CORTEX conference by Jean-Philippe Lachaux

In recent years, we have developed a "dynamic spectral imaging" technique that allows the study of the variations in spectral energy of the EEG that are caused by simple cognitive processes, such as visual perception, oculomotricity, spatial visual attention, reading, verbal working memory and semantic memory. We will continue this work by seeking to better understand how these different functional systems interact during the careful visual exploration of complex scenes mixing text and image. The exceptional spatial and temporal resolution of intracerebral EEG recordings, and dynamic spectral imaging, gives us the opportunity to study these interactions between anatomically well-defined systems involved in the perception of complex visual objects, the displacement of gaze and visual attention, the semantic and phonological analyses of written language, working memory and semantic memory. We plan to study the neural bases of these functions taken separately first in simple situations, then in an interaction situation when visually exploring more complex scenes. It will therefore be necessary to characterize the networks involved (within the limits of the spatial sampling of exploration, determined by clinical considerations) as well as the dynamics of interactions between the different active regions.