MEMBER

Dr. Simon Rigoulot is a Professor of Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR, Dept. of Psychology). He studied Cognitive Sciences at Université de Lille (France), and defended his thesis in 2008. His work has been focused on Affective Neurosciences and deals with the neural correlates of the processing of emotional information, in visual and auditory modalities. He is now interested in multimodal emotional information and how individual factors such as cultural background or emotional skills influence this processing. His research methods involve a multi-dimensional approach, combining peripheral (Eye-Tracking, Skin Conductance Response, Heart Rate, Electro-myography…), central (Electro- and Magneto-Encephalography, functional near infrared spectroscopy) and behavioral measures. His projects also aim to shed light on the links between a set of emotional competences (identification, detection, regulation, and utilization) and the development of psychopathologies such as anxiety, depression. In parallel, his interests extended to the study of speech and music, through two specific avenues. The first started during his first post-doc fellowship at School of Communication Sciences and Disorders (SCSD, McGill University) under Dr. Marc Pell’s supervision. It concerns the role of prosody (tone of voice) in conveying meaningful information, be it emotion or real intention of speakers, such as in irony, lies, innuendos. The second one followed his work as a research associate with Dr. Simone Dalla Bella, currently Director of BRAMS, and is about the processing of rhythmic information and the ability of lay participants to synchronize to this type of information.
He has now published more than 20 articles (for his publications see his personal website) and is an active member of BRAMS and UQTR, with strong links with other members of BRAMS, in particular Drs. Jorge Armony and Nathalie Gosselin.