Literature Update

As observed by several of our group members, it seems that our ideas are getting more and more credits ... Indeed, we being to see papers (both in general press and in scientific journals) dealing with the same hypothesis than the one we are working on. Meaning that probably we are not too much in a bad direction. Anyway, not related to that, an interesting paper regarding sexual dimorphism of perception of movements. This paper explores the role of visual cues and gender stereotypes in perceptions of biological motion displays.

Johnson KL, McKay LS, Pollick FE (2011) He throws like a girl (but only when he's sad): Emotion affects sex-decoding of biolgical motion displays. Cognition, 119:265-280.

Comment

Well, sorry dear readers, I know that I have not been updating this blog recently ... teaching period unfortunately J. Anyway, talking about teaching, I would like, dear reader, your opinion: which elements do you think shall be absolutely include in a University course of Cyberpsychology? You can give me your insight by leaving comments on this blog, or send me an email directly (see my email address in the contact information). All comments are welcome and appreciated ! J

Lab Update: Prevention of Pathologies of the Auditory System

Just a selection of some of our papers which could be linked to the broad thematic of prevention. We are working among other subjects on some pathologies for which no treatment is available ... thus, a lot of what we did can actually be translated into "prevention" : factors of risks, main causes, mechanisms of vulnerability ... As we mentionned in this blog earlier with the paper of Colleen LePrell, the situation changed a lot in the last decades. Now, the "standard" ear of a young adult is already damaged. Auditory prevention? First, put your headphone at a lower volume. Second, put your tv and radio at a lower volume. Third, put your headphone at a lower volume (yes, same than one, but it is really important). We are all vulnerable to noise. However, the degree of variability is not the same for all of us. Factors underlying individual vulnerability can also been identified using animal models ...

Guitton MJ, Klin Y, Dudai Y (2008) Taste-dependant sociophobia: When food and company do not mix. Behavioural Brain Research, 191:148-152.

Guitton MJ (2006) Tinnitus and anxiety: more than meet the ears. Current Psychiatry Reviews, 2:333-338.

Chabert R, Guitton MJ, Amram D, Uziel A, Lallemant JG, Puel JL (2006) Early maturation of evoked otoacoustic emissions and medial olivocochlear reflex in preterm neonates. Pediatric Research, 59:305-308.

Guitton MJ, Wang J, Puel JL (2004) New pharmacological strategies to restore hearing and to treat tinnitus. Acta Otolaryngol (Stockholm), 124:411-415.

Wang J, Lloyd Faulconbridge RV, Fetoni A, Guitton MJ, Pujol R, Puel JL (2003) Local application of sodium thiosulphate prevents cisplatin-induced hearing loss in the guinea pig. Neuropharmacology, 45:380-393.

Nicolas-Puel C, Lloyd Faulconbridge R, Guitton M, Puel JL, Mondain M, Uziel A (2002) Characteristics of tinnitus and etiology of associated hearing loss : a study of 123 patients. International Tinnitus Journal, 8:37-44.

Delprat B, Boulanger A, Wang J, Beaudoin V, Guitton MJ, Venteo S, Deschesne CJ, Pujol R, Lavigne-Rebillard M, Puel JL, Hamel CP (2002) Down regulation of otospiralin, a novel inner ear protein, causes hair cell degeneration and deafness. Journal of Neuroscience, 22:1718-1725.

Puel JL, Ruel J, Guitton M, Wang J, Pujol R (2002) The inner hair cell synaptic complex: Physiology, pharmacology and new therapeutic strategies. Audiology Neurootology, 7:49-54.

Kossowski M, Mom T, Guitton M, Poncet JL, Bonfils P, Avan P (2001) Fine alterations of distortions-product otoacoustic emissions after moderate acoustic overexposure in guinea pig’s. Audiology, 40:113-122.

Avan P, Wit HP, Guitton M, Mom T, Bonfils P (2000) On the spectral periodocity of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions from normal and damaged cochleas. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 108:1117-1127.

Lab Update: We rock!

Two excellent news today !

1) Catherine got one of the most prestigious student grants of Canada, the Alexandre Graham Bell fellowship, awarded jointly by the three Research Council of Canada, for projects of excellence with technology innovation, for "top ranked students". No need to say, it is one of the most prestigious student grants of Canada.

2) We got today with a group of collaborators a grant from the SSHR (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), for developping new tool to investigate social cognition in humans. Meaning that now, we are one of the only lab in Laval University to be funded by the three Research Councils of Canada (the CIHR - Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the NSERC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and now the SSHR - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). Oh, and as well, we are the first lab of the Faculty of Pharmacy to get the three Councils since the foundation of the Faculty.

In other words, we rock.

Lab Update

Well, I know that our research interests may time to time seem a bit hard to size ... so here is another way to explain them (at least for the research interests in cyberbehavior) :

 

We are interested by the expression of behavior in virtual spaces, and particularly by the multimodal - sensory, perceptive, and cognitive - integration which occurs in such environments, and by the dynamics of social structuring in virtual worlds. Our work focuses on the cognitive mechanisms of immersive behavior, at the individual level (multimodal aspects of behavior in virtual spaces), at the group level (organization of social behavior in virtual spaces), and at the environmental level (interaction between virtual world design and behavior, human-machine interactions).

Lab Update

The website of one of our collaborators. François Giard is Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Visual Arts of Laval University, and the director of the Program of Animation Science. François is an expert in the technological aspects of image synthesis, 3D animation, and a master in the amazingly fascinating tools we are using more and more in the lab. We are having several projects going on. Most of them are based on some level of tool development, so the latency of data production is a bit delayed ... Still, there is one of them which I think we lead to another paper by the end of the summer, so keep reading this blog J. Something else, but connected as well as it is in the broad thematic of tool development, we just submitted a paper on social cognition. A very interesting (in my point of view) work: we gathered 4 PI (including me) with different, yet complementary expertises, to approach this problematic with an innovative and integrated point of view. Now, just need to hope that we will convince the Reviewers easily!

Giard F, Guitton MJ (2010) Beauty or realism: The dimensions of skin from cognitive sciences to computer graphics. Computers in Human Behavior, 26:1748-1752.

Comment: Is there a life outside of the lab?

To answer a lingering question, which several people asked repeatedly: do we have a real life as well? or are we, scientists, only living in virtual worlds? Well, part of the answer is in the following pics, from the competition of February 27, 2011 ("Coupe Michel Boudrault") at the Dojo of Beauport (one of the biggest Judo training centers of Canada). Since Sensei Olivier Bordry is presently in China, I have to give the courses of Iaido (only 2 more weeks! yay!), and had to do the demonstration of Iaido too with our students to entertain the kids (shown with me is Robin, one of our best students here in Iaido) ... But, no, I never come to the lab with the hakama nor the iaito (sorry to disapoint you, I know ...).