Sergent Consciousness Lab

We are a Cognitive Neurosciences Lab investigating the pychological and neural foundations of consciousness using experimental psychology, neuroimaging (EEG – iEEG – MEG – fMRI), computational modelling and clinical trials.

In 2022 Claire Sergent has been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant for the CONSCIOUSBRAIN project.

We are part of the INCC – UMR 8002 affiliated to Université Paris Cité & CNRS.

Regarding teaching Claire Sergent is involved in the Cogmaster and cog-SUP, as well as in the Bachelor (Licence) in Fundamental and Biomedical Sciences of Université Paris Cité.

Research axes

Brain dynamics of conscious perception

Using experimental psychology and neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG and MEG) in healthy volunteers we reveal dynamical features that seem to sign the distinction between conscious and unconscious perception across different modalities (vision, audition) and different task settings (task-related and task-free).

Retroperception

Using experimental psychology and neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG and MEG) in healthy volunteers we show that the mechanisms of conscious access can be independant from the initial phases of sensory processing. This dissociation induces a flexibility in the stream of conscious representations relative to the stream of external events.

Disorders of consciousness

Based on our research in healthy volunteers, we aim at designing experiments that can allow us to better understand brain function in patients suffering from disorders of consciousness (non-communicating post-comatose patients), and try to diagnose whether a patient is conscious of their environment.