The laboratory
The LaPsyDÉ
UMR CNRS 8240
Paris Cité University
The laboratory currently has more than thirty teacher-researchers, researchers, post-doctoral fellows and doctoral students working on the cognitive, socio-emotional and cerebral mechanisms involved in the development and academic learning of children, adolescents and young adults. The laboratory's researchers are studying the role of high-level mechanisms (attention, executive functions and in particular inhibition, metacognition, self-control and emotional regulation) in the learning of oral and written language (reading) and mathematics, reasoning, decision making, visual categorization, creativity and information evaluation (fake news and conspiracy). The laboratory's research also aims to finely evaluate the effect of social context and socio-economic environment on learning, cognitive and socio-emotional development and the brain of children, adolescents and young adults. To do this, the laboratory brings together researchers who combine multidisciplinary skills, from developmental psychology to cognitive neuroscience, the psychology of learning and behavioral economics. The laboratory is equipped with a high-density electroencephalography (EEG-hd) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technical platform, an eye-tracker system and an electrodermal response recording device. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies are carried out on two medical imaging platforms, those of the GHU Sainte-Anne (Paris) and Cyceron (Caen). A large part of the laboratory's research projects are carried out in the field, in schools, colleges, high schools and universities of the Académie de Paris, Créteil and Versailles in particular. The laboratory also conducts a large number of collaborative and open research projects where teachers build projects with the laboratory's researchers before testing them in their classrooms, notably via the Lea.fr educational platform. These actions ensure a constant back and forth between the laboratory and the classroom, and allow teachers to grasp the results of the laboratory's research and researchers to understand the reality of the classroom and the teaching profession.
The Cyceron platform
Cyceron is a brain imaging platform located in Caen, where researches in Neuroscience have been conducted since 1985. Group of Public Interest (GPI) under the supervision of the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education, Cyceron's members are the major national research insitutions (CEA, CNRS, INSERM), the University of Caen Normandy and its university-affiliated hospital, the FranÁois Baclesse center for cancer research, the National Heavy Ions Accelerator (GANIL), and the Basse-Normandie region.
In its 6000m2 space, Cyceron hosts a unique body of laboratories and facilities: molecular and cellular biology labs, two PET/CT scanners, two MRI scanners (3T and 7T) and one EEG scanner. This nationally recognized platform is operated and developed thanks to a team of engineers and technicians, whose competences are mutualized among shared services (for more information, http://www.cyceron.fr). For more than 10 years, the LaPsyDÉ has been conducting research on brain and cognitive development using the 3T MRI scanner.
The Sainte Anne platform
This research facility, specialised in the imaging of the human nervous system, is located within the Sainte-Anne hospital, and affiliated to the Paris Cité University. It belongs to the central Paris site of the France Life Imaging network. The platform, opened to the scientific community, is dedicated to clinical and cognitive neuroscience, with a high quality equipment allowing a complete investigation of the central nervous system (functional and anatomical MRI, diffusion, perfusion, and flux imaging, spectroscopy). The Centre for research imaging and education in neuroscience (CIREN) provides its expertise and the platform’s resources to the research teams within and outside of Sainte Anne. They offer their help throughout all the steps of the studies (design, data collection and analysis, outreach).