Principal investigators

Jean-René Duhamel

Jean-René Duhamel initially trained in human neuropsychology at McGill University and at the University of Marseille, studying brain/behavior relations through the effects of focal brain lesions on cognitive function. After obtaining his PhD, he moved to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, where he investigated the functional organization of the posterior parietal cortex, eye movements and visual mechanisms, focusing on the analysis of single neuron activity in monkeys. As a tenured researcher of the CNRS since 1992, he has pursued his interest in non-human primate cognition, addressing various topics such as multisensory integration, attention, space representation and, more recently, social and communication behavior.

Dr Duhamel’s work is supported by the CNRS, Université de Lyon, Labex Cortex, Fondation pour la Recherche sur le Cerveau

Sylvia Wirth

E-mail: swirth@isc.cnrs.fr

Arthur Lefevre

E-mail: alefevre@isc.cnrs.fr

Dr. Sylvia Wirth earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France, dedicated to the understanding of olfactory memory in rodents. She went on a post-doctoral training at New York University characterizing the neural activity underlying memory formation in the medial temporal lobe in the non-human primates. She joined the Institute of Cognitive Sciences in 2009. Her current research focuses on characterizing the nature of neural codes in primates during spatial learning and time processing. She also studies the representation of social stimuli in the brain during picture presentation or during live social interactions in monkeys.

Dr Wirth’s research program is supported by the CNRS, the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), University Lyon 1, Labex-Cortex.

Dr. Arthur Lefevre obtained a PhD in Neuroscience from Lyon 1 University, France, working on the interaction between oxytocin and serotonin. He then became a post doctoral researcher at Heidelberg University, Germany, with Prof Valery Grinevich to study the effects of oxytocin on various behaviors in rodents. After that, he moved to UCSD, USA, with Dr Cory Miller to investigate the neural bases of acoustic communication in marmoset monkeys. He joined the Institute of Cognitive Sciences in September 2024 to study the effects of oxytocin on communication, affiliation and anxiety in marmoset monkeys, focusing on ecologically valid paradigms and freely moving behavior.

Dr Lefevre work is funded by an ERC starting grant (https://www.rhone-auvergne.cnrs.fr/fr/personne/arthur-lefevre) and by the CNRS.