowledge on how number processing inserts itself into the functional neuroanatomy of the human brain. We understand quite well now what are the cortical areas involved, and the neural codes for individual quantities as perceptual entities. Still, we lack a general understanding of how quantity representations are transformed during mental computations, and how or even where results of such computations are coded in the brain. By using ultra-high-field (UHF) imaging during an approximate calculation task designed to disentangle i

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Infancy, Development, and EducationDiscovering Combinatorial Affordances of Elements to Form Gestalts: Learning to "See Ideas via Groupitizing and Visual Word FormsColloque - Bruce McCandliss : Discovering Combinatorial Affordances of Elements to Form Gestalts: Learning to "See Ideas via Groupitizing and Visual Word FormsBruce McCandlissRésuméEarly education is a time of transformation in the way children come to see ideas in the world in the world, partly by a process of learning to combine visual elements to form gestalts. In this talk, I will expand upon these combinatorial learning phenomena across two systems that are transformed in the mind and brain by education. First, I will review research on groupitizing, the ability of children to combine their knowledge of small subitizable sets to access the cardinal value of larger sets, and how this emerging ability i

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Numerical and Mathematical DevelopmentIlluminating Fractions Learning: Neuronal Recycling of Non-Symbolic Ratios for Symbolic FractionsColloque - Edward Hubbard : Illuminating Fractions Learning: Neuronal Recycling of Non-Symbolic Ratios for Symbolic FractionsEdward HubbardRésuméWithin mathematics, fractions hold a special place. They present perennial difficulties to students, and yet, mastering fractions is a critical stepping stone towards algebra and higher-order mathematics. More than 20 years ago, Stanislas Dehaene suggested that fractions are difficult because they lack the intuitive perceptual foundation that permits us to readily comprehend whole numbers and instead may depend on formal and symbolic processes. Here, I will present research from my lab showing that fractions may indeed have a perceptual foundation, and that this perceptual foundation may be r

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 1: Seeing and Decoding the MindThe Control of Sequence Working Memory in the Prefrontal CortexColloque - Liping Wang : The Control of Sequence Working Memory in the Prefrontal CortexLiping Wang

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 2: Training and Educating the BrainSeeing Syntax Everywhere: Syntactic Theory, Language Impairments, and the BrainColloque - Naama Friedmann : Seeing Syntax Everywhere: Syntactic Theory, Language Impairments, and the BrainNaama FriedmannRésuméA key notion in linguistics is that of syntactic movement. I will show that this notion and the further theoretical observations and generalizations regarding movement are useful in accounting for language impairments. I will describe syntactic impairments of various sources: acquired (following stroke, tumour, tumor resection), developmental, and neurodegenerative (progressive aphasia, Parkinson's Disease, Machado Joseph Ataxia), and show how useful a good syntactic theory is in assessing, describing, and treating these impairments. 

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 1: Seeing and Decoding the MindExploring Consciousness at the Edge: Global Neuronal Workspace Framework & NeurologyColloque - Lionel Naccache : Exploring Consciousness at the Edge: Global Neuronal Workspace Framework & NeurologyLionel NaccacheRésuméAfter a brief synthetic introduction to the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) theoretical framework, I will show how the exploration of conscious state and conscious access in extreme neurological or physiological conditions can be mutually beneficial by: (i) improving medical and ethical care of patients, and (ii) enriching cognitive neuroscience of consciousness by testing key theoretical predictions in unusual situations. I will illustrate this bidirectional approach by focusing on Disorders of Consciousness (i.e.: vegetative states also coined unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, minimally conscious state and related

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 2: Training and Educating the BrainIn Search of the Neural Code of LanguageColloque - Jean-Rémi King : In Search of the Neural Code of LanguageJean-Rémi KingRésuméHow does the brain transform words into meaning? By aligning insights from linguistics, neuroscience, and Large Language Models (LLMs), we observe that AI models and the human brain surprisingly converge on similar representational principles. Using neuroimaging and electrophysiology, we find that as LLMs improve at language tasks, their internal activations increasingly mirror cortical activity, and effectively enable us to decode meaning directly from these brain signals. Building on these results, we will outline a roadmap to uncover the neural code of language: (1) a benchmark dataset of brain recordings to build a "Rosetta Stone" across humans and models, (2) unique intracranial data from young children

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 2: Training and Educating the BrainEducabilityColloque - Elizabeth Spelke : EducabilityElizabeth Spelke

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 2: Training and Educating the BrainThe Neuronal Basis of Numerical Cognition in Humans and Nonhuman PrimatesColloque - Andreas Nieder : The Neuronal Basis of Numerical Cognition in Humans and Nonhuman PrimatesAndreas NiederInstitut de neurobiologie, département de biologie, université de Tübingen, AllemagneRésuméOur understanding of numbers, vital to our scientifically and technically advanced culture, has deep biological roots. Research across developmental psychology, anthropology, and animal cognition suggests that our ability to count symbolically arises from more primitive non-symbolic number representations. By studying single-neuron activity in associative brain areas of awake human patients and monkeys, we aim to uncover the physiological principles behind how numbers are represented in the brain. In both species, we've identified "number neurons" that encode s

Stanislas DehaenePsychologie cognitive expérimentaleCollège de FranceAnnée 2025-2026Colloque: Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 1: Seeing and Decoding the MindConscious Perception: The Propagation of Selection Signals through the Global Neuronal WorkspaceColloque - Pieter Roelfsema: Conscious Perception: The Propagation of Selection Signals through the Global Neuronal WorkspacePieter RoelfsemaNetherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam & Institut de la Vision, ParisRésuméhe Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) theory (Baars, 1988; Dehaene et al., 1998) proposes that information must be broadcast across widely distributed networks to enter conscious awareness. But what exactly is the information that is exchanged? I will argue that the GNW provides the substrate for the spread of selection signals and use this perspective to refine the distinction between access and phenomenal consciousness.Access consciousness corresponds to the information currently circulating within the GNW. In perception, this

Stanislas DehaenePsychologie cognitive expérimentaleCollège de FranceAnnée 2025-2026Colloque: Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainPart 1: Seeing and Decoding the MindIntuitive Physical Reasoning in the Human BrainColloque - Nancy Kanwisher: Intuitive Physical Reasoning in the Human BrainNancy KanwisherMITRésuméVisual scene understand requires much more than a list of the objects present in the scene and their locations. To understanding a scene, plan action on it, and predict what will happen next we must extract the relationships between objects (e.g., support and attachment), their physical properties (e.g., mass and material), and the forces acting upon them. One view is that we do this with the use of a "mental physics engine" that represents this information and runs forward simulations to predict what will happen next. Over the last several years we have been testing this idea with Josh Tenenbaum using fMRI. I will review evidence that certain brain regions in the parietal and frontal lobes (but not the

Stanislas DehaenePsychologie cognitive expérimentaleCollège de FranceAnnée 2025-2026Colloque: Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainStanislas Dehaene: IntroductionColloque en anglais.PrésentationOver the past decades, behavioral measures, brain imaging and neurophysiological recordings, in both humans and non-human primates, have led to major progress in understanding the neuronal and circuit-level properties that support cognitive functions such as visual recognition, spatial navigation and decision making. Human cognition is special, however, in its unique capacity to acquire new concepts and abilities through learning and education, particularly in the domain of language and mathematics. How far are we from understanding the neural mechanisms that allow us to acquire abstract concepts and symbols? Can we understand which cognitive toolkit is present in all brains since infancy, and how it changes with education? Can we separate the mechanisms of conscious and unconscious processing, and their respective cont

Stanislas DehaeneCollège de FrancePsychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2024-2025Conférence - Naama Friedmann : How the Same Dyslexia Manifests Itself in Different LanguagesNaama Friedmann est invitée par l'assemblée du Collège de France, sur proposition des professeurs Stanislas Dehaene, chaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentale et Luigi Rizzi, chaire Linguistique générale.Elle intervient dans le cadre d'une série de quatre conférences données en mai et juin 2025.

Stanislas DehaeneCollège de FrancePsychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2024-2025Conférence - Naama Friedmann : How Can Linguistic Theory Help Neurosurgeons: Language Assessment in Tumor-Removal Surgery for the Preservation of Patients' LanguageNaama Friedmann est invitée par l'assemblée du Collège de France, sur proposition des professeurs Stanislas Dehaene, chaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentale et Luigi Rizzi, chaire Linguistique générale.Elle intervient dans le cadre d'une série de quatre conférences données en mai et juin 2025.