Positions
Head of the Body & Multisensory Integration Research Team
Responsabilités administratives
2025- Present Member of the Board of the French Neuroscience Society
2020– 2025 Director, NeuroSchool University Research School (EUR) – University Research School bringing together Bachelor (L3), Master’s, and PhD programs in Neuroscience at Aix-Marseille University – Funded by the ANR A*MIDEX Programme https://neuro-marseille.org/formation/
2020- 2025 Deputy Director, NeuroMarseille Institute - https://neuro-marseille.org
2015-2022 Member, National Council of Universities (CNU), Section 69 (Neurosciences)
2019-2021 Member of the Board, Doctoral School “Life and Health Sciences” (EDSVS62)
2018-2019 Co-Director, ICN PhD Program – A*MIDEX excellence label for the creation of a doctoral program in Neuroscience –
2014-2018 Co-Head, Brain Master Program – A*MIDEX excellence label for an internationalization project of the Neuroscience Master’s program
Research Areas
Research Theme
Neural mechanisms underlying multisensory integration in the representation and control of body movement in humans.
Current Research
A first research axis focuses on the organization and reorganization of human spinal sensorimotor circuits. Using spinal functional MRI combined with localized muscle vibration, I map proprioceptive and propriomotor pathways in healthy individuals and investigate their functional reorganization following limb amputation or complete spinal cord injury, with the aim of identifying targets for rehabilitation and neuromodulation.
A second axis addresses phantom limb pain and altered body representations after amputation. This work examines changes in cerebral and spinal sensorimotor networks associated with phantom pain and develops innovative, non-invasive rehabilitation approaches based on proprioceptive stimulation to restore functional body representations and alleviate pain.
A third, emerging axis investigates the role of proprioceptive dysfunction in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. This project aims to characterize both static and dynamic components of proprioception in adolescents with severe scoliosis and to relate these deficits to structural and functional alterations of the cerebral sensorimotor network, as well as to asymmetries of the paraspinal musculature. By combining behavioral proprioceptive assessments with multimodal brain MRI and high-resolution quantitative muscle imaging, this work seeks to identify clinical biomarkers of scoliosis progression and to inform the development of targeted proprioceptive rehabilitation strategies.
2021-2025 - Projet ANR ASTRID "PhantomPain"- Phantom limb pain in amputees: understanding its central and peripheral origins, and the development of an innovative therapy based on the application of proprioceptive movement feedback.
2020-2021 Projet pépinière d’excellence AMIDEX
A new therapeutic approach for phantom limb pain after amputation
2017-2019 Projet“DISREMO” (CNRS – Défi Auton)
Exploration of audio–haptic interactions in texture perception and rehabilitative perspectives
2012-2016 Projet ANR JCJC “MULTISENSE”
Multisensory integration and kinesthetic perception: cerebral correlates, Bayesian modeling, and adaptive plasticity associated with aging (ANR# 12-JSH2-0005-01)
Experimental Approaches and Tools
Functional and structural brain imaging (fMRI and DWI), combined with MR spectroscopy of both the brain and spinal cord.
Psychophysical and electromyographic approaches
multisensory stimulation, tendon vibration, visual vection, tactile vection
Study populations: healthy adults, older adults, amputees, deafferented patients, chronic pain patients
Teaching
- Bachelor’s in Neuroscience
- Bachelor’s in Psychology
- University Diploma (DIU) in Posturology
- Master’s in Neuroscience (Research)
- Master’s in Psychology and Neuropsychology of Cognitive Disorders