Description du sujet de thèse

As the global population continues to age, age-related visual impairments are becoming a major public health issue. Vision plays a central role in maintaining autonomy and promoting healthy aging. However, a comprehensive understanding and detailed characterization of visual abilities during aging is still lacking, particularly with regard to peripheral vision and its interaction with central vision.
The objective of this project is to better understand how visuo-cognitive abilities reorganize in older adults during object and scene recognition, by taking into account — for the first time — the cognitive processes related to peripheral vision and their evolution with age.
Relying on a multidisciplinary approach that combines psychophysics, eye tracking, and neuroimaging, the project follows two main research directions. The first aims to assess how the relative contribution of peripheral versus central vision to scene recognition and the generation of predictions about the visual environment changes with age, by examining the bidirectional interactions between these two types of vision. The second focuses on how the predictive influence of peripheral vision on eye movements toward objects evolves with age.
For each research axis, we will evaluate the performance of both young and older adult participants. We will conduct several behavioral studies, during which we will measure manual responses as well as eye movements (fixation duration, saccade latency, duration, amplitude, etc.) using an EyeLink 1000 eye tracker (SR Research). Subject to scheduling constraints, we also plan to investigate brain reorganization underlying visuo-cognitive mechanisms through functional neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and EEG.
This project has major implications for health and well-being. It will contribute to a better understanding of how older adults interact with their environment and maintain autonomy and safety. It also provides a valuable reference framework for clinical practice, by improving the comparison between healthy aging and age-related visual pathologies — in particular, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — as well as cortical visual disorders.
We are looking for a motivated student with a strong theoretical background in human visual perception and visual recognition models, holding a Master's degree in cognitive psychology/neurosciences. The candidate should have excellent skills in analyzing human behavior and be proficient with experimental and data processing software (E-Prime, Matlab, R), statistical analyses including linear mixed-effects models, as well as eye-tracking techniques (Eyelink). Experience with fMRI is also required. The student will be involved in recruiting both young and older participants (native French speakers) for our studies and will interact with them regularly. Therefore, a good command of the French language is essential.

Contexte de travail

A traduireThe PhD student will be integrated into the Psychology and NeuroCognition Laboratory (LPNC, CNRS UMR 5105) at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA). The LPNC is a joint research unit affiliated with both the CNRS and UGA, organized into five research teams conducting work in cognitive science (Body and Space, Development and Learning, Language, Consciousness, Memory & Metacognition, Vision & Emotion). The laboratory adopts a multidisciplinary approach, combining methodologies from psychology, neuroscience, and engineering sciences applied to cognition. Both laboratories are located on the UGA university campus in Saint-Martin-d'Hères.

This PhD project falls within the priority research areas of the Vision & Emotion team (https://lpnc.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/recherche/equipes-recherche/vision-emotion) at the Psychology and NeuroCognition Laboratory (CNRS UMR 5105), and is part of the ANR-funded RePer-AGE project. The main objective of the RePer-AGE project is to significantly advance our understanding of the reorganization of visuo-cognitive functions and abilities in older adults during object and scene recognition, by taking into account, for the first time, peripheral vision–based cognitive processes and their evolution with age.

The PhD will be supervised by Carole Peyrin (HDR, CNRS Research Director at LPNC). The PhD student will have access to training courses offered by the doctoral school. Progress will be evaluated annually by an individual PhD advisory committee.